Sorry, i've deleted my temp folder on my online storage, so no screenshots in that post.. I've changed the folderstructure so that i don't need to remember what files i've linked..
To recap my experiences: Use "texture" on shadowcasters, not "solid". The latter won't work with walls (for some completely unknown reason...) I solved the shadow problem by creating specific shadowcasters (no render, cast shadow only) in Skethchup. And if you reaad that post it says something about long objects. Race07 can process about 200m of continuous object with working shadows, then it starts to get buggy. Same goes for the sizes of terrain meshes, where the shadows are cast. Everything works better with smaller meshes/objects, i think it has everything to do with LOD and it's origin (the farther away from origin, the more problems, and that goes with everything... Try creating a track 100km from the origin and see if it even loads anymore..). Also long shadows just won't work all the time, so race time has to be set between 11:00AM-18:00PM.
GTR Evo in the morning foggy sunset is absolutely beatiful or at the dusk, it feels like a different game. But. Shadows work maybe 80% of the time, the whole track design has to begin from the concept that sun is always at the same place and every shadow needs to be adjusted individually. And then maybe, if you're lucky, it works. The single most disappointing thing here was to realize that SimBin took the easy way out there and resolved the issue of almost working shadows and scenery by making every race happen in the daytime, where such issues won't happen. They just forgot to lock it so we still have the option but not the functionality. Maybe they hoped that some modder resolves the issue for free. But at the same time, "if it doesn't work 100%, don't use it" is way better motto than presenting buggy features from game company. It's more like unused and unsupported feature, "use at your own risk" type of deal.
Single panel 2-3 polygon SObject set to "shadow only" works best, very easy to make in Sketchup or any 3D editor. There are some limitations in race07 and BTB Evo that usually won't get much coverage in this forum as most here are rFactor builders. But as i'm the sole defender of the whole Evo series, you can ask me anything, i may or may not know the answer. I'm definitely not the most professional here but at least i'm active.
