Talk:Lighting

Ts2do, I hope you don't mind that I removed the numbering. The items aren't ordered, so there's no need to organize them as an ordered list. Bullets are much easier for the eye to understand, and since this article is aimed at new mappers who might be overwhelmed, simplicity seems best. —Maven ^(talk) 20:40, 25 Oct 2005 (PDT)

Alright—ts2do ^(talk) 21:08, 25 Oct 2005 (PDT)

Advanced lighting problems

In-game / in editor

There are several problems in the in-game screen that I can't work out.

1. There is an area around each light that is always very bright, with a very sharp cutoff which is unnatural. There is also no shadow for the prop_static?
2. There are shadows on the ceiling where there oughtn't be. North-northwest of the foreground light is one example. There is also an overly wide shadow to the right of and touching the second light. The fact that they behave differently despite being clones of each other is also wierd.

Appreciate any help! --TomEdwards 08:49, 2 Jan 2006 (PST)

Personally, I would just turn off shadows on the prop, and use light_spots to get the effect you want. I'm not sure what those green tool brushes are supposed to do, but they seem kind of pointless. Keep it simple, especially if the lightmap resolution is low. --Campaignjunkie ^(talk) 13:51, 2 Jan 2006 (PST)

The tools texture is Blocklight, which *should* cast the shadows that you're looking for, but obviously isn't. I have to agree with CJ on this one, spotlights are a simpler method for achieving the same effect. I always have more trouble with blocklight than is really needed. --Spektre1 15:06, 2 Jan 2006 (PST)

Spotlights were even worse! I've scrapped the two-way light idea now (this is only an experiment, I don't have a goal as such) and I'm using a strip light prop instead. The problem now: simulating light coming from the whole strip without hacking in more light ents. Wasn't there a light-emitting brush texture in HL1? What about the selfillum property? --TomEdwards 07:24, 18 Jan 2006 (PST)

This is the VMT for a Neon sign material I created for HL2 that works great:--wisemx 08:00, 18 Jan 2006 (PST)

"UnlitGeneric"
{
   "$basetexture" "akg/akg_neon"
   "$surfaceprop" "Glass"
   "%keywords" "akg"
   "$nodecal" "1"
   "$selfillum" "1"
   "$translucent" "1"
}

Useful, but that's not quite what I'm after. I'm creating lights for props. :-) --TomEdwards 08:35, 18 Jan 2006 (PST)

Are you asking about lights.rad, which is mentioned in this article? Light-emitting materials can be applied to invisible brushes like func_illusionary or func_brush to create an invisible emitting light source. These "light panels" are sometimes used in maps to create some extra light coming in through windows, for example. The light emitting texture is usually applied to one side of the panel, with toolsnodraw on all others. The scale of the light texture is a scalar for the brightness value in the lights.rad file. Though for your prop case above, I would still probably use light_spot due to the level of control provided, such as the 50% falloff parameter. --JeffLane 09:29, 18 Jan 2006 (PST)

I can make a brush light up through the .rad file, but it doesn't seem to cast a light onto the world? --TomEdwards 10:10, 18 Jan 2006 (PST)

I'm not sure I understand your question. Apply lights/white001 to a face, compile, and that texture will emit light. There are a number of other textures in the lights.rad that will also do this. For Half-life 2, they're found under half-life 2/hl2/lights.rad. --JeffLane 14:05, 18 Jan 2006 (PST)