A question on the MM2 default traffic shadows

[GX2903]

I believe many MM2 players may found that,traffic cars don't have shadows in most of the time. But the shadow will pop up rarely.
Is there anyway to solve this annoying thing?

[zoot]

They might be missing an LOD.

[Franch88]

I noticed this issue many times, I have no idea of why sometimes it happens... Seems that could depend by the ground on where they're moving, where the shadow object gets a little under it. It can happen also to the player vehicle.
The traffic cars have all the LODs for the BODY, and the _H and _M copies for the shadow, but normally the shadow is always visible also if there's the only _H copy.

[Midas]

I recently came across this issue too, and found the reason why this happens. It is because the AI routes (BAI) tend to go slightly below the road surface, causing the shadow to be invisible in some places. This is an error that Angel Studios probably didn't have enough time for to fix. But it is possible to fix it!

[FXANBSS]

That also explains when you hit a traffic car and it flies, you can see the shadow attached to the traffic car, it happens sometimes though.

[Midas]

That also explains when you hit a traffic car and it flies, you can see the shadow attached to the traffic car, it happens sometimes though.

That only happens with the cargo truck as far as I know, because it has the shadow attached to the body, and not as a separate object. I think this is fixed in MM2 Revisited. But that's a completely different thing.

Try hitting a traffic car on a road where the shadows disappear. When you hit it, the car will detatch from its AI path to sit on the actual road surface causing the shadow to pop up.