It's because how the game engine works. When a body part is amputated it doesn't just snap like a real body part. If you choo the head, for example, the head of the body is hidden (showing the neck insides) and a duplicate of the head is instanced and placed in the same position of the attached head but with physics.
So the head is still attached to the body, but is invisible.
Shadows on games works a bit weird, a shadow in a game is not the absence of light, is actually a projection of an object that is made and then substracted the light of where the projection hits (very oversimplified), so if the projection doesn't have in mind that the head is invisible, it will project the head. For performance sake, the head is only ignored in the projection when you are near the shadow, but when you go far it simplifies the process and projects a low poly version of the body with the head.
The fact that is oversimplified doesn't mean you don't understand the core function of it. Oversimplifying makes it easier to understand the foundations of it, if you understood then you understand, so feel smart about it.
This is one way to do it but I'm pretty sure cyberpunk has a similar approach to fallout 4 where instead bodies are made of segmented parts that fall off using hardware tesselation to allow for gore. Instead of going for the approach you described cyberpunk allows for parts to gib dynamically using tesselation to fill in the area of decapitation with geometry.
The reason why the head shows in here may actually be because of ray tracing given that the op said he's using RT. Basically ray tracing has its own backend that is constructed on the cpu where the GPU RT cores bounce and trace rays needed to construct their effects. This is why you used to not see hair and you often don't see grass in RT reflections or having RT shadows. Those elements are 2D textures and as such they can't be included in the backend structure as they're not 3D objects and rays can't hit them to construct effects. It is possible that the decapitation didn't update in the backend BVH structure and as such the RT shadow displays the undamaged corpse. It may swap to a rasterised shadow at distance which is ironically accurate as it's a shadow map projected from the actual model
Tbh, it should make a different, as in a fully raytraced scene a shadow is actually the absence of light.
But raytracing in games is not 100% raytraced, I believe is a hybrid.
But that's out of my scope, can't help with that, sorry.
It doesnβt quite work like that. There is most likely a second mesh that is simplified that is being used for shadows. When they step closer, the head disappears too, and if they were to walk far enough away, it would reappear on the visible mesh too.
Also, true raytracing is still impossible to run in real time with current hardware. The game also uses traditional dynamic lighting and global illumination at the very least, so youβll always end up with these issues. Games still feature a lot of compromise to get them to look as good as they do and still run. Usually, this compromise is made outside of intended gameplay parameters, so standing and shooting a single corpse to see what happens is not really the top priority, therefore the optimisation techniques will become more noticeable
The same reason V has a head on their shadow, even though the engine doesnt render their head in first person. Which is why you kinda see it pop in when you get on a bike.
I enjoy the little bugs like this tbh, they keep me giggling. My favorite was a body continuing to do idle animations after I punched his head into mist
a better question is why is it after this phantom liberty update everytime i used photomode the only shadow my guy has is his head, his body creates no shadow π€¦π½ββοΈ
It's because how the game engine works. When a body part is amputated it doesn't just snap like a real body part. If you choo the head, for example, the head of the body is hidden (showing the neck insides) and a duplicate of the head is instanced and placed in the same position of the attached head but with physics. So the head is still attached to the body, but is invisible. Shadows on games works a bit weird, a shadow in a game is not the absence of light, is actually a projection of an object that is made and then substracted the light of where the projection hits (very oversimplified), so if the projection doesn't have in mind that the head is invisible, it will project the head. For performance sake, the head is only ignored in the projection when you are near the shadow, but when you go far it simplifies the process and projects a low poly version of the body with the head.
I felt really smart following your explanation until I reached " very oversimplified".
The fact that is oversimplified doesn't mean you don't understand the core function of it. Oversimplifying makes it easier to understand the foundations of it, if you understood then you understand, so feel smart about it.
This is one way to do it but I'm pretty sure cyberpunk has a similar approach to fallout 4 where instead bodies are made of segmented parts that fall off using hardware tesselation to allow for gore. Instead of going for the approach you described cyberpunk allows for parts to gib dynamically using tesselation to fill in the area of decapitation with geometry. The reason why the head shows in here may actually be because of ray tracing given that the op said he's using RT. Basically ray tracing has its own backend that is constructed on the cpu where the GPU RT cores bounce and trace rays needed to construct their effects. This is why you used to not see hair and you often don't see grass in RT reflections or having RT shadows. Those elements are 2D textures and as such they can't be included in the backend structure as they're not 3D objects and rays can't hit them to construct effects. It is possible that the decapitation didn't update in the backend BVH structure and as such the RT shadow displays the undamaged corpse. It may swap to a rasterised shadow at distance which is ironically accurate as it's a shadow map projected from the actual model
it makes sense, but i'm running Cyberpunk 2077 with Raytracing on, makes any difference?
Tbh, it should make a different, as in a fully raytraced scene a shadow is actually the absence of light. But raytracing in games is not 100% raytraced, I believe is a hybrid. But that's out of my scope, can't help with that, sorry.
It doesnβt quite work like that. There is most likely a second mesh that is simplified that is being used for shadows. When they step closer, the head disappears too, and if they were to walk far enough away, it would reappear on the visible mesh too. Also, true raytracing is still impossible to run in real time with current hardware. The game also uses traditional dynamic lighting and global illumination at the very least, so youβll always end up with these issues. Games still feature a lot of compromise to get them to look as good as they do and still run. Usually, this compromise is made outside of intended gameplay parameters, so standing and shooting a single corpse to see what happens is not really the top priority, therefore the optimisation techniques will become more noticeable
Players and their problems ππ It is Kiroshi's issue. Go visit Viktor and ask him to check your eyes.
i have kiroshi mk3 πππππ and I still haven't paid Viktor
The same reason V has a head on their shadow, even though the engine doesnt render their head in first person. Which is why you kinda see it pop in when you get on a bike.
Because you shot at the head not the shadow's. XD
Cause programming is hard lol
I enjoy the little bugs like this tbh, they keep me giggling. My favorite was a body continuing to do idle animations after I punched his head into mist
It's her ghost, it won't leave the shell...
now when im in photomode in this game only my head has a shadow π€¦π½ββοΈ
a better question is why is it after this phantom liberty update everytime i used photomode the only shadow my guy has is his head, his body creates no shadow π€¦π½ββοΈ