Lighting Oddities

Frinky · Post by **Frinky** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 4:13 am

Hey everyone,

I'm working on my first MoH DM map and I'm having some strange lighting effects. Check out this screenshot: http://www.commandchamber.net/etc/ryan23.jpg

The 2 windows on the building straight ahead are exactly the same, except one is rotated 90 degrees. However, you'll notice that one of the windows is actually emitting light, while the other is not. I have this problem all over my map, where some windows will emit light while others don't. I can't figure out any pattern or reason why it works sometimes and not others.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Frinky

Post by **jv_map** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 7:05 am

What happens when you compile with -bounce 0 (light compile)?

mohlight = crap

Frinky · Post by **Frinky** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 5:14 pm

No luck....it still turns out the same. I tried using the -area option for surface lights and I set it to 2.0 instead of 1.0. That made the surface lights twice as bright, but only the previously-illuminated windows were affected. Some still don't light up as expected. Any other ideas?

Thanks!

panTera · Post by **panTera** » Mon Mar 03, 2003 12:29 am

you probably duplicated the windows and for some reason now the shader properties aren't working right. I know, sounds impossible. The light emitting window textures have this line in the shader: q3map_surfacelight ... If this is being skipped somehow, they won't emit light.

I remember duplicating a railing and in game one was transparent and the other was not. After redoing the textures it was fine. So, you might want to try and reset the textures. Ctrl+shift+leftmouse and then click on it with the middle mouse button. Then select your window texture again. Don't know if it will change anything, but it's worth trying.

Frinky · Post by **Frinky** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 1:38 am

No luck... I guess the light program enjoys annoying us.

panTera · Post by **panTera** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 4:20 pm

looking at your screenshot again, it looks like all the windows are emitting light, it's just the one at the top right balcony (of the building in the middle) that seems to have a light bulb nearby(?) If they would not be emitting some light at all they would be totally dark. Man that's weird...

Frinky · Post by **Frinky** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 4:22 am

Yeah, the window textures all look like they are lit, however only some of them actually cast light onto other non-surface-light faces.

I've noticecd that the surface lights seem more likely to work correctly if there are other architectural details nearby. For instance, if I have a window facing a large open space (like the window on the left in the screenshot), it doesn't cast any light. However, if it is in a small alley with the wall of a building jutting out next to the window, it usually works correctly. I guess the problem has something to do with how the lighting system determines what other faces are in the window's line of sight and how close they are. Perhaps it thinks there are no surfaces that the light from the window would reach?

In any case, I'm going to play around with it a bit and see what I can do. If I discover anything interesting I'll post what I find.