Lights playing up!?

[Fingersniffer]

In the third stupid question in this series.....

I placed a load of light entities on my map last night and ran the game to see how they looked. For some strange reason though, when I enter the now lit room, the lights' brightness varies mildly depending in where I'm facing and where in the room I'm standing.

Anyone any ideas why it's doing this?

It's annoying as I'm trying to figure out how bright to make these lights but I can't when they vary so much according to my position.

Thanks again.

 

[Narkissus]

They will vary according to how close or far away from them you are, you cant really get a full even lighting no matter where you stand because thats just how lights work.

But you can adjust it using light dropoff values in the light entities though. (may not actually be called dropoff, i just call them that and have no access to hammer right now to actually see what they are called)

 

[Fingersniffer]

Think I need to explain this better.

If I'm in the middle of the room moving around, the lights act as though someone's messing around with a dimmer switch. Also if I stand JUST outside the room in the doorway, and look into the room, it's almost pitch black.
This isn't how lights behave in the game.:001_unsure:

 

[Narkissus]

Its possible that your textures are messed up in that room, check to make sure they they do not have Props infront of them or it will make them pitch black, also make sure that there is no leaks in the map at all.

 

[Baysin]

Agreed, Narkissus, it sounds like the common error of putting a prop texture on a brush. If that's the case, it's not your lights. Props light differently than brushes, and using prop textures, some of which otherwise look identical to normal textures, will give you the weird shifting light/shadow phenomenom being described. I know this from personal experience, of course, so don't feel bad if you fell for it too.

 

[Scotland Tom]

Yeah, I've had this problem myself. Never use textures with "prop" or "model" in the texture name. There are almost always corresponding textures that don't belong to those texture groups which can be used to replace them.

 

[Fingersniffer]

Ok, thanks everyone, I'll have a look at those textures.

 

[l3eeron]

Also, if you have leaks on your level, lights wont compile correctly.

 

[bazola]

Really I think everybody runs into this problem. I know I did, and not knowing that you can't use model or prop textures, theres no way to know whats causing the error.

I wish valve would just make it so you cant use the textures on brushes, or that they have separate vmts for when placed on a brush.

 

[Fyfey]

I have also spent hours messing with lighting, where it was just prop and model textures...

If this is the problem... open up the texture browser and tick the "only used textures" box, then you can see all of the textures and check for the props/xxxx. If you find one that is a prop, click replace, it will bring up a box with 2 textures... the one you want to change (on the right (should already be right)) and the texture to replace it with. Click browse and you should be able to find the same other version of the texture. then make sure "Everything" is chosen in the "Replace In" bit. Click OK and it should change them for you!

 

[Fingersniffer]

Thanks a lot everyone, very good of you all.