Lightmap

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A lightmap is a generated texture applied additively to LightmappedGeneric brush faces to simulate lighting. The color values in the surface's albedo are multiplied by the color values in its lightmap.

Lightmaps are created by RAD each time a map is compiled. They are static and cannot change, though it is possible to switch lightmap 'pages' on and off (see Naming Lights).

Note.pngNote:Source 2013 Multiplayer Source 2013 Multiplayer and Garry's Mod Garry's Mod also support lightmaps on MDL props using VertexLitGeneric.
Prop lightmaps are capable of being higher resolution than brush or displacement lightmaps, but come with their own share of complications; see $lightmap and prop_static for specifics.
Note.pngNote:Source 2 Source 2 generates lightmaps for all static meshes.

Scale

Note.pngNote:Lightmap scale can only be directly controlled in Source Source 1!
In GoldSrc GoldSrc, lightmap scale is always 1 luxel for every 16 texels (not units), regardless of texture scale. This means that smaller texture scales will result in allocblock being used up faster.
In Source 2 Source 2, individual faces can be biased, giving them priority over other faces. The actual scale is dictated by total lightmap resolution, which is controlled separately.

The lightmap scale of a face defines the resolution of its lightmap. The default scale of 16 makes each lightmap pixel ("luxel") 16 units across, while a lightmap scale of 1 makes one luxel equal one unit. The Hammer Face Edit Dialog is used to change the value per-face.

Lowering scale will make lightmap shadows sharper, but leads to larger map filesize, slightly slower rendering and exponentially slower compiles (that at very low scales start to eat up shocking amounts of system memory).

Lightmap scale 4 Lightmap scale 16 Lightmap scale 64
Lightmap scales of 4, 16, and 64.

When generating lightmaps, VRAD does not create penumbras. The effect can be done by placing multiple lights near each other to simulate a non-point source of light, and/or increasing lightmap scale (which is why the relatively large value of 16 is the default).

Note.pngNote:Each compiled brush polygon can host a maximum of 31x31 luxels. VBSP will chop faces to get extra luxels on if it needs to. That is also the reason for the limited displacement luxel density
Tip.pngTip:Fog in reality increases atmospheric scattering, making all shadows a lot more diffuse. Look at light_environment's sun spread angle
Scales and effects.
Scales and effects of light textures.

Optimization

Optimising lightmap scales.

Lightmap optimization can be done by eye with the aid of a compiled map: faces with low lighting contrast can have their scales increased, and vice versa faces with high contrast should be considered for lower scale. Just beware of setting a face's scale so high that it ends up a 'blob' of light that doesn't blend with its neighbors (use mat_fullbright 2 to spot this).

Remember to take into account the size of a face, too. Moving a very large face even one point up or down can have a huge impact. Don't be afraid to split the face up if that helps, or to drop a bit of detail from huge floor or wall faces.

Hammer View

Clicking the camera control in the top-left of a 3D view in Hammer provides the option of "3D Lightmap Grid". This view textures each brush surface with a grid that represents its lightmap scale (shown in the last section).

Tool brushes are textured like any other in this mode, despite being invisible in-game, so switch them all off from their auto-visgroup.

Console Commands

The following are all cheats:

mat_fullbright 2
mat_fullbright 2
Replaces all albedos with a grey tone, leaving just lighting information.
mat_luxels <bool>
Display luxels on all brush surfaces and props with prop lightmaps.
Note.pngNote:Distorts on displacements, this is not a bug.
Icon-Bug.pngBug:This command appears to be broken in Source 2013 Singleplayer Source 2013 Singleplayer.
mat_filterlightmaps <bool>
Control whether luxels are smoothed together in the same way as texels.
r_avglightmap <bool>
Doom mode! Averages lightmap values across each polygon.
mat_showlightmappage <int>
Unwraps each lightmap into a small, tessellating display in the top left of the screen. Not terribly useful to modders.
r_lightmap <int>
Specifies the light style index to compute and display the lightmap for. If set to -1 (default), computes for all light styles. Primarily used for debugging and inspecting specific light styles' effects on the lightmap.
r_unloadlightmaps <bool>
Controls whether lightmap data is unloaded from memory after being updated. When set to 1, the engine unloads lightmap data to save memory. Useful for debugging or when frequent changes to lighting occur.

See also