Shadows in VirtualReality Worlds...

Shadows in SecondLife, InWorldz & Other VR's...

Having gotten a better system (Christmass 09) & now more able to explore the 'Physics' that Virtual Worlds may have to offer,
I was astonished to see the first You Tube video of SecondLife that included 'Real Shadows'!!!!
(ak i have forgotten which it was....)

It took a while to find some online instructions via Google,
but here they are;

Once running your VR viewer, ie Imprudence, Snowglobe or etc..
Press
Ctrl/Alt/D simultaneously...
This will 'create' an ADVANCED tab at top left of screen.
Click this, and scroll down untill you find
Debug Settings
Click this and scroll firstly to
Render Deffered & ensure this is set to FALSE
then scroll further down to
Render Use FBO and set this to TRUE
return to
Render Deffered & now set this to TRUE also


By editing these settings, your computer system will either
refuse/and crash if the Graphics Card is not up to the task
(look here for SecondLife & Similar VR system requirements)
((computing real time physics for shadows on every angle of a VR is demanding work))

OR you will have Amazing Shadows!

Be warned however that even if you do get to run shadows, they will considerably slow your Frames Per Second rate ie how quickly your VR or game runs on your computer, and although wonderful to see in machinima films, are best used sparingly to avoid the otherwise likely outcome of very reduced FPS = heavy lag and jolt.

Here is my example of a relatively sucesssful shadow excercise machinima;
Tai Chi Sky Test.