Strange Shadow of Invisibility

English Mobster

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 10, 2011
355
299
Hey again all.
I'm having a weird issue with Nippon. There seems to be a single shadow hovering over the entire map at a fixed height. One moment, everything will be lit properly, the next, there's this large shadow.
Anything above where the shadow begins is lit perfectly fine. Anything below it will be lit perfectly fine by lights (such as spotlights and whatnot) but not by the sky.
I don't get it. I've added a 3D skybox with some skycards, but I just checked some decompiled Valve maps and those don't have their shadows disabled.
There's nothing in the .vmf that is fixed at that height, no hint brush or anything. It seems to be a perfectly arbitrary height, and everything below it is covered in shadow.
The map has no leaks; I haven't changed the sky lighting or anything at all since the last build. The only real change besides the skybox was adding in some extra brushwork and displacements for a RED respawn room, but that doesn't seem to make any sense, either.
I do get the "Displacement edge abutting multiple other edges" error, but I've had that for the longest time without issues. I've also had that degenerate face error in there for a while without any issues until now.

Log:
Code:
materialPath: c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\a_pie\team fortress 2\tf\materials
Loading C:\Users\Jay\Dropbox\pl_batt_engmob_a3.vmf
ConVarRef mat_reduceparticles doesn't point to an existing ConVar
Patching WVT material: maps/pl_batt_engmob_a3/nature/blendconcretetograss001_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/pl_batt_engmob_a3/nature/blendgroundtograss009_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/pl_batt_engmob_a3/nature/blendrockgroundwallforest_wvt_patch
Patching WVT material: maps/pl_batt_engmob_a3/dev/dev_blendmeasure_wvt_patch
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (0)
Chop Details...done (3)
Find Visible Detail Sides...
Merged 3848 detail faces...done (8)
Merging details...done (1)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (2)
writing C:\Users\Jay\Dropbox\pl_batt_engmob_a3.prt...Building visibility clusters...
done (0)
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_nippon_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_nippon_01 to build the default cubemap!
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_nippon_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_nippon_01 to build the default cubemap!
Finding displacement neighbors...
Found a displacement edge abutting multiple other edges.
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Building Physics collision data...
done (3) (1561029 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 2619 texinfos to 1352
Reduced 217 texdatas to 181 (7827 bytes to 6095)
Writing C:\Users\Jay\Dropbox\pl_batt_engmob_a3.bsp
44 seconds elapsed



8 threads
reading c:\users\jay\dropbox\pl_batt_engmob_a3.bsp
reading c:\users\jay\dropbox\pl_batt_engmob_a3.prt
1720 portalclusters
4855 numportals
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Optimized: 5196 visible clusters (0.00%)
Total clusters visible: 1262453
Average clusters visible: 733
Building PAS...
Average clusters audible: 1434
visdatasize:638960  compressed from 743040
writing c:\users\jay\dropbox\pl_batt_engmob_a3.bsp
28 minutes, 20 seconds elapsed



[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[34 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']

Loading c:\users\jay\dropbox\pl_batt_engmob_a3.bsp
12251 faces
1 degenerate faces
1587619 square feet [228617200.00 square inches]
230 Displacements
159707 Square Feet [22997858.00 Square Inches]
12250 patches before subdivision
146280 patches after subdivision
357 direct lights
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10transfers 18613859, max 1566
transfer lists: 142.0 megs
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #1 added RGB(467139, 219492, 196888)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #2 added RGB(105106, 37680, 29082)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #3 added RGB(23694, 6798, 4405)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #4 added RGB(5938, 1387, 773)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #5 added RGB(1517, 293, 139)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #6 added RGB(409, 66, 27)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #7 added RGB(113, 16, 5)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #8 added RGB(33, 4, 1)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #9 added RGB(10, 1, 0)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #10 added RGB(3, 0, 0)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10    Bounce #11 added RGB(1, 0, 0)
Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.1555 sec>
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10FinalLightFace Done
Computing detail prop lighting : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
52 of 94 (55% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes.
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Writing leaf ambient...done
Ready to Finish

Object names       Objects/Maxobjs  Memory / Maxmem  Fullness 
------------       ---------------  ---------------  -------- 
models                 111/1024         5328/49152    (10.8%) 
brushes               5112/8192        61344/98304    (62.4%) 
brushsides           41492/65536      331936/524288   (63.3%) 
planes               21970/65536      439400/1310720  (33.5%) 
vertexes             24546/65536      294552/786432   (37.5%) 
nodes                 4768/65536      152576/2097152  ( 7.3%) 
texinfos              1352/12288       97344/884736   (11.0%) 
texdata                181/2048         5792/65536    ( 8.8%) 
dispinfos              230/0           40480/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_verts            5750/0          115000/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_tris             7360/0           14720/0        ( 0.0%) 
disp_lmsamples      440004/0          440004/0        ( 0.0%) 
faces                12251/65536      686056/3670016  (18.7%) 
hdr faces                0/65536           0/3670016  ( 0.0%) 
origfaces             7960/65536      445760/3670016  (12.1%) 
leaves                4880/65536      156160/2097152  ( 7.4%) 
leaffaces            15423/65536       30846/131072   (23.5%) 
leafbrushes          12534/65536       25068/131072   (19.1%) 
areas                   19/256           152/2048     ( 7.4%) 
surfedges            87672/512000     350688/2048000  (17.1%) 
edges                58157/256000     232628/1024000  (22.7%) 
LDR worldlights        357/8192        31416/720896   ( 4.4%) 
HDR worldlights          0/8192            0/720896   ( 0.0%) 
leafwaterdata            3/32768          36/393216   ( 0.0%) 
waterstrips           1035/32768       10350/327680   ( 3.2%) 
waterverts               0/65536           0/786432   ( 0.0%) 
waterindices         23445/65536       46890/131072   (35.8%) 
cubemapsamples          34/1024          544/16384    ( 3.3%) 
overlays                68/512         23936/180224   (13.3%) 
LDR lightdata         [variable]     9181220/0        ( 0.0%) 
HDR lightdata         [variable]           0/0        ( 0.0%) 
visdata               [variable]      638960/16777216 ( 3.8%) 
entdata               [variable]      440558/393216   (112.0%) VERY FULL!
LDR ambient table     4880/65536       19520/262144   ( 7.4%) 
HDR ambient table     4880/65536       19520/262144   ( 7.4%) 
LDR leaf ambient     26088/65536      730464/1835008  (39.8%) 
HDR leaf ambient      4880/65536      136640/1835008  ( 7.4%) 
occluders                0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
occluder polygons        0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
occluder vert ind        0/0               0/0        ( 0.0%) 
detail props          [variable]           1/2269796  ( 0.0%) 
dtl prp lght          [variable]           1/177519   ( 0.0%) 
HDR dtl prp lght      [variable]           1/4        (25.0%) 
static props          [variable]           1/63098    ( 0.0%) 
pakfile               [variable]       27702/0        ( 0.0%) 
physics               [variable]     1561029/4194304  (37.2%) 
physics terrain       [variable]       43818/1048576  ( 4.2%) 

Level flags = 0

Total triangle count: 31535
Writing c:\users\jay\dropbox\pl_batt_engmob_a3.bsp
4 minutes, 20 seconds elapsed
This is what I mean:
pl_batt_engmob_a30004.jpg

Notice that the shadow is a just a single line across the entire BSP; anything below it (outside) is covered in shadow. All interior lighting is lit properly by the interior lights.
pl_batt_engmob_a30005.jpg

pl_batt_engmob_a30003.jpg

pl_batt_engmob_a30002.jpg


This last one was accidental, but I forgot to take any real screenshots of the inside, so this'll have to prove that the lighting inside is fine:
pl_batt_engmob_a30001.jpg


This seems to be such a weird and arbitrary error. I don't get it. Any help?
 

Micnax

Back from the dead (again)
aa
Apr 25, 2009
2,109
1,585
Found a displacement edge abutting multiple other edges.
may be the cause of your problems.

Interlopers says that: "This is no real error, but it could be the cause of lighting anomalies. There is no easy way to find the displacement either, the fastest way would be to go through your displacements one by one."
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
Check that the lightmap scale is to a power of 2 as I'm fairly certain that I had this exact issue when I accidentally (read: I have no idea how) changed all my displacements lightmap scales to 12.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
Did you add a 3dskybox? 3Dskyboxes cause shadows in the real world and if they're not aligned this is a common cause for massive shadows hovering over the map.
 

English Mobster

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 10, 2011
355
299
may be the cause of your problems.

Interlopers says that: "This is no real error, but it could be the cause of lighting anomalies. There is no easy way to find the displacement either, the fastest way would be to go through your displacements one by one."
Yeah, I've had that error forever. I don't think it's exactly the cause of it; the lighting anomalies it speaks of are more along the lines of one displacement completely black. This affects regular world geometry as well, so I don't think it's it.

Check that the lightmap scale is to a power of 2 as I'm fairly certain that I had this exact issue when I accidentally (read: I have no idea how) changed all my displacements lightmap scales to 12.
Just checked; it's all at 16.

Did you add a 3dskybox? 3Dskyboxes cause shadows in the real world and if they're not aligned this is a common cause for massive shadows hovering over the map.
I did! I'm going to disable shadows on the props in there now and see if that fixes it.
 

English Mobster

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 10, 2011
355
299
Alright, disabled shadows on all the props in my 3D Skybox. Still have the issue.
I'm going to try to use the nice lightmaps as seen in this tutorial. Maybe it'll help.
E: Negative. Fancy lighting just made it a lot darker. :/
EE: I went ahead and hid the props, did a compile, no dice. Did the same with displacements and with brush entities. Also no dice. I don't get it.

EEE: I fixed it! Turns out my sky_camera was too low in my 3D Skybox. I feel stupid now. Thanks, guys!
 
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