Pitch Black Ceilings on Rooms

[tyler]

Oh, and I would also add that you should try building a map piece by piece rather than creating a huge, hollow box and filling it in. It will lead to better optimization, faster compile times, and cleaner experiences in Hammer. It might sound hard at first, but you get used to it pretty quick.

 

[tyler]

So what you are saying... is that if i name a light... it stops working. what the f

Yeah, pretty much. I think the only official map that uses dynamic lights is Harvest, though some newer Halloween map might also. You can look at Harvest to see how that's done if that's what you're after. But yeah, don't name lights unless you are absolutely certain you need the dynamic lighting gimmick in your map.

 

[YTXZ]

So what you are saying... is that if i name a light... it stops working. what the f

I just removed the name of the light and yes... it started working INSTANTLY

Valve, seriously... what?

Well... learnt plenty of new stuff today then. Thanks for the help, probably wouldn't have ever found out what the problem was without it.
That is seriously so confusing and even more confusing is why is that a thing, can't name lights or they stop reflecting?

Thanks everyone for the help again, some really useful stuff.

 

[tyler]

Welcome to the Source Engine. Enjoy your stay!

 

[A Boojum Snark]

Named lights are compiled to be dynamic regardless of whether or not they will be. Dynamic lights do not bounce because there is a maximum number of light styles per face, and if you had dynamic bounces that limit would be hit very easily because light bounces a looooong way.

 

[tyler]

See, then Booj comes in and gives us the reason that this all makes perfect sense.

 

[iiboharz]

Why were you naming your lights, if I may ask?

 

[killohurtz]

Another thing about the big skybox I'd like to add:

There is a feature called the cordon tool, which is controlled with these
The first one allows you to edit the cordon bounds, and the second toggles it on and off. It will tell the compiler to grab only what's inside the box and seal it with the skybox texture (by default). This is handy for testing unfinished layouts or specific parts of your map without having to adjust skybox brushes. Once your layout is done, you can start building a proper skybox.

 

[YTXZ]

Why were you naming your lights, if I may ask?

I just got some dumb idea that I had to do it for some reason and also because I thought of doing something with them but then scrapped the idea and left the name in.

 

[Lampenpam]

Yeah, pretty much. I think the only official map that uses dynamic lights is Harvest, though some newer Halloween map might also. You can look at Harvest to see how that's done if that's what you're after. But yeah, don't name lights unless you are absolutely certain you need the dynamic lighting gimmick in your map.

I'm pretty sure a few offical maps have named lights to switch red and blue lighting at a few things after capturing a point. Like on signs that swap their color

 

[Tumby]

Funnily asteroids flashing lights while capturing cores is actually just a model with a blu and a red skin.

 

[YM]

naming it makes it dynamic. You can have a hard maximum of 6 lightmaps on any given surface, which basically means you have to be super careful how you pick your dynamic lights (2 lights results in 4 lightmaps, 3 would result in 9, and break)

Source is an old engine, particularly TF2's branch of source. There is basically no support for dynamic lighting so it's generally never ever used.

A single dynamic light as an accent for say which team owns a capture point can be a really cool effect if it's done well, but just remember that everywhere that single light can see will get a second lightmap (one for on and one for off). Lightmaps are the pretty much the biggest contributor to filesize.

EDIT: Hey look at me replying to an ages old post!