Shadow Bugs

Hey TM-Players

I have Shadow Bugs all over the Map after rendering the shadows and i dont know how to fix it.
When im rendering with very-fast shadows, then there are no shadow-bugs but it doesnt count as Lightmapping.

Does anyone have an idea of how to fix it or how to avoid rendering the shadows?

SirBillySalz

Hey SirBillySalz, i will copy paste something that can help you (from htimh in TSH discord server)

SIZE LIMIT AND OPTIMIZATION
Trackmania maps can be up to 6144kb in total for online play. That's including the map, mediatracker, ghosts and author ghost.

The filesize is only 100% accurate after you calculated shadows and validated your map and saved it out afterwards. Pre-calculated and pre-validated maps don't give an accurate filesize, so be aware of that.

The item limit of 4mb can easily be bypassed using the Infinite Embed script that comes with Openplanet.

LIGHTMAP PRIORITY PLUG-IN
You're now able to set lightmap priorities in Trackmania!
Get the Openplanet plug-in here: https://openplanet.nl/files/137

You have 7 lightmap quality options, and you choose the lightmap quality the same way you choose coloured blocks which were introduced in the Royal update.

The 7 lightmap options are named (from smallest to highest quality) -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3. The way this works is that it's relative to the other settings AND the lightmap calculation (low, medium, high, ultra, ultra2). What I mean by that; Putting everything at +3 won't have any effect at all; it won't make it look better, nor will putting everything at -3 make it look worse. It's also bound by whatever overall shadow quality you will set.

However, what DOES make this tool work its magic is when you have all your background items at -3, but the road and items close to the road at +3! I highly recommend playing around with it on your existing maps.

ULTRA2
Items obviously add up quick, but so does the Lightmap calculation (shadow calculation in game). One thing you can do to optimize the Lightmap calculation is enabling ULTRA2 shadow compression. This takes longer to calculate and doesn't look better outside of the map editor, but does lower the overall file size by some bit. It's definetly worth trying if you're barely over the limit.

To enable Ultra2 head into Documents\Trackmania\Config\Default.json and change "LM QUltra" : false, into "LM QUltra" : true,

Restart the game if you had it open and you can now go beyond 'High' shadow calculations. Do not use Ultra, it's bugged and will cause artifacts when playing the map online. Ultra2 is fine.

LARGE WALLS DECREASE PERFORMANCE AND REDUCE LIGHTMAP ACCURACY thanks to @Chraz
Usually when you build scenery, you most of the times switch between ghost-mode and the normal block mode and therefore your maps looks bad from below (see screenshot 01: https://i.imgur.com/9FhA8jt.jpeg). For normal sized maps this is not a problem, but when you are building bigger maps it can actually cause a problem because all the stuff/walls below the map still affect performance.

To fix this, you should fill all the gaps and empty space below the map with the 13-2-1-1-1 blocks (see screenshot 02: https://i.imgur.com/ZZeQLl7.jpeg) because this removes all the unnecessary walls below the map, resulting in better performance. It even makes calculating shadows faster as well as making the filesize a bit smaller, because less shadowmaps have to get saved. On the map in the screenshots it gave me on my system a 10-15% performance boost alone. On one of my newer and bigger map "Skaftafell" it actually made a difference of about 30-40% in fps (modifié)

Last edited by r_teroor,

r_teroor

Location:

Wow big thanks to you r_teroor for the detailed and fast reply.
Im sure this will help me!

SirBillySalz

Thx HTIMH for this complete tutorial

r_teroor

Location: