Brighly lit player model

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 6:56 am

Can s/o tell what I have done wrong, when the player model - even in very dark places - is brightly lit???
I had - of course - maps, where it became dark when standing in dark corners, but now it doesn't

I compiled with normal vis (without parameters) and final light (which looks worse than w/o parameters, which is another topic...), ingame all vid-settings are set to max quality and all effects are turned on.

Angex · Post by **Angex** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 11:55 am

Are you using any ambient light ??

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 1:35 pm

No! Should I?
The surrounding faces are completely black (yes, I know, this will be changed: The map won't stay that dark

)
I don't want to use ambient light, if I don't have to, because this would look rather worse.
Also, I had made other maps without ambient light, where players were dark in dark places, but those had sunlight.
Is this neccessary, and if so, would it be enough to put a box filled with sunlight somewhere?

P.S.: I could post a screenshot, but you surely can imagine what a lit player in a dark room is looking like...

mohaa_rox · Post by **mohaa_rox** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 1:37 pm

Ambientlight is good.

Post by **jv_map** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 3:08 pm

There's a command to view the entity lighting grid, which determines the spherical lighting performed on most non-static models, including players. I more or less forgot the command though

Will try to find it out for ya

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 10:15 pm

mohaa_rox wrote:Ambientlight is good.

In the Q3 Radiant Editor manual, it is written that this way of lighting a map ...has the tendency to flatten the difference between light and shadow. ... This technique is considered a "hack." It does not come recommended.(Chapter 6)

...

I get a permantely repeating error message in the console:
WARNING: SurfIsOffscreen called on non-bmodel!
Any ideas?!

mohaa_rox · Post by **mohaa_rox** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 2:45 am

Didn't read the manual. Anyway, why did I say that? Cause in some of my maps, with buildings, using ambientlight is 8) because it looks realistic and I like it.

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 6:03 am

Fine.

Anyway, I'm more in need of a solution for my lighting prob.

As soon as my map and non static models are lit correctly, we can go on discussing the pros and cons of the different lighting techinques 8)

Post by **jv_map** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 6:06 am

Wacko wrote:In the Q3 Radiant Editor manual, it is written that this way of lighting a map ...has the tendency to flatten the difference between light and shadow. ... This technique is considered a "hack." It does not come recommended.(Chapter 6)

In the newer terrain manual Paul Jacquais wrote 'ambient light is not that bad'.

Never seen that error before

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 8:08 am

eureka?! (still written in small letters, though)

Have found the reason for the WARNING message: There was a somehow misbuilt railing (thickened bent patchmesh

) for a spiral staircase, which caused it... What was wrong, though, I still don't know but will try to find out.
Also, after having deleted this piece of s***, atleast the playermodel in 3rd-person view was lit correctly again. I'm now compiling with all entities and models back in place (I had deleted them temporarily for testing purpose) and then will see whether it's okay again!
Next step will be to construct a new railing for my staircase!

I will come back for report!

Shifty · Post by **Shifty** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 12:42 pm

On War in a Hall i've used ambient light of 30 30 30 then add lights to various places I think it looks quite effective

panTera · Post by **panTera** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 1:17 pm

Wacko wrote:As soon as my map and non static models are lit correctly, we can go on discussing the pros and cons of the different lighting techinques

Okay then;) The way I see it ambientlight can definately help a map become better looking. That is, if it's not overkill and if the map is outdoors. In real life nothing is pitch black in outdoor environment. Light bounces of every surface your eye can see. But it's good to save some contrast between shadows and light as it creates a more moody atmosphere. Personally I prefer to use low values like "9 9 8" and definately not values like "30 30 30" which would take away almost every bit of contrast and 'could' make it look very dull and washed out. But of course it's a matter of taste and it depends on the map's setting. Right now I'm building gloomy caves and it just won't look right if there would be some light everywhere. Remember that nowhere in your map it will be darker than your ambient light value.

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 8:41 pm

the WARNING is gone with the railing, but this wasn't the reason for the bright player. Any of the other 3.345.298 (

) entities or all of them and the models I had put aside must have caused it, because now with them back again in the map, the lighting grid still doesn't work!

I will have to go on searching...

panTera · Post by **panTera** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 10:25 pm

seems really weird indeed that that message would cause the model to be bright. What happens if you do use an ambient light key? (you know just for research).

mohaa_rox · Post by **mohaa_rox** » Fri Apr 04, 2003 2:03 am

I remembered making my first ugly map, it was in the night, and I added a jeep which gave out light too.