HDR Overbright Woes

eXeC

L1: Registered
Sep 30, 2008
37
1
Hey, in a map I am working on I am having some trouble with HDR lighting.

No matter what I do the capture bases are far too bright. HDR causes the rest of the screen to go dark when near the capture bases which is unacceptable for me as it would ruin the look and feel of my map.

cptimberfest0000g.jpg


I've tried using lighting origins to get the bases lit as if they were inside the spawn rooms but that has no effect. I was wondering if any of you guys had a work around as I intend on releasing rc2 and potentially the final version of my map soon.


Thanks,
 

eXeC

L1: Registered
Sep 30, 2008
37
1
Thanks, turns out my minexposure was a bit too low. It fixed the darkness near the points but they are still really bright and seem a bit out of place. Do you have any remedies for that?


Unrelated: Furnace Creek looks awesome.
 

MungoKing

L3: Member
Jul 12, 2008
148
47
You have to build env_cubemaps. In LDR this causes reflective props and water to have the purple checkerboard pattern. In HDR reflective props become bright white. Read how to build them here. To place them just select the entity tool in hammer, change the entity to env_cubemap, and place around ~64 units high. You'll want to do this throughout the map, as weapon viewmodels will get this effect also.
 

eXeC

L1: Registered
Sep 30, 2008
37
1
Yeah, I haven't actually built the cubemaps yet, they're all placed etc, just not built. I'll try that.

Just for the record, I may be new here but I am not new to hammer and mapping for tf2, I know most of this already, I'm just inexperienced with HDR and tweaking it to look good. Just letting you know so you dont waste time lecturing me on more basic things. =]