Weird shadows due to displacements?

[Pocket]

Does the minimum change based on the displacement resolution? Because a scale of 9 just so happens to match the number of vertices on an edge for a "power of 3" displacement.

OK, I know what each of those words means separately... but I have no idea what they have to do with each other. Also there are eight vertices on the side of a power 3 displacement.

But yes, the minimum lightmap scale is proportional to the size, as it turns out; I shrank that brush down to half the size both ways and I was able to get it down to 5 before it complained. I guess I could believe there are technical reasons for that.

 

[xzzy]

8 edges, 9 vertices.

But yeah I just dinked around in hammer and the minimum lightmap scale is dependent on the size of the brush. Which is really unintuitive to me but I'm sure there's a good reason for it.

 

[Lampenpam]

I'd try changing the nodraw for a skybox texture. (the skybox texture being almost the same as nodraw except it doesn't block light) for science!

But skybox texture removes rockets. So if a Solly shoots on this spot, the rocket disappears

 

[henke37]

Nodraw makes the rocket explode instead.

 

[Freyja]

However skybox texture emits light (your environment light), which if placed under a displacement and not properly managed can cause those light bleeds you see in a lot of maps. Nodraw doesn't emit this light, which is a good plus for using it.

Additionally, it renders the 3d skybox through it, which is not really a good thing if you can't see it (the 3d skybox renders through any skybox texture regardless of if it's in view or not). Nodraw doesn't do this by itself (slightly more complicated than that, but essentially), so using nodraw is technically better for performance.

 

[henke37]

Nodraw quite literally don't render anything. It blocks visibility, but visibility here does not mean "wont see what is behind", but rather "could potentionaly affect PVS in such a way that the content behind wont be rendered".

 

[Pocket]

But yeah I just dinked around in hammer and the minimum lightmap scale is dependent on the size of the brush. Which is really unintuitive to me but I'm sure there's a good reason for it.

I decided to see if that applied to regular brush faces too and we just never noticed it. Nope, it's only displacements. If I thought for a minute I'd ever get a response, I'd consider emailing Valve and asking about it.