It's really jarring that Corvo does not cast a shadow. Every other character in the game cast a shadow. Is there a reason for this? Would this have been too hard on the engine?
At first I wondered if it was a hint like the main character is a ghost or something. That's how weird it is. I hope they make a next GEN spiritual successor and they can work out all the kinks. By the way this is one of my favorite games ever so far. Amazing art direction. Definitely has some issues to work out though. Like this, And a few other things that take you out of the experience. Some strange character animations and dialogue repetition for example.

Yes, there is a reason for every reason.

Corvo has no shadow because Corvo has no soul, he sold his soul to a demon but that's okay cus he has supernatural abilities.
Corvo has no shadow because Corvo is so sneaky that even his shadow can't find him.
Corvo has no shadow because Corvo killed his shadow.
Corvo has no shadow because his shadow cannot find him.

Look down and you also see no body. Odd? Yes. THen you remeber its a video game and the developer's time is can be better spent.

Lol nice. I wish that were the case but really I'm sure they wanted to put it in but couldn't. However I would love to hear the actual explanation for this. Also you might have the problem of when you sneak up behind someone your shadow appears in front of them and yet they don't notice.
Seems like they ignored lighting completely in this game from a stealth perspective. I read the article where they explain this. Maybe this is also why they took out the players shadow. Definitely would be more immersive with a shadow though. Just like you can't see your reflection in water or in mirrors. Kind of weird for such an immersive game.

I'm not sure there's anything more important than the thing you see 100% of the time while playing.

Corvo has no shadow, because Corvo has no Player Model.

If the player had a shadow, it was the shadow of two disembodied arms...that being said, I wished I could see Corvo's body when I look down...

Basically, this. They only modeled his arms\hands. When I was hacking in a free camera mode and pulled the camera back behind my character, all I saw were floating arms. It was pretty amusing.

That is a minor gripe I have with Dishonored. It would of been a really cool feature if they included his full body in the game where I could look down and see it, and be able to see his shadow.

Indeed. In first person games in general, the player doesn't have any shadow, because he doesn't have any body to cast a shadow. Only a few first person games where you can see your own body, like FEAR, offer a shadow.

It is a bit surprise though, as you could see your own body in Dark Messiah which is the game Arkane made before Dishonored. But for some reason they decided to skip that here and instead do it the conventional way.

Floating arms?HAHAHAHA

Too bad. Not a good decision IMO.

Yeah...I was also a bit surprised that they didn't do it here, after they did it in Dark Messiah...I wished that first person characters having a body would sometime become the conventional way...but sadly nearly no first person game does this...Syndicate did it, if I remember correctly...

That would ruin a perfect game, you don't need to see body parts, you see to see what is under you that you are going to kill.
It's a game, not reality.

How would that ruin the game? Also I'm really tired of people using this excuse, that this is a video game. Yeah I know it's a game but it's supposed to be an immersive game. So anytime something is unrealistic or doesn't work like it should you just say, this is a video game?

You should be very tired.

I'm enjoying the game and I like it how it is now, I like it. You can whine about it as much as you want but it doesn't change the fact that I like it.

There is no reason for them to change it - because I like it - how it is now, so it's all good!

Trust me, I love the game too. The point of this topic was about the player casting a shadow anyway, not about being able to see his feet. Anyway it's just My opinion I thought I would put out there. Maybe this was their best option.

When the next-generation consoles come out, one of the things I'm very much looking forward to is advanced lighting techniques. It would be amazing if everything in the game cast realistic shadows including your character.

By the way, is this the first stealth game that does not use shadows to hide? How do you veterans of thief etc. feel about that?

Your discussion is built around how you feel and what you feel is the complete fact bomb that everyone else should agree with, if not. Then you will repeat yourself with the same arguments or new arguments that is just about the same thing, you like shadows under your character, there is none.

End of story. Just a bad platform for any constructive discussion. - I'm not trying to be mean, I just think you have a strong opinion that there should be something there! that isn't there! I don't think many people have a problem with it, but many do perhaps, as you say - but in the end, what does this discussion bring us!? Just sorrow and grief, we should rather celebrate the fun times in Dishonored here!

They have realistic lighting this generation they don't need new tech to do it. Tech is not the issue. The looking down and seeing the body and the shadow are one and the same in this kind of case. They create the shadow by having the lighting engine shine light on the body. No body no shadow. They don't have the body because if they did looking down would show it but would also limit view as Master Po explained. On top of that if they have the body then they have to create a full characcter model and have it fully animated otherwise people will be whining about the shadow not moving right. Animations take time, money and disk space which would be a complete and utter waste since you never see Corvo. Having a shadow on the ground is not worth taking the time, effort, and resources away from the things that actually matter such as the gameplay, architecture and all the other stuff that is actually necessary for the player to see.

It still use shadows to hide. Each enemy person have 3 "visions" going on at the same time all the time. One short distance vision, one long distance vision and a more vertical vision.

The short distance vision see the player even if the player hide in shadows, so unlike Thief you can't be right next to the enemy and still hidden in the shadows. However, if you're further away and within the long distance vision, then the shadows help, same with the vertical vision.

That said, there are other sneaking games that do not use shadows to hide, like the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenchu. Which reminds me, I bought Tenchu 4 not long ago and have yet to play it. I should give it a go, maybe it do use shadows unlike the older games, who knows?

Freddo's right. The vertical view cone is turned on/strengthened when the enemy is on alert.

Many stealth only games use scripted markup to design "hiding spots" which provide fixed stealth situations rather than systemic/dynamic ones. It's not a bad thing - in fact I recall NOLF2 doing this quite well.

Regarding the body awareness, I think this has been touched on before by some of our producers. It, plus the player's shadow, has a deceptively high production cost for art/animation, as well as for graphics memory. We are Arkane are big fans of it, (it was done in Arx and Dark Messiah, after all) but it's not always possible to do.

Cool, thanks for the answers. I realize that you can't have everything. It was probably the correct decision, I'm sure it was. By the way how come there's not a way to peek upwards over things only to the side. Also on the Xbox peaking to the side is kind of busted. Sometimes it sticks sometimes it goes back to center. It would be nice if there was more control over this.

I agree there should be a peak above ability.

Also it isn't sticking. It holds until you move him back. If you just start moving it will reposition itself.

Yeah i miss the self-shadow thingy too.

i guess i"m one of the few that want ALL those details in a otherwise excelent immersive game like Dishonored.

Having no shadow bothers me zero. Like others, I just roleplay that since I'm marked by the Outsider, it was taken away (as a benefit from the Outsider and for the mark/no soul).