V0.0021 Pictures image - Black Sierra Mod for Unreal Tournament 3

looks good, but the shadows are too dark

Yes I agree. The shadows are pure black. It looks Fear's shadows; hard edges and no depth whatsoever. I know UT3 is capable of much more realistic shadows. It seems you didn't bake them into the lightmaps too well or something. I'm not too familiar with UT3 but from what I understand it still uses lightmaps for baking in environmental shadows and uses dynamic shadows on top of that. I've dicked around with the editor and moved a big light around that was casting long shadows and when I moved it the shadows became far less detailed looking which lead me to believe that they were baked in before I moved the light source.

Yeah pure black rarely happens in nature. It's why night camouflage is actually usually a grey with a specific pattern placed on it. If you wear all black at night, you will actually stand out and the human eye will pick up on it more than if you had simply worn standard forest print camo.

This is especially true in a room with an actual light source. The fact that all objects reflect light to varying degrees means that no shadows in such a room will be completely devoid of light.

On the other hand, the character is wielding a 1911. Therefore all is forgiven. Appropriate magazine size too for a modern 1911.

You guys are right. I'll add an ambient light in there to help alittle. The reason the shadows are so sharp and FEAR like is because its a dynamic light that swings back and forth for effect, so lightmaps weren't possible. Looks sexier in action than in a pic I guess. :P