Hi Marximus!

If you are interested, I have made a new version of your mod, in which simple shadows have been added to the solar panels!

There are some limitations to the heat-pipe prototype used, so they can't cast shadows on other entities, but overall the results seem pretty okay. I used the four original images, added a 53 % opaque, black rectangle (with slightly rounded edges) on a lower layer on each of them, and then merged the layers into single .png files. I also fixed a bit of code and now use a blank "heated" image, so that the transparent edges of the base images and the duplicate "heated" images don't overlap and turn the edges darker when temperatures rise (it was a particularly noticeable problem when adding shadows).

I am not sure about how best to share it with you. Maybe I could send a zip-file or something? I am not very familiar with GitHub.

Wait, never mind. This is a file sharing platform! I have uploaded the file here. I will just delete it again, when it is no longer needed.

... I actually messed the mod up by doing that, because it required a unique name to be uploaded on the Mod Portal, and that changed file pathways for graphics too. Sorry about that. Pondering the best solution right now. (Also turns out I can't delete my own submissions!)

I tried uploading a zip-file to GitHub. Just click on it, then choose the option to download raw file. Here

I have uploaded a working version of the mod on the Mod Portal now (different from the one I sent a link to, since the name and all path references had to be changed as well). I have done this, since I don't know if you still maintain the mod. I will remove my version if it gets merged into yours. Link

Sure, we can merge in changes. I will look at this later tonight or tomorrow!

Great! I included some screenshots in the zip-file itself which you might want to remove, and maybe you will find the changelog too wordy. You can just change whatever you want.

Just fixed the version on Github. Somehow screwed up the version number and changelog content.

Looks like the github repo is set to private?

Oops! I have fixed it to be public now.

By the way, I have noticed a couple other small flaws with the shadows. Any shadow cast on to the shadow of the thermal solar panels will overlap and turn that area even darker, for example in the lower left corner in a field with panels. The panels will cast shadows on various "flat" and "low" objects but not on other objects. Even weirder, objects like solar panels and heat pipes only receive a shadow with certain placements relative to them (like, what). I have uploaded a screenshot on GitHub along with the zip.

I am not a programmer, but these seem to be side effects of not being able to use separate shadow images for the heat-pipe prototype. I guess these issues are either not extremely noticeable or not likely to be encountered in most use cases, and I like the improvement overall, but still...

I can't really think of any good solution right now (although I am looking into finding one). Sorry for the trouble.

Just wanted to let you know, I am making some real progress with a solution right now. :-)

If you are curious, I have just updated my own branch with proper shadows for the thermal solar panels. I used the reactor prototype as a base, since it allows for the use of a shadow image. There are still various other things I want to fix (like higher tier panels not actually producing more heat). Let me know if you would like a zip on GitHub for easily updating your mod. And do tell me if I am writing too much. :-) I figure that maybe you don't need all these updates.

Probably easiest to merge directly from the github repo if you fork my repo and commit changes directly to that? If you need assistance w/ that or github, let me know?

Ah, neat! Gotta try that out.

Just made a pull request from GitHub! The new fork has been given the version number 1.3.0. I tested it, and it works fine.

... meaning that I pressed a button called "pull request", and my fork should be available for merging, if you are interested.