How do I light up a room properly?

Dirty Dan

L1: Registered
Sep 5, 2012
10
0
The way I do it now is basically: Spawn a light entity, place it in the room, playtest, see where else light is needed, adjust the lighting, then place props to make the light actually seem its coming from somewhere.

But in the end, what happens is that the prop gets this massive unrealistic shadow behind it, or it doesn't look like it's the reason the light is there.

I've always though you tie the light entity to the prop or something, and somehow the prop will produce the light realistically (you know from the prop's luminescent texture).

So am I doing it wrong or right? And is there a better way to do this?
 

Micnax

Back from the dead (again)
aa
Apr 25, 2009
2,109
1,585
I know there's one way to change the light's visibility through props and such, but I'm not sure right now because I can't open the SDK. It's one of the options that includes Addictive/Subtractive etc.

However, this library can be very helpful for inserting pre-made lights that are commonly used in TF2 maps:
http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=7011

Just put it in your mapsrc folder and open it as a map, then you can copy + paste the lights over and adjust as needed.
 

Dirty Dan

L1: Registered
Sep 5, 2012
10
0
Ah yes, I've downloaded that before. Though there is no explanation to the order of the lights. I see about 3-4 of them in a row, yet I don't know their differences in the sense of how they will look in my map.

Is the lighting library only there for the POSITIONING of the entities?
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
Yeah, I guess it is? I don't know, I barely use it.

If you want to block light, the easiest thing to do is use the blocklight texture (make sure you func_detail it). If your shadows look weird, your lightmap might be too small or you might be using dynamic lights. The lighting library is a good source of basic lights that you should emulate in your own map. You can also look at lights in Valve maps.
 

Micnax

Back from the dead (again)
aa
Apr 25, 2009
2,109
1,585
Well, it just has default settings that are recommended for rooms and such, along with having the entities lined up with the props ideally so it looks the most effective combined with them.

Usually, you want to go with the one that has just the prop + light to start off with for alphas (because lighting isn't considered too important in it), and then you can adjust them better in beta stages.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Hint: If the light source is anything other than a bare bulb on a socket, you'll want to use light_spot instead of light (and turn the brightness way up; the two entities are on a whole different brightness scale for some reason), so the light is only being cast in the direction of the fixture. That's part of the problem.