Question about -StaticPropLighting

NeonHeights

L1: Registered
Apr 27, 2012
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Wondering if anyone with -StaticPropLighting/Propper experience could help me out with this...

Im getting terrible lighting with the custom props I've created with Propper. Based on what ive read, -StaticPropLighting will cause the prop to be lit normally/by vertexs (or how it would be in the map). Ive already followed the first step and disabled normal mapping on the props before compiling them in the editor, im just not sure where to go next... I added the -StaticPropLighting paramter to lights.exe in the default compiling section but the lighting still looks horrible when I compile. I noticed on the site they talk about compiling in HDR not default.

Can anybody help me get this lighting working or suggest another method to light my props? I tried lighting them with an info_lighting and I didnt get very good shadows or lighting with that either
 

Seba

DR. BIG FUCKER, PHD
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Jun 9, 2009
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What do you mean by "disabled normal mapping on the props"? Propper doesn't generate normalmaps I don't think. HDR isn't necessary for -staticproplighting, you can do just LDR and it should work. Does your $light_exe look like this

Code:
-staticproplighting -game $gamedir $path\$file

?
 

Freyja

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Jul 31, 2009
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Propper just converts brushes into vertices for the model. There's likely not nearly enough vertices to get anywhere near decent lighting on it, because even a huge brush, being rectangular, will only have 4 vertices per face. Best way to fix it would be taking it into a modelling program and adding lots of edge loops.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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Nov 14, 2009
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Maybe it would help to post a screenshot. I have a pretty good eye for whether a prop is actually vertex lit or not, as well as whether it would be better off not being vertex lit, as is sometimes the case.
 

NeonHeights

L1: Registered
Apr 27, 2012
25
5
Propper just converts brushes into vertices for the model. There's likely not nearly enough vertices to get anywhere near decent lighting on it, because even a huge brush, being rectangular, will only have 4 vertices per face. Best way to fix it would be taking it into a modelling program and adding lots of edge loops.

Could you explain briefly what an edge loop is? You mean just splitting up the brushes more? Im fairly new to propper as I never had a use for it until recently.

@Steve

Im trying to convert this room into a model. My map brush limit has been reached and im trying to clean up spaces with a lot of brushes. This room has 200 odd brushes in it, the first image is before it was converted (fairly good lighting). The second one is a prop that was supposedly lit with -StaticPropLighting. Other then the purple light in the center on the second screenshot, they both have the exact same lighting in the editor

Untitled-3.jpg
 

henke37

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Sep 23, 2011
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A loop is a sequence of connected vertexes that form a loop. It's a ring. What they actually mean is that you should subdivide the model to add more polygons. This in order to get more light measurement points on each surface.

However, what you want here is lightmaps. It is a recent addition to the engine, but you are now able to use lightmaps on props in addition to brushes. It is effectively what they are suggesting, but without the added polygons.
 

wareya

L420: High Member
Jun 17, 2012
493
191
Lightmap props require non-shared UVs. I don't think propper does anything like that.
 

Freyja

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Jul 31, 2009
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No, propper just takes the UV coords from hammer's faces for it's textures, something hammer's lightmaps are independant from. Prop lightmaps are not. Lightmaps on a propper prop, especially with such tileable and small textures as those minecraft ones would look horrific.
 

henke37

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Sep 23, 2011
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Good point, repeating lightmaps is never correct.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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Nov 14, 2009
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Hmm. Well, first off, trying to convert an entire room into a prop is the wrong way to go about reducing brushes, no matter how desperate you are. Consider just converting the ender portal into a prop, the iron bars into another prop... and I guess leave the rest as-is, but keep doing things like that all over the map. And be sure to consolidate your brushes wherever you can manage; I'm looking at that room and thinking, how on earth is that 200 brushes just by itself?
 

NeonHeights

L1: Registered
Apr 27, 2012
25
5
So any suggestions on where to go from here? If thats the best lighting im going to get with propper I wont even bother. It looks absolutely terrible and theres no way I would put it into the final version.

Each block is 32x32, dividing them up into 4 8x8 blocks in propper didnt help the lighting much if at all, it still looks pretty bad

Hmm. Well, first off, trying to convert an entire room into a prop is the wrong way to go about reducing brushes, no matter how desperate you are. Consider just converting the ender portal into a prop, the iron bars into another prop... and I guess leave the rest as-is, but keep doing things like that all over the map. And be sure to consolidate your brushes wherever you can manage; I'm looking at that room and thinking, how on earth is that 200 brushes just by itself?

Each time you see a different textured block (mossy cobble, broken cobble etc) its a different block. I suppose I could use overlays to apply the textures directly onto the faces of a single block but ive had a lot of experience in the past with buggy overlays and would like to possibly avoid that if at all possible.

The bars and portal isnt really whats spiking the brush count, its the walls and ceiling
 

iiboharz

eternally tired
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Nov 5, 2014
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So any suggestions on where to go from here? If thats the best lighting im going to get with propper I wont even bother. It looks absolutely terrible and theres no way I would put it into the final version.

Each block is 32x32, dividing them up into 4 8x8 blocks in propper didnt help the lighting much if at all, it still looks pretty bad



Each time you see a different textured block (mossy cobble, broken cobble etc) its a different block. I suppose I could use overlays to apply the textures directly onto the faces of a single block but ive had a lot of experience in the past with buggy overlays and would like to possibly avoid that if at all possible.

The bars and portal isnt really whats spiking the brush count, its the walls and ceiling

You can't be lazy about it, not every individual "block" needs to be its own brush. Planes such as the floor could quite obviously just be one brush, and there's many patches on the wall and ceiling that look like they could be a single brush that would fill the space.

You don't need to make any of this a prop, you just have to think carefully about it.

There's plenty of Minecraft textured maps out there whose geometry is entirely brush-based, the key thing is to optimize your brushes.
 

NeonHeights

L1: Registered
Apr 27, 2012
25
5
Its not necessarily laziness, I tried to make this entrance as realistic as possible to the actual thing (by using multiple stone textures). As I said above, im aware I could probably just use the default stone texture and put 32x32 overlays on top of it with the corresponding mossy/cobble texture. But ive had issues in the past with overlays where they lose the face theyre attached to if they get moved (or if the map bugs out or something). If that were to happen, it would mean I would have to re-assign the faces of 80-90+ overlays which wouldn't be fun. I edit this map constantly as its used for dozens of trade servers right now, im just trying to think ahead to the future and spare myself any grief.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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Nov 14, 2009
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You could make a custom texture that's just the whole floor, with whatever configuration of types of stone you want. Each block is only 16 by 16 pixels with no mipmapping, so it's not like you'd be adding a huge amount to the filesize even with uncompressed textures.