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Dynmaic Soft shadows on mobile (iOS)

Discussion in 'Unity 5 Pre-order Beta' started by Shbli, Oct 27, 2014.

  1. Shbli

    Shbli

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2014
    Posts:
    126
    Hi,

    I've been playing with the beta now, is there dynamic soft shadows support on iOS or mobile platforms.

    My game is running and very decent FPS amount, and I would love to get real time soft shadows on iOS.

    Thanks!
     
  2. Shbli

    Shbli

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2014
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    126
    Since I've posted this some time ago (In October), I'm still interested, I guess this forum is much more active today than last time when I posted.
     
  3. Aras

    Aras

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2005
    Posts:
    4,770
    Nothing really changed with soft shadows on mobile from Unity 4.x just yet.

    You could implement "your own" soft shadows by using a custom version of AutoLight.cginc and taking more shadow PCF samples in the shader (same as one would do in 4.x). Improving mobile shadows is high on our "todo list", but not in 5.0 just yet.
     
  4. Shbli

    Shbli

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2014
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    126
    Thank you!

    I will have to see about that, I'm not deeply as much expert technically, but if it's on your plans I got to wait ;)

    The current dynamic shadows are still beautiful, I'm though not really sure why I didn't have much luck in Unity lighting, I can easily make beautiful lights in blender, but I understand Unity is different. I'll write a different post about it.
     
  5. protopop

    protopop

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    May 19, 2009
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    I have realtime soft shadows working on iPhone with Unity 5 - the shadows look sharp but they are using the soft shadows setting. It only works well for me on newer devices though.

     
  6. Shbli

    Shbli

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    Jan 28, 2014
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    Well, yes the settings are there, you can select soft shadows, but they at the end will be hard shadows, even in the editor I can't seem to get soft shadows when I'm on iOS.

    I think you are using high quality hard shadows, they look interesting by the way ;)
     
    protopop likes this.
  7. protopop

    protopop

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    May 19, 2009
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    i think you're right. I was playing yesterday and dreaming of a setting that would just blur/soften my shadows for a more ambient occlusion-y look. Thats probably more what you're talking about - like a GLOW image effect but just for shadows that iterates a blur:) And thank you for the compliment.
     
  8. screenname_taken

    screenname_taken

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2013
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    663
    Looking really nice there. Do you need soft shadows since you are on mobile? I'm not critisizing, it looks really nice as it is.
    I think it may benefit more with some slight depth of field instead of soft shadows. Of course i don't know what you have in mind with that scene.
     
  9. protopop

    protopop

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    You were totally right. Changing the soft or hard didn't change anything. Ihanks for pointing it out.
     
  10. protopop

    protopop

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    If you are talking about my screenshot thanks:) I don't need soft shadows but it would be nice on ios metal. But its more that the hard vs soft switch gives you hard shadows each time more than a need i have for them. I might add a DOF option too - its just a screenshot from my Open World Wilderness game BrightRidge:)