With the uptick in Halloween map production has come an uptick in maps set at night, and thus also an uptick in window props meant to portray a room lit within. For example:
Here we see some lit windows. Isn't that nice? We get the illusion that there is a room inside behind the window, which is lit. What's happening inside? It's anyone's guess. Some of the windows aren't lit. Interesting! It is late at night, so some rooms might not be in use right now. Makes sense.
Here's another nearby window:
Here's some lit windows that actually shine light outwards! Very nice. The setup here is a window prop with an unlit texture skin and a light_spot for each window pointing outwards. Notice how the surfaces nearby the window bounce light around, making the whole area visible, even bouncing back onto the wall that has the windows. This looks nice!
Now let's open up some recent Halloween maps and see what they do differently, with apologies in advance to the maps I'm going to pick on:
Here the light comes out of the window and magically does a 180, shining back onto the wall the window is in. This doesn't make sense. Realism aside, does it look nice? I do not think it does. Let's back up a bit:
Where does your eye want to go? To me, the windows that glow draw a lot of attention to themselves despite not being anything important to look at. The lit windows in the "house hats" above more easily fade into the background as detail because the area covered is much smaller.
Here's another example:
Windows that are lit with lights instead of light_spots may draw unneeded attention to themselves, but can also contribute to an overall flat lighting scheme. For light to be important, there must be darkness, so even when the gameplay-relevant areas are lit up, they might fade into the background without the appropriate context.
One last thing to note is that window props that are more pronounced can end up casting shadows from their own light source. Using a point light for a window is a type of fakery - it is meant as a stylistic choice that doesn't reflect reality. By creating hard shadow lines, the lighting is inconsistent on whether or not it wants to be realistic, and also introduces a bit of unneeded visual noise.
This all may seem like a giant nitpick, but I think this is a detail very much worth considering when lighting your nighttime maps. Any bright self-lit object is going to draw some attention to itself, but how much attention do you want to draw? Does every window need to be lit? What does this lit window intend to do for the overall quality of my map?
(Again, I apologize to the maps that I've used as examples of bad lighting. This isn't meant to be an insult, just constructive criticism.)
Here we see some lit windows. Isn't that nice? We get the illusion that there is a room inside behind the window, which is lit. What's happening inside? It's anyone's guess. Some of the windows aren't lit. Interesting! It is late at night, so some rooms might not be in use right now. Makes sense.
Here's another nearby window:
Here's some lit windows that actually shine light outwards! Very nice. The setup here is a window prop with an unlit texture skin and a light_spot for each window pointing outwards. Notice how the surfaces nearby the window bounce light around, making the whole area visible, even bouncing back onto the wall that has the windows. This looks nice!
Now let's open up some recent Halloween maps and see what they do differently, with apologies in advance to the maps I'm going to pick on:
Here the light comes out of the window and magically does a 180, shining back onto the wall the window is in. This doesn't make sense. Realism aside, does it look nice? I do not think it does. Let's back up a bit:
Where does your eye want to go? To me, the windows that glow draw a lot of attention to themselves despite not being anything important to look at. The lit windows in the "house hats" above more easily fade into the background as detail because the area covered is much smaller.
Here's another example:
Windows that are lit with lights instead of light_spots may draw unneeded attention to themselves, but can also contribute to an overall flat lighting scheme. For light to be important, there must be darkness, so even when the gameplay-relevant areas are lit up, they might fade into the background without the appropriate context.
One last thing to note is that window props that are more pronounced can end up casting shadows from their own light source. Using a point light for a window is a type of fakery - it is meant as a stylistic choice that doesn't reflect reality. By creating hard shadow lines, the lighting is inconsistent on whether or not it wants to be realistic, and also introduces a bit of unneeded visual noise.
This all may seem like a giant nitpick, but I think this is a detail very much worth considering when lighting your nighttime maps. Any bright self-lit object is going to draw some attention to itself, but how much attention do you want to draw? Does every window need to be lit? What does this lit window intend to do for the overall quality of my map?
(Again, I apologize to the maps that I've used as examples of bad lighting. This isn't meant to be an insult, just constructive criticism.)
