Shadow generation glitch

[Shrooms]

I have noticed an interesting glitch on one of the maps I worked on. This happened after generating and merging shadows and I'm curious to know what could have caused these numbers to show and are they hieroglyphics? lol, what is this?

[fo0k]

Haha.. Almost looks like it says shrooms.

Very strange artifacts indeed... Not seen before

[Shrooms]

the maps' shadows are a bit dark for my taste. I don't want to generate terrain shadows all over again because last time it took me half a day. Is there a method where I can merge the shadow files and the ground textures for a less dark look? Hah, I do remember my screensaver turning on during the shadow generation which must have caused this glitch.

[fo0k]

well all those shadow maps are in the shadowwork folder (or whatever its called..)

just drag them into PS and adjust brightness/contrast.. (to lighten the dark..) and then perform the merge shadows again in BC.. should do it

also, you could just tidy those edges with the artifacts before merging again..

I think there is also a distance setting for the shadow raytrace... those edges may be a result of a very distant, high area of terrain casting a shadow very far away but being clipped.. it is possible to adjust this distance setting I think but will require a new (and certainly more lengthy) shadow generation process..

[Swaffy]

Are terrain shadows painted directly on to the map textures, or are they a separate file(s)?

[Senshi]

There's a reason there are two steps:
Generating terrain shadows generates separate shadow files (greyscale) that are stored in bf1942\shadowwork in your game folder. Once you hit "Merge terrain shadows", they are merged with the terrain textures (a simple overlay, really) and this is what is seen in game. This is great, as it allows alterations and modifications to the shadow layers by hand. Or by 3ds Max .