Our animator, builder and tech guru Damien Fate has recently been testing the new dynamic lighting system upgrade to the Second Life engine. This shadow patch is currently in alpha and is available from creator Boy Lane, coder of the popular "Cool Viewer" for SL. Dynamic lighting is exciting to us because it brings movable light sources and shadows into the environment and therefore more opportunity for dramatic storytelling.

This means any real-time animation produced in Linden Lab's Second Life will have shadows produced by the characters, buildings and objects that move with them and their light source. We no longer have to "burn-in" (paint) the shadows onto the terrain.

Since the shadows are created directly from the light source, they will move as the light source moves. As the sun travels across the sky so will the shadows along the ground. Movable light sources like flashlights, overhead lights, or lanterns can be used to dramatic effect. Even the actual video playing on a TV set or screen can be a light source, coloring the objects near them.

Check out the videos of Damien's tests and think about the possibilities for your next project.

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Video projectors also create shadows!?
written by Gwyneth Llewelyn, April 16, 2009

Oh my! I had seen some nice videos with dynamic shadows and lights from within SL, but I had absolutely no idea that videos would project shadows and images too!

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written by Damien Fate, April 17, 2009

Hi Gwyneth :)

The latest viewer, from Boy Lane allows you to attach a texture to a light source, that light source will then project a beam of light which also casts it's own shadow. I was experimenting with using different textures to change how the beam looked, such as getting a soft rounded light from a flashlight

Then I figured I'd try and use the same texture that was used for the land streaming - and it worked! Awesome to see in person, I just had to load up fraps that instant :D

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Schweet
written by Torley, April 17, 2009

Lovely test videos. I gotta Tumblr this and share them around. Showing lights + shadows with the flavorful Loco Pocos/Tiny Nation characters really brings them to life in Second Life! On the emotional flipside, this holds great potential for terrifying horror machinima... Silent Hill Pyramid Head, here we come!

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written by Frans Charming, April 23, 2009

Wow, same as Gwyneth I had no idea the video sources would cast light like this. That is awesome! And could be used for making interesting light effects all in itself. Especially for people skilled in video editing tools and not in LSL.

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projections
written by qarl, April 29, 2009

> but I had absolutely no idea that videos would project shadows and images too!

that's b/c it's brand new. send your thanks to Runitai Linden. :)

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written by Kate, May 05, 2009

This looks really interesting, great demo too thanks. I'm not convinced by the tv effect, the degree of detail in the light projection feels wrong somehow (for a tv), but the video projection in itself could be a really neat feature. The shadows, of course, are wonderful.

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