Indoor Lighting Too Dim

MagnusMastah

L1: Registered
Nov 17, 2008
3
0
Hey guys, I have four indoor light_spots in a spawn room, but even at 500 brightness, they're WAYYY too dim. I have two screenshots, one of my settings of the lights in Hammer, and the other of their in-game brightness. Sorry, I'm brand new to mapping. :)





The odd thing is, the light_environment that I have outside works perfectly; the way it should. Thanks for any help in advance.
 
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TheDarkerSideofYourShadow

L10: Glamorous Member
Apr 12, 2008
792
286
Up your brightness (try 1000+)
Change the distances of the 50% falloff and 0% fall off. If you have helpers on in hammer (its one of the buttons more towards the right of the top tool bar) when you select a light you'll see 2 yellow circles that you can expand outwards to increase how far the light goes. The important part is that the 0% must be a greater number than the 50%.
 

MagnusMastah

L1: Registered
Nov 17, 2008
3
0
Up your brightness (try 1000+)
Change the distances of the 50% falloff and 0% fall off. If you have helpers on in hammer (its one of the buttons more towards the right of the top tool bar) when you select a light you'll see 2 yellow circles that you can expand outwards to increase how far the light goes. The important part is that the 0% must be a greater number than the 50%.

My brightness is 1500, my 50% falloff is at 200 and my 0% falloff is at 400. Am I doing that right? Because I can't see any noticeable difference. :/

EDIT: Hmm, I guess I'll probably just use regular light entities at a lower brightness, since it seems to do what I want just fine. I was just trying it with light_spots because that's what Half-Life_Maniac's Beginner's Guide to The Spawn Room was saying. Thanks for the help, though. Or is there a benefit to using light_spots that I'm not aware of?

 
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TheDarkerSideofYourShadow

L10: Glamorous Member
Apr 12, 2008
792
286
They look better, and you can do a lot with them.

Things I should have mentioned last time:
Change the inner and outer angles. Make them something like 60 and 75, and see if thats good enough for you.
 

MagnusMastah

L1: Registered
Nov 17, 2008
3
0
Alright, that's much better! The only problem is, now, is that the ceiling is pitch black; it doesn't look quite right.

 

TheDarkerSideofYourShadow

L10: Glamorous Member
Apr 12, 2008
792
286
I would try cranking up the outer angle more, above 90, that would, in theory, project it upwards as well. Try various values. You might also want to lower your brightness a bit, now that you've got it to work its more a matter of fine tuning everything.
 

Nineaxis

Quack Doctor
aa
May 19, 2008
1,767
2,820
Or check if you have a light_environment to provide ambient light, which is more likely the problem than needing to mess with all the complex lighting parameters.
 

drp

aa
Oct 25, 2007
2,273
2,628
The real problem here is that you have a leak. The light isn't reflecting against the walls like it should, and hence the stark contrast in lighting.

Go to Map -> Load Pointfile, follow the red line and patch up your leak.
every time i had this problem, i always found it to be a leak in my map. i would double check this asap.
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
Try these settings.

Brightness: 255 255 255 1000
Inner Angle: 50
Outer Angle: 50

Remember that light_spots need higher brightness values then your usual light and for TF2 it's best to use pale yellows and oranges for a nice warm atmosphere.
 

Altaco

L420: High Member
Jul 3, 2008
484
120
Also, make sure they're not inside a prop's collision model, that can cause some odd lighting problems. Press the "CM" button on the top toolbar to see collision models.
 

Dox

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Oct 26, 2007
588
62