I have a FPS game in which the player’s viewmodel is rendered on a separate camera layer. Layer 1 is the game world, and Layer 2 is the viewmodel only. I have set it up so lights and shadows cast on Layer 1 and 2. The problem with this setup is that shadows cast from objects on Layer 1 have no effect on anything in Layer 2. So the mesh being rendered on Layer 2 always looks like it is in the Directional Light of the scene. Spot Lights also light up the mesh on Layer 2 with no regard for shadows on Layer 1.
Is there anyway to make it so the shadows cast in Layer 1 show on the object in Layer 2?
I’ve attached two images below, the top one shows what I am currently dealing with, and the bottom one is what it should look like. The top image has the scene’s Directional Light lighting the viewmodel on Layer 2 without considering the meshes in Layer 1.
Looked around the engine some more but I have had no luck in finding out any way to fix this. I assume there is something I am just missing, since this has to be an issue someone has solved before. Using a separate render layer for viewmodels in first person games has been done for probably the last 20 years at least. Is this just something Godot can’t handle?
From what I looked up, it was something that worked in Godot 3, but has not worked in Godot 4 since release.
I haven’t bothered loading Godot 3 to confirm this as of yet, to be honest I’d rather not lose everything else Godot 4 has over it just to get shadows on my viewmodels.
I have the same issue and i have found a pretty quick but not very good performance wise way for the shadows.
The solution is that you make a copy of the mesh and you render only shadows on the second layer by making the cast shadow in geometryInstance3d to shadows only.
