func_door doesn't stop light produced from light_environment?

Soilbleed

L2: Junior Member
May 7, 2015
62
246
This might be a really silly question, but as i was playing around in hammer today I noticed that light from the skybox was bleeding through func_door brushes (as though the brush wasn't even there). I tried searching around the internet and couldn't find anything actually answering the question.

When baking the lighting and shadows during compile, why does it ignore dynamic entities like func_door? Apologies if this is a silly question.
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
Light will go through it, yes. You can parent a block light brush to it, but note that prop doors will block light as expected.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
I really should get around to making that tutorial on blocking light through a door without it looking bad.
 

Tumby

aa
May 12, 2013
1,084
1,192
It is ignored during vrad because it is expected that it will change its position at some point. The shadows from dynamic props are dynamic shadows which usualy look really bad. Especialy when the player sets their shadows to low.
You can see valve being annoyed by this on maps like gravelpit. Look at the doors in red spawn, they covered them with blocklight brushes.
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
4,621
Yeah, Tumbo is right. I should have specified that the light blocked by a prop door doesn't really change the lighting behind the door. It makes a dumb shadow. In most cases you can solve this simply by having similar lighting on both sides so it's not noticeable.

Dynamic lighting to circumvent this is possible but really not advised in TF2 for about a zillion reasons.
 
Aug 23, 2008
404
380
I think with tf2 you basically just accept that doors don't block lights. I remember back in like 2008, cp_resonance had a door that I tried to make block light properly, but in the end its a waste of time. No one besides super hardcore mappers will ever notice, and honestly I haven't even thought about or noticed it in years.

If doors properly blocking lights is important to you, newer engines with dynamic lighting tend to handle things like that much better (though, usually at a performance cost if you do it too much), but if you want to make TF2 maps, don't bother.
 

Idolon

they/them
aa
Feb 7, 2008
2,105
6,106
I've always found that closed doors that let light in look weirder than open doors that don't let light in.
 
Mar 23, 2013
1,013
347
The shadows from dynamic props are dynamic shadows which usualy look really bad. Especialy when the player sets their shadows to low.

I actually preffer the low-quality shadows.
The sharp shardows don't look right when light maps are all blurry and besides that, they overlap and that's not how shadows work.
 
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Soilbleed

L2: Junior Member
May 7, 2015
62
246
So the block light brush works perfectly (at least for now). I was thinking as an alternative (and maybe better) solution would be to design the building to avoid light entering through a dynamic brush. Perhaps give the door a canopy overhang to block the light from entering. Either way, thanks for the solutions =)

ArKtrGA.jpg
 

worMatty

Repacking Evangelist
aa
Jul 22, 2014
1,257
999
Or just increase the illumination inside the room so that the contrast between the dark and light is smoother.