Optimal lighting on Night Maps?

Ctrl Alt Defeat

L1: Registered
Jun 10, 2014
31
5
So, on my upcoming map, it takes place at night, However, one big issue with the appearance is the lighting.

So,

What color/brightness should I use on the light_env?

What color should the env_sun be, if I'm supposed to have one at all? Also, is there a different override model for a moon?

My shadow's look a bit glitchy. Do I need a shadow_control? Or is that pretty much just for the color of shadows?
 

SSX

aa
Feb 2, 2014
392
411
Look into Doublecross's entities and see what you come up with, that seems to be the best solution I normally see out of people on here.
 

Fantaboi

Gone and one day forgotten
aa
Mar 11, 2013
892
1,050
I'll give the words of wisdom I received on Sandstone from the chat (Mostly Aly)

~Make use of phantom lights, (basically light entities that act like it was from the moon or something) This image uses them but it appears it's from the moon
tb1fZJs.png

~Use A LOT of lights around your map, NO play-area should be dark not even corners
nVaYsHH.png

~When picking colors create a contrast, like this blue (moonlgiht) and orange (torch) one:
bLcOeyO.png

~Make non-play areas dark, this helps with visual noise
w8rYusB.png

~Light up certain areas differently, don't make your whole map just 2 colors (Sandstone uses 3 main ones, blue, orange and white)
3Z98exG.png

~Teams should always be distinguishable
picture.php

~When testing lights, go fullscreen and put the brightness to it's lowest.

In truth I didn't actually use bright settings on my light_env, everything was done through phantom lights.
 
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UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
aa
Sep 8, 2008
1,264
816
May i note though that those phantom lights arent realy needed in all maps. In skullcove i mainly used visible light sources (candles, normal lights, the skull, environtment), the only place in that map with phantom lights is the cave below spawn and the upgrade station, and even that one uses actualy visible light sources. However, the skull is a main light source there which did add alot of light.
 

xzzy

aa
Jan 30, 2010
815
531
Stoneyridge has only three phantom lights in it, but we went kind of nuts with light fixtures so it was pretty easy to put light entities in believable spots.

My main tip is to abuse the hell out of spot lights.. you want all your light pointed downward to the play area because if it's too gloomy in those spots, I guarantee players will complain. Spotlights also make interesting shadows on walls which you can get pretty creative with.. point lights are hard to tweak.

Directing all your light down allows you to leave the top ares of the map in shadow so when players look upwards, it still feels like night time. Using dark textures for non-playable areas can help with this too.

Best example I can think of for that is the spawn rooms on koth_sawmill. The ceiling is almost pitch black and it looks really damn good.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Since nobody answered this part...

What color should the env_sun be, if I'm supposed to have one at all? Also, is there a different override model for a moon?
You don't need one at all; the moon should be part of the skybox. It definitely is in the case of Double Cross. The sun usually is, too, although I think some maps use an env_sun to simulate the way the sun glows around objects when it's partially behind them. (Never been quite clear on how that works, but it's an optional setting apparently.) The moon, of course, isn't bright enough to do that.
 

MegapiemanPHD

Doctorate in Deliciousness
aa
Mar 31, 2012
1,937
1,280
There are only 2 night Skyboxes for TF2 that aren't Halloween themed so you can check em out here to see what their best settings are: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Team_Fortress_2_Sky_List

I suggest starting with the base settings given there that are closest to what you want and then tweaking things until you are satisfied with the result. If you are using a custom skybos, you can still used the settings to get a good idea of what works well at night.
 

wareya

L420: High Member
Jun 17, 2012
493
191
the "best settings" on the wikis are just what the official maps use, not what actually line up with the skybox itself or which might be best for your map's geometry and lamp lighting.

it's usually better to come up with settings by looking at the skybox itself and by testing different angles and overall brightnesses until it works
 
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