Good Ways To Light It Up

Stormcaller3801

L5: Dapper Member
Jul 5, 2009
249
28
I keep running into a problem with maps, and I'm hoping for some comprehensive aid with it.

The problem is lighting. Or more specifically, realistic interior lighting.

Websitepic1DSC_0127.jpg


That, as you can probably tell, is a mall. It is brightly lit, as you can likely also tell. This includes the ceilings, despite a lack of upward-facing light sources.

When I attempt to do the same, I end up with a light source suspended in utter darkness. That, or I end up with a room blazingly lit to the point that I'm either going to get a tan or my monitor's going to have a nervous breakdown.

I've tried using light_spot entities set up with a 90º angle and high intensity. That doesn't help. I've tried using light entities- that tends to get me either garishly bright circles on the ceiling or nothing useful at all. I've tried using upward-facing light_spot entities, which largely duplicates the effect of the light entities. I've even tried using env_lightglow, which has resulted both in a slow snapping-on of all of the various entities after spawn and a ceiling obscured by enough flare I'd probably get the Attention Getter achievement if I tried playing a Pyro.

In this particular case I'm trying to duplicate standard fluorescent lighting- which is to say a [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropped_ceiling]dropped ceiling[/ame] with periodically-placed lights inset into the ceiling.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
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Nov 2, 2007
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