create a material for whiteout

Development Rendering
1

Hi out there,

i try to create an VR-application which is set in a white out environment.
the user should interact end explore this environment by only using its shadow.

to see what i want to achieve check out the game the unfinished swan

but instead of an unlit group of meshes with texture overlay from the exploding paint balls i want to have the shadow of the user as interaction concept.

what have i tried so far:

created a complete dark environment and used and modified spotlight as shadow -> postprocess inverted the color (see inverted.png)

created a pretty much lit white environment and thern uses blendables to map grey and white to white and the dark grey and black to black (see shadows.jpg, shadows2.jpg, shadows3.jpg)

problem here is that the meshes still casting shadows on itself.

the best would be an unlit material which can be affected by shadows but don’t cast any by itself

looking foreward to some ideas and maybe a solution

2

noone can help?

3

There’s a lightmass replace node for materials that allows you to make a material react differently when it’s lighting is being baked. Try placing a white material in your emissive for lightmass to remove the shadowing without influencing your runtime lighting.

4

hi can you explain a bit more in detail what you mean and how the lightmass replace node is working

i don’t have an exact clue what you mean and how to implement your idea.

maybe you can take a screen of a BP

thx a lot so far