Map stuck in Full Bright

Doc Bananas

L1: Registered
Aug 24, 2019
13
1
Hi folks. My map is stuck in full bright. I've given it a skybow and an enviroment light but nothing happens. Anyone know what to do?
 

Soilbleed

L2: Junior Member
May 7, 2015
62
246
I get this occasionally, and find building cubemaps / restarting TF2 tends to fix it:

To build your cubemaps, open the console with TF2 open and fire in the following commands one after the after:

-mat_specular 0
-map <mapname>(Load your map)
-buildcubemaps
-mat_specular 1
-disconnect
-map <mapname>(Load a different level; clears texture cache)
-map <mapname>(Load you map again)

If its still in full bright after reloading your map, try restarting TF2 and loading the map again.
 

Xbmann

aa
Jul 8, 2019
63
52
How did you get it working? I'm having the same problem

For future reference, many different things can cause the map to appear in fullbright:
  • If you load your map after playing a different map with mat_fullbright turned on, the setting will carry over and you will need to turn on sv_cheats and change mat_fullbright to properly enable lighting.
  • If vrad is failing to run then there will be no lighting information in the map and it will be stuck on fullbright, check the compile log and make sure it is running properly.
  • If you are compiling with HDR only then people with hdr off ingame will be stuck in fullbright. Compile with the -both vrad parameter to run both HDR and LDR.
 
Last edited:
Oct 6, 2008
1,947
445
you don't have to do the whole cube maps thing

sv_cheats 1 (turn on 0 to turn off)
mat_fullbright 0

if you have compiled correctly you will see the properly lit version appear. What also hasn't been mentioned is something like this

you compile have a leak and run map - you see no properly lit up map < due to the leak
you fix the leak compile and run map - you see no properly lit up map < this time though the lighting cache is still in the memory

if you do the two commands above - it loads the actual lighting and you'll see it go from the contrasty thing on screen to the properly lit item.