Lighting help

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jack10685

L1: Registered
Jul 11, 2013
4
0
so I am trying to get into using lighting (makes maps look better). I am using light_spots because normal lights don't look very good. For some reason, the lighting where I place it is really dark (using same options as the 2fort spawn rooms). pics -

my light settings -

ihdcFpp.png


the map -

QAQTHr2.png


what did I do wrong and what can i do to fix it? (btw, I am new here, hi)
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
'S not bright enough.
 
Oct 6, 2008
1,947
445
try bumping up the last numbers to a higher value for 500 to 1600
 

Blade x64

Logical insanity
aa
Sep 3, 2009
239
633
The lamp is pretty low, try using the 32 length one instead. For making the ceiling more bright, you can either place a normal light 32 or so units below the light_spot with a brightness of 25-50 or use this tutorial.
 

jack10685

L1: Registered
Jul 11, 2013
4
0
The lamp is pretty low, try using the 32 length one instead. For making the ceiling more bright, you can either place a normal light 32 or so units below the light_spot with a brightness of 25-50 or use this tutorial.

the tutorial is nice, but how would I edit a texture's vmt if it is included in the game?
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
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Extract it using gcfscape (Pretty sure that can do .vpks as well as the older .gcf's)
Edit it (under a new name)
Use the new material
Use pakrat to include the new material in your .bsp when you distribute the map.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
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I'd just also like to point out that editing the reflectivity values is very involved and shouldn't really be your first (or second, or third) port of call when trying to improve lighting. It's an advanced feature that should really only be done when you already understand how source lighting works.

What you really want to be doing for that room is:
A) Moving the light up a lot, it's basically in the middle of the room which is waaaaay too low
B) Adding more lights, a single light in the middle of a room that size would leave the room too dark.
C) Ramp up the spread angle to 80 degrees
D) Set the HDR scale back to 1
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Especially since it's something Valve themselves never resort to, given that they kind of can't. Also, never discount the possibility that maybe that's how it would look in real life, and that you've just never realized before how little light ceilings receive, especially the rare few that aren't white.
 

Fish 2.0

L6: Sharp Member
Nov 22, 2012
324
262
Bounce lighting (yes, it's good with source) just isn't good enough sometimes and you need to fake it.

Put a low-brightness light entity in between the floor and the light_spot, set it to a more blue hue of your spot and congrats, you faked your bounce light.