Need advice for indoor lightning in source engine

I'm not all that experienced when it comes to lighting, but I think it's best to experiment, make a small test map and try out different light setups and see what works best for you.

what I usually do is combine both light_spot and a simple light together, usually the light_spot is the main light with high inner and outer angles so the light has greater reach. I think it looks more natural this way. The simple light is usually just a very subtle light to give it more 'life' I guess.

also a pretty useful vid:

but yeah, I'd also like to hear some tips from more experienced people.

make sure to edit the quadratic, linear and constant values of your lights. Usually it's set to 100% quadratic 0% linear 0% constant, which probably doesn't light indoor areas that well, as quadratic means it starts at 100% brightness and quickly depletes down to 0%. Add more constant or use light_spot with a high constant instead. Also take a look at de_inferno and de_mirage, for example, they have nice looking indoor lighting.

but first watch that vid ^^^^^^^^^^

I recently just got my level to a solid release stage that is indoors only. I made it to challenge the editor in creating indoor environments. It is really hard to light well.

Fairly new to Hammer myself I looked at how a lot of the official maps were lit. Now of course they all have outdoor skyboxes, but maps like Office have quite a large section indoors.

You will need more lights than what would seem sane in some areas to really light the level realistically. I found using light_spots in conjunction with the normal lights worked well. Office employs the same process. The other thing I would look at experimenting with is the 'falloff' settings in the lights properties. This allows you to take a single light source and expand its influence outwards or inwards by a specific amount.

This topic is really handy, something I bookmarked early on

Lighting Tips

Hope this is of some help. My level is de_subliminal if you fancy checking it out.

Why do people insist on misspelling "lighting" to "lightning"? Two very different things. I clicked on this thread thinking you were trying to put lightning indoors...

As for your questions, I'd recommend checking out these guides:

http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=19133

http://magnarj.net/article_funclight.html

Lighting can be really fun and greatly influences the flow and feel of your map. It is one of the only things that greatly impacts the gameplay and aesthetics of your map. Learn it well.

hehe it was more slow than painful. With every version change I would check each lit area in-game with a friend, and then adjust/circle lights in my notes that needed adjusting. I would definitely say that this appears to be the Source engines biggest drawback and outdoor levels always look great when lit even with dev textures.

ha yea. That's why you buy a coffee machine

Interlopers - Advanced Lighting: http://www.interlopers.net/tutorials/17779

Interlopers - Lighting Tips & Advice: http://www.interlopers.net/tutorials/29797

Interlopers - Spotlights: http://www.interlopers.net/tutorials/1780

Definately also the one that AkatsukiUK posted.

Furthermore, do check out official maps (also the little less known maps like militia) to see how it's done. Don't be afraid to decompile maps (also custom ones) to check how lights entities are set up.

Quote from laminutederire

Can I check yours? Because I tried with office interior lights method but since the mood was quite different, and what I want to do is closer to what you did Oh and also I discovered workout is an interesting map to check out thanks to the generosity of its creator

Sure.

The links posted by AkatsukiUK and Squad above should be very helpful.

A few other thoughts to add/reinforce:

Lighting attenuation is important to understand in Source engine (quadratic, linear, constant properties). This is the main article: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Constant-…adratic_Falloff

Remember from algebra/calculus: limit as X approaches infinity, only the highest powered exponent is relevant. Quadratic (X^2) is much more powerful than Linear (X). When you want to get something in between quadratic and linear, the linear coefficient will need to be larger (i.e. 1:1:0 will be barely different from 1:0:0).

Most of the time, linear looks better than quadratic or constant, especially for 'light' entities indoors.

You should be able to get a lot of environmental light inside, depending on how big your windows are. Running VRAD with '-final' option (=== '-extrasky 16', see https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/VRAD), or -extrasky at 4+, will help the light coming through windows to be less patchy (smoother). Making the light_environment stronger will also help get more light inside.

Texturing the ground outside, especially with a bright texture, will help probably much more than you think. Light bounces off the ground, so the difference between the ground outside the window being nodraw or bricks or grass will mean a big change to the light bouncing onto the windowframe and the ceiling near the window. Having a pale-colored ceiling (bright, desaturated) may multiply this by having this light bounce more inside.

You could 'cheat' with your windows by putting light_spot entities in them, facing directly into the room (perpendicular to the window). I've never tried this, but if you match the skylight color, or the overall color of the view out the window, use low brightness, and leave a big difference between the inner and outer angles, it seems like you should be able to get a good effect. You could even use two, one pitched up slightly and the other down slightly, colored with the color of the sky and the color of the ground.

Quote from laminutederire

The last idea you mean like you do in PBR software when you have your windows with an emitter propriety?

The trouble I had with linear or constant attenuation was I had trouble having it not too bright but thanks I quickly tested one of your idea and it looks better thank you

Constant and linear attenuation will look much brighter than quadratic at most distances, because the quadratic light field is strongly concentrated toward the middle. So, when you change from 100% quadratic to something that is more linear, you may be able to reduce the brightness a lot. A different way to see it is that because quadratic falls off so quickly, you have to make it overbright to compensate, which is why it looks bad if there are any objects close to it.

I don't know about PBR, but light_spot produces a cone of light, which can have a very sharp edge (if inner/outer angles are close together) or fade out very gradually. So if you make it not-too-bright and make the outer angle very wide and the inner angle narrow, it should be a reasonable fake for light coming from a relatively small window, and will not affect anything behind it (outside) directly.

Example of window lighting using only light_spot (x2). I used toolsskybox behind the windows to make the windows visible, because with measuregeneric (dark grey) and weak lighting, there is about zero light coming back to the windows. There is no light_environment, the light only comes from light_spot.

http://imgur.com/a/H3yPS

VMF attached.

test_window_spot.zip