Question On Lighting

Aragon

L1: Registered
Nov 19, 2008
48
6
I am building my first TF2 map and at the moment i am experimenting with lighting on spawn. I noticed in valve maps they don't have the ugly reflections of the lighting on the roof. I put directional lighting from fluro bulbs and if i place a normal light entity below it it creates a nice looking room. Except for above the fluro entities where the light entities are shielded from the ceiling.

Is there anyway to achieve a lit room without the bright patch's on the ceiling? And not have the fluro bulbs blocking the small stips from light?
 

Aragon

L1: Registered
Nov 19, 2008
48
6
Oh and here is some images to show what i mean.

Figure: This image shows the dark roof strip above the lights (Light placement below the fluro)
lighting1fo8.th.png



Figure: This image shows the bright section above the light. (Light placement above the fluro)
lighting2pd0.th.png


All fluros have two directional lights on the bottom of them also.
 

Aragon

L1: Registered
Nov 19, 2008
48
6
Ok with shadows off it creates a worse looking light with more of what i was trying to avoid in the first place. The bright light against the texture.
Here is an image. If you can see in the background there is another light but underneath the light it looks much better. But the shadowy black is above. This is with shadows on the model. Is there anyway to create a light that doesn't do that bright tincturing thing. In valve maps they do but there is no light there in the first place.
lighting3sx3.th.png
 

Hawk

L7: Fancy Member
Dec 3, 2007
419
213
Are you using spotlights? Because that bright ceiling-glow is common from point lights. In the Valve maps, they mostly use spotlights pointing down toward the ground. If there are no leaks in your map, the lighting pass will cause light to reflect upward naturally and gently onto the ceiling. That reflected light won't cause strange shadows with your light fixtures.
 

Aragon

L1: Registered
Nov 19, 2008
48
6
I tried to use spot lights but the roof was not being lit up and massive sections of blackness was appearing. So i tried a combination of spot and normal lights. THe spots to do affect and the normal to light the area up.
 

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
A light_spot DOES light up the ceiling. You mentioned massive sections of blackness which makes me wonder if you have a leak or not.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
Actually if you take a look at badwater their flourescent light strips use a brush based light..

:O what is this new devilry you speak of youme? a brush based light?? but lights are all point entities I hear you cry. but no, they arent the best way to achieve uniform(ish) light from a wide point is to use a texture light, simply make a thin brush (one or two units tall) that is the same area as the flourescent light and put it about a unit below the lght, texture it nodraw and texture the bottom with lights\blue003. the brush will now cast light, but theres one last thing to do, select the brush and tie it to a func_illusionary entity so that it can't be seen or interacted with.

If you download my big pack of prefabs I even made some of these for everyone to use. http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=749
 

Nineaxis

Quack Doctor
aa
May 19, 2008
1,767
2,820
I tried to use spot lights but the roof was not being lit up and massive sections of blackness was appearing. So i tried a combination of spot and normal lights. THe spots to do affect and the normal to light the area up.

Do you have a light_environment and ambient light? If so, you have a leak. If not, you have no ambient light to light places without direct light.
 

Earl

L6: Sharp Member
Dec 21, 2007
284
38
It sounds like you have a leak. Enough light should bounce off the floor to illuminate the ceiling. If you have a leak there won't be any bounces in vrad. Can you post a pic of what it looks like with light_spot?
 

Aragon

L1: Registered
Nov 19, 2008
48
6
Actually if you take a look at badwater their flourescent light strips use a brush based light..

:O what is this new devilry you speak of youme? a brush based light?? but lights are all point entities I hear you cry. but no, they arent the best way to achieve uniform(ish) light from a wide point is to use a texture light, simply make a thin brush (one or two units tall) that is the same area as the flourescent light and put it about a unit below the lght, texture it nodraw and texture the bottom with lightsblue003. the brush will now cast light, but theres one last thing to do, select the brush and tie it to a func_illusionary entity so that it can't be seen or interacted with.

If you download my big pack of prefabs I even made some of these for everyone to use. http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=749

This is what i was trying to do. This didn't work so i tracked a leak down. Apparently if part of an entity is outside of the map its considered a leak. Fixed this and the lights work well. Thanks everyone.