.Map :: MoHAA Mapping

when i make a lamp
does it emit light if i enter a key and value for it?
or do i have to put a light inside of it
basicly...can a lamp emit light by itself..if so how?
thanx

This is how i achieve my light effects and to get a glowing bulb/light.



i add the model(like the one above) then the light. i select the light then press "n" to bring up the entity box. i then type in "light" in the key box and then type in some number in the value box. this depends on how bright you want the light.

then i situate the light's red radius lines like shown above. this gives my model of the caged light the glowing illusion of a bulb giving off the light energy.

Well you almost have all the info you need now.

heres a couple of other tips...

1. with the light selected hit K, then you can choose which colour you would like your light to be.

2. with the light selected hit N, you can adjust the brightness of the bulb, key/value light 100. Try playing around with the value, 300 is default I beleive, 70-80 makes nice shadows but still bright enough to see, but that all depends on what your trying to light, play around find what you like.

3. to make your light really nice add a corona to it by right clicking in 2d view, then go Static/Corona, theres a few different ones in there, if your mapping for spearhead you can also right click, go Addon/fx/corona

learn something new every day! i didn't know about the "k" key. i will have to try that out.

tnx mr. ruby!

I've been running into this same problem. I place my lights very close or on top of lamps, and in various places in and around wall sconces and ceiling lights. But their are always parts of the lamp object that stay dark. So it does not look like it is actually emmitting the light. The only ones that I make that look really good are the candle sconces and simple dome lights.

Can you re-post that image that shows the ideal placement for my lights? Or is there another way I can make the lights luminescent? It would have made things a lot simpler if there were a 'Light On' and 'Light Off' version of these models.

Also,

I really like having static shadows for models on my map. But is there any way to prevent objects like Coronas, or lamp objects from casting shadows? There should have been a checkbox for this just like the NO_Static_Collision box. Ah, my life could have been so much simpler.

The "corrona" entities are what make lamps look like they are glowing. But, they don't emmit light, so you need point lights as well.

No, I have lights. That's not what I mean. The corona's are great for making the bare light bulb's and candle sconces look like they are glowing. But they are not very useful on a table lamp or a hanging ceiling light, or a chandelier. I don't see coronas used on them in standard maps anyway.

For instance:

I have that table lamp with the white shade in my map. I've tried placing the point light inside the shade, outside the shade, just above the shade, etc. But no matter where I place the light, some areas of the lamp shade are not getting any direct light. So it doesn't look like the light is coming from the lamp, but at a point to one side of it.

I am using static shadows when I compile. So if the lightsource is placed inside the shade, it severly affects the shadows cast by the light. Maybe that is simply my problem. I suppose if I turned static shadow off, I could put the light completely inside the lamp so it illuminates evenly. But the map looks so much better with them on. I really would rather not go through the hassle of adding Shadow Clip brushes througout the map for every object.

There is a spawnflag to make lights shine only on entities. So, you can make 4-6 small lights to light up all sides of the shade. To make a light small, use Key: light; Value: 50 (300 is the default size).

"ambientlight" will also help to light models. It is set in worldspawn and values range from 1 1 1 (real dark) to around 20 20 20 (kinda bright). Not using ambientlight means its value is 0 0 0, so shadows will be vary dark.

my ambient is at 20 20 20. I'll try the entity only trick. But I've been noticing in my compile that I'm getting some messages about having more than about 70 or so light entities in a single vis leaf and it is getting clamped to 64. I guess that means I've got too many lights in a single area and some are not getting rendered.

Not too sure what I could do or even want to do about that. This is my first time doing this and I didn't really build this map so I don't know much about the vis data. I've just taken it over from another person to do the texture, lighting, and detail work. I'm doing some new construction, but I'm limiting my self to just filling in empty areas.