Settings for sharp light?

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 12:15 am

Hi mappers!

I wonder if there is any combination of worldspawn/compile setting ( or other trix ) that result in really sharp shadows?

I want an early morning with alow sun and long sharp shadows...

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 12:01 pm

OK: don't all post at once

The worldspawn settings are as following:

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ambientlight / 6 6 6
suncolor / 70 70 70
sundirection / -42 45 0

I tried the following light compole flags:

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-bounce 0
-radscale 0
-attenuate 2

Can someone explain in more detail these wordspawn entries? What is the effect on lighting when used?

"sundiffuse" fraction of the sunlight to make diffuse (default 1)

"lightmapdensity" default lightmap density to be used for all surfaces

"overbright" forces on overbright lighting. "world" makes it only affect the world, "entities" makes it affect entity lighting, and "all" makes it affect both. Also, setting it to "none" forces all overbright lighting off.

"skyalpha" initial value of the sky's alpha, defaults to 1

Post by **jv_map** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 1:11 pm

lightmapdensity is what you're looking for

set it lower for better shadows

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 5:07 pm

Ah!

Thanx, I'll try that... And what happens if I decrease it? Even more "fluffy" shadows?

Post by **jv_map** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:05 pm

No if you decrease it the lightmaps get sharper, so actually 'density' isn't the right word. It's more the size of the blocks that can be seen on lightmaps, especially when using -fast lighting.

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 9:51 pm

i think, u can set the 'density' for each face seperately in the Surface inspector which might make sense if u need those sharp shadows just on some places. Choose the face where the shadow will be drawn on (Ctrl+Shift+LM on that face of the unselected brush) and press 's'. in 'density' u'll find '(default)'. Change this to lets say 4.

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:36 pm

What is the default value of lightmapdensity?
I tried with 2, 4, 8 and 16... they all broke the light compile with an error.

Did not work until I set it to 32... and that looked ( to my eyes ) the same as not setting a lightmapdensity value at all...

Post by **jv_map** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:55 pm

What error did you get?

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:43 am

This:

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C:\DOCUME~1\Bjarne\MYDOCU~1\MOHAA\maps\obj>"C:\PROGRA~1\MOHAAT~1\MOHlight.exe" -
bounce 0 -attenuate 0 -radscale 0 -gamedir D:\Games\MOHAA C:\DOCUME~1\Bjarne\MYD
OCU~1\MOHAA\maps\obj\obj_canal_2004-01-20_d.map
======== MOHlight Version 1.48 ========
Number of radiosity bounces = 0
Using radiosity attenuation = 0.0%
Using radiosity scale = 0.0
----- FS_Startup -----
----------------------
18492 files in pk3 files
reading C:\DOCUME~1\Bjarne\MYDOCU~1\MOHAA\maps\obj\obj_canal_2004-01-20_d.bsp
reading C:\DOCUME~1\Bjarne\MYDOCU~1\MOHAA\maps\obj\obj_canal_2004-01-20_d.vis

************ ERROR ************
MAX_MAP_LIGHTING exceeded from 548 lightmaps

This version of the map had lightmapdensity = 8.
The MAX_MAP_LIGHTING exeeded from larger numbers the lower the lightmapdensity...

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 8:23 am

Have u tried my suggestion? Btw, maybe u can help me in http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~map/mohaa/ ... highlight=?

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 10:21 am

Wacko wrote:Have u tried my suggestion?

No, as I want all of the map sharply lit...

rOger · Post by **rOger** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:05 am

The error seems to indicate that the size of the lightmap is to big. This is probably due to the fact that useing 8 as density will make it 16 times bigger than with the default value of 32. Most likely you don't need sharp shadows on every surface in the game to make it look like it's sharp. I'm thinking of roofs, stairs, windows, raillings and all the small details that might be all in shadow or not have any shadow pass over them at all.

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:13 am

Yeah... I guess you have a point there... I guess it would be enough to set it on some ground and wall brushes.

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 8:29 pm

thnx, rOger!
that's what I was thinking of but couldn't explain

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 4:59 pm

OKI, I'm making some progress... setting Density 8 on brushes gives it the result I want ( compare the 2 shadows pointed out at point B in the pics below ).

But I have also come across 2 new light ( actually shadow ) problems.

1) The script_object bridge does not cast shadows,
Bridge made of regular brushes:

Bridge converted to script_object :

Must I really make a "skeleton bridge" out of common/shadowcaulk, or is there a command like -staticshadows that affect script_objects?

2) As you can see in these 2 pics, the model static_natural_tree_regularpalm has a stupid flat area that affexts shadowing badly when using the -staticshadows flag on light compile.
Radiant :

MOH:AA :

Not that big a problem as I can remove the defect shadows by pointing the face 90 degrees away from the sun ( It just irritates me that I had to compile the map for 24h to find this out ).