Non-Displacement Lighting Issues

[Atasco]

Hello again, it's me, with more odd issues. I made a displacement for a large spytech style curved window, but the moment I went to light it, very strange things started happening.

On the left is a displacement to curve where the (hard to see) glass is, and on the right is a regular old worldbrush. Any advice yall could give to get these wto to light evenly?

 

[Lampenpam]

Do they have the same lightmap scale?

 

[Atasco]

Do they have the same lightmap scale?

They do, and it's the same value :0

 

[LadyRaee]

smoothing group?

 

[Atasco]

smoothing group?

I tried that one too ;u; still did those weird light differences

 

[Atasco]

Somewhat of a bump, but not really, I've narrowed down the issue, it is not because I've left the other six faces of the brushes where they are :0 I checked and I'd made the displacements right. Hmmmm. I checked this by tearing out the whole section of wall and displacements and remaking it meticulously to a displacement tutorial, but unfortunately the issue is still identical to the first post. Could it be an issue with my lights? Surely not. I'd check them now but the starbucks I'm in is about to close haha

 

[Lampenpam]

As workaround, you could place some kind of pilar or support beam at the seam so player won't notice it anymore.

 

[Atasco]

As workaround, you could place some kind of pilar or support beam at the seam so player won't notice it anymore.

hmmm maybe. I'm just wishing I knew what the issue was so I could stop it before it started

 

[LadyRaee]

It's a source engine, unfortunately usually best bugfix for stuff is workaround or, even worse, dropping the idea.

eg. "Quantum crouch" glich, where only fix is clipping your stairways and ramps, so people can't execute it

 

[Pocket]

Is this a displacement that's touching a world brush? Because that always creates a break between lightmaps, although I've never seen one that severe before. It might be best to ditch the displacement and use a quarter of a cylinder brush instead, or something (I can't tell from that screenshot what anything is actually supposed to be).

 

[Atasco]

...

Yes actually, it's jammed right up against a world brush. I'll change that now and see if it fixes it.

(imaging time elapsing)

Yep. That's what it was. The lighting is fixed now. Why can't you put displacements next to world brushes? And how do mappers and valve get around this issue?

 

[Viemärirotta]

...

Yes actually, it's jammed right up against a world brush. I'll change that now and see if it fixes it.

(imaging time elapsing)

Yep. That's what it was. The lighting is fixed now. Why can't you put displacements next to world brushes? And how do mappers and valve get around this issue?

Having different textures or having either of the brushes clip the other.

 

[LadyRaee]

well, Valve's school is to not have displcements near brushes, i.e. there's buffer of free space between displacements and word sealing brushes. Eg.:

 

[Lampenpam]

well, Valve's school is to not have displcements near brushes

Take a look at badwater. Many displacements Z-fight with the nodraw texture because that's perfectly fine.

 

[Viemärirotta]

It's fine if it Z-fights partially, in fact it's recommended due to having a nodraw skeleton under the displacement help with optimization. Just don't let nodraw go over the displacement, then it fucks up the lighting on that part.

 

[LadyRaee]

unless it is nodraw. Take a look at badwater, many displacements Z-fight with the nodraw texture because it's fine.

Badwater is old map, check some newer ones:

• Powerhouse

• Refined parts of Cactus Canyon

• literally every CS:GO map

(top to bottom inferno, italy and train)

 

[Lampenpam]

Badwater is old map

I don't see the point. Badwater still works perfectly fine and you can still compile it perfectly fine. it's not "wrong" to have space underneath, as long its nodraw anyway, it doesn't affect optimization, it just doesn't make a difference. In the end it might just be personal prefference. One mapper may leave space in case they want to make the displacement go deeper, while other ones intend to only raise the displacements.
Eventually csgo needs space because physics of nades work differently but it doesn't look like thats the case for tf2 judging from maps like badwater.

 

[Atasco]

Oh no what have I started

Well, how do I have buildings then :0? Surely I don't have to make them all displacements

 

[Lampenpam]

buildings are rarely displacements... Just make them with brushes. Look at other maps if you need inspiration. Usually when a building has round spots like pilars or rounded corners it's made with brushes.

 

[Pocket]

(stuff)

None of that is really pertinent, but it's true that Valve (and official community mappers) don't make flat brushwork and displacements touch at the edges the way Atasco was doing. 90% of what displacements are used for is terrain, which is made of dirt or rock and isn't going to just segue into perfectly flat floors anyway. Among the remaining cases:

• Really complex structures like the Hydro dish, which is a standalone structure that intersects world brushes but doesn't connect to any. And if Valve made Hydro today, the dish (and possibly much of the adjacent brushwork) would almost certainly be a model that uses lightmaps.
• Flat surfaces that need texture blending, like Double Cross's bridge and Watergate's brickwork. (CS:GO also has a lot of Watergate-style walls in the new Italy.) These, too, are solved by just making the whole surface a series of displacements that line up with each other wherever possible and are covered by extra detail where the mapper couldn't be bothered.

Anything that's uniform but too complex to be brushwork tends to be props, and they just try to design around any need for it to line up with brushwork. (The busted wall in ctf_sawmill for example, which just goes all the way to the corners and is in a room with very soft lighting to deal with the inability, at the time, to use lightmaps.) But brushes will suffice in the vast majority of cases.