ldr, does it matter?

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Pink_Panther

L3: Member
Dec 14, 2008
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after finally finishing a map I began to wonder, "does LDR lighting even matter?" Even my geforce 5200 card is running HDR lighting without any problems. Does anyone run LDR mode anymore?

obviously if there isnt an HDR component to a light, then HDR defaults to the LDR lighting. But, does the LDR settings make any difference to the HDR mode?

So I guess what I'm getting at is, do I really need to waste the compile time to do a -both?
 

Spike

L10: Glamorous Member
Feb 13, 2008
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I doubt you run HDR with the 5200 :\
 

Pink_Panther

L3: Member
Dec 14, 2008
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just did a check again...your right.

but the question remains, because I dont think anyone else is going to be using one.
 
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grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Well, i use ldr.

So yes, you're gonna want to compile with -both. Just for me.

If Valve do it, you're probably gonna want to do it too, afterall, they are able to track everyone's settings.
 

Spike

L10: Glamorous Member
Feb 13, 2008
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compile with HDR because most of the people play with HDR enabled
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
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personally, even with HDR enabled (which it always is for me), i never notice it's effects in a game like TF2, where you don't really have the high/low of action you get in a single play game like hl2.
i'd also imagine having drastic light level changes, like emerging from a dark cave into sunlight is hard to balance on a multiplayer map in the TF2 style. (balance as in one team will be momentarily blinded. so even if they know in advance where a sniper is hidden, they still won't be able to shoot him for a few crucial seconds)
either way, i'd argue that in many cases HDR is not a necessity to a tf2 map. there probably are exceptions, but generally you'll be too busy playing the game to notice the effects of HDR.

just my 2 cents really
 

Nineaxis

Quack Doctor
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May 19, 2008
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I don't think HDR in TF2 is so much about realistic sunlight effects, but more about using it just makes your map look pretty **** beautiful.
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
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Sep 8, 2008
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LDR for the win here. With HDR its nearly unplayable for me (mostly because i play 16 vs 16 all the time with a 4 year old pc).
In css i can play full HDR with 62 players but the chaos is much lower there. I know some maps with the same chaos and those are also unplayable even with only 32 players :p

Also remember that some people cannot even run HDR at all. Some people use over 5 year old pcs and many times pcs didnt have hdr at that time.
 

GrimGriz

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 2, 2009
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I don't even know what it is and whether or not I'm running it. I figured the H stood for high, and that anyone that can run that can do low..so having one less thing to figure out (HDR settings) is how I'm going for now. Something I'd look into when i get my map to beta stage I guess.

So my question would be: How much does a map suck without HDR?
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
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i'm pretty sure valve maps do use HDR (high dynamic range).
 

Spike

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Feb 13, 2008
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I may be mistaken, but I believe the official Valve maps don't use HDR, so draw from that what you will.

They use HDR in all Valve maps even for the old games like Half Life 2 and CSS.

For those who doesn't know what HDR is, here's a video, it makes the maps looks a lot better and more realistic, and simulates the effect of getting blind by looking directly to a light, or changing quickly from dark to bright.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWnO04lX8rA&fmt=18"]YouTube - Counter Strike Source - Maxed Out (HDR, Motion Blur, Correction Color)[/ame]
 

YM

LVL100 YM
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Dec 5, 2007
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I may be mistaken, but I believe the official Valve maps don't use HDR, so draw from that what you will.
You're mistaken. Valve use it in all of their maps now.

Well, i use ldr.

So yes, you're gonna want to compile with -both. Just for me.

If Valve do it, you're probably gonna want to do it too, afterall, they are able to track everyone's settings.
You're coming at it from the wrong angle, -both doesn't ensure LDR works, it ensures HDR works, LDR is the default that always happens no matter what you do.

The real question you need to ask is "HDR - Is it worth it?" The answer is yes, since as you say most people use HDR most people will see a loss if it isn't there. However I can't say that many non-mappers will notice it's absence since TF2's HDR is veeery subtle due to the nature of the art style. I personally would miss it if it wasn't there.
However in some cases It would be better if the mapper had decided not to use HDR - those cases are where the mapper doesn't know about the env_tonemap_controller and they end up with a bleached sky - that to me is worse than being forced to use LDR.

of course if you're absolutely certain that you want to have as low a filesize as possible HDR is one of the things you might want to consider omitting.
 

Spike

L10: Glamorous Member
Feb 13, 2008
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The only place I know about the difference between LDR and HDR in TF2 is the weapons "shine" effect when they face a light
 
Jan 31, 2008
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I think HDR looks awful in some cases.
Sometimes you stand at a location; things go a bit darker.
But if you move about 32 units forwards everything starts to fade to really bright for a about 2 seconds. Then you take a step back again and it goes very dark.

Other than that effect; HDR looks great :)
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Youme said:
You're coming at it from the wrong angle, -both doesn't ensure LDR works, it ensures HDR works, LDR is the default that always happens no matter what you do.

*cough* Fullbright *cough*.

But yes, ldr is the defualt lighting if you compile with vRAD enabled. You just read my joke out of context. Valve use the -both command and so it is recommended that you do too, i didn't say anything about ldr being a seperate/additional command despite what my phrasing implies. I was joking about my apparent elitest standing that if Valve do it you should too. The last 2 sentances should have been together really. :blushing:
 
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Pink_Panther

L3: Member
Dec 14, 2008
129
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I guess i sparked more conversation than I had expected. I appreciate the comments and will definatly be putting effort into both lighting techniques as im not a fan of everything being vibrant (aka the classic full bright effect many maps have for multiplayer).