CS:GO Need lighting help

    Hello, I am new to the site and I created this account to ask a question that has been bugging me for awhile now and cant seem to fix. Its not really a problem but I need advice on how to light the room below. As you can see I have some lights above that are far away from the ground. Using normal lights and light_spot have proved unsuccessful. I intend the environment to be day outside and was wondering if anybody could shed some light (no pun intended) on this topic. The room length wise is around 2300 units. I have lots of lights in that order as you see below.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/NtfsrDr.jpg]

    materialPath: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\materials Loading d:\csgomaps\de_station\de_station.vmf Map revision 34 fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides... 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Processing areas...done (0) Building Faces...done (0) Chop Details...done (0) Find Visible Detail Sides...done (0) Merging details...done (0) FixTjuncs... PruneNodes... WriteBSP... NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! NODRAW on terrain surface! done (1) writing d:\csgomaps\de_station\de_station.prt...Building visibility clusters... done (0) Finding displacement neighbors... Found a displacement edge abutting multiple other edges. Finding lightmap sample positions... Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Building Physics collision data... done (1) (113660 bytes) Error! prop_static using model "models/props_junk/trashbin01a.mdl", which must be used on a dynamic entity (i.e. prop_physics). Deleted. Error loading studio model "models/props_junk/trashbin01a.mdl"! Error! To use model "models/props_interiors/trashcankitchen01.mdl" with prop_static, it must be compiled with $staticprop! Error loading studio model "models/props_interiors/trashcankitchen01.mdl"! Error! To use model "models/props_unique/jukebox01.mdl" with prop_static, it must be compiled with $staticprop! Error loading studio model "models/props_unique/jukebox01.mdl"! Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Compacting texture/material tables... Reduced 1716 texinfos to 757 Reduced 121 texdatas to 99 (4630 bytes to 3822) Writing d:\csgomaps\de_station\de_station.bsp 7 seconds elapsed

    4 threads reading d:\csgomaps\de_station\de_station.bsp reading d:\csgomaps\de_station\de_station.prt 600 portalclusters 1755 numportals 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Optimized: 15576 visible clusters (0.00%) Total clusters visible: 219106 Average clusters visible: 365 Building PAS... Average clusters audible: 592 visdatasize:89551 compressed from 96000 writing d:\csgomaps\de_station\de_station.bsp 0 seconds elapsed

    [Reading texlights from 'lights.rad'] [17 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']

    Loading d:\csgomaps\de_station\de_station.bsp 2252 faces 3 degenerate faces 1269516 square feet [182810352.00 square inches] 127 Displacements 113548 Square Feet [16351050.00 Square Inches] 2249 patches before subdivision 43193 patches after subdivision 55 direct lights 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10transfers 2023885, max 366 transfer lists: 15.4 megs 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #1 added RGB(72534, 105257, 88862) 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #2 added RGB(18731, 28707, 22093) Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.0105 sec> 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10FinalLightFace Done 0 of 0 (0% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes. 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Writing leaf ambient...done Computing static prop lighting : 00...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Ready to Finish

    Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness ------------ --------------- --------------- -------- models 1/1024 48/49152 ( 0.1%) brushes 318/8192 3816/98304 ( 3.9%) brushsides 2316/65536 18528/524288 ( 3.5%) planes 1372/65536 27440/1310720 ( 2.1%) vertexes 3117/65536 37404/786432 ( 4.8%) nodes 1285/65536 41120/2097152 ( 2.0%) texinfos 757/12288 54504/884736 ( 6.2%) texdata 99/2048 3168/65536 ( 4.8%) dispinfos 127/0 22352/0 ( 0.0%) disp_verts 25471/0 509420/0 ( 0.0%) disp_tris 44288/0 88576/0 ( 0.0%) disp_multiblend 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) disp_lmsamples 209101/0 209101/0 ( 0.0%) faces 2252/65536 126112/3670016 ( 3.4%) hdr faces 0/65536 0/3670016 ( 0.0%) origfaces 1122/65536 62832/3670016 ( 1.7%) facebrushes 253/0 506/0 ( 0.0%) facebrushlists 2252/0 9008/0 ( 0.0%) leaves 1287/65536 41184/2097152 ( 2.0%) leaffaces 2430/65536 4860/131072 ( 3.7%) leafbrushes 990/65536 1980/131072 ( 1.5%) areas 2/1024 16/8192 ( 0.2%) surfedges 14817/512000 59268/2048000 ( 2.9%) edges 8383/256000 33532/1024000 ( 3.3%) LDR worldlights 54/8192 5400/819200 ( 0.7%) HDR worldlights 0/8192 0/819200 ( 0.0%) leafwaterdata 0/32768 0/393216 ( 0.0%) waterstrips 143/32768 1430/327680 ( 0.4%) waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%) waterindices 2226/65536 4452/131072 ( 3.4%) cubemapsamples 9/1024 144/16384 ( 0.9%) overlays 36/1024 12672/360448 ( 3.5%) LDR lightdata [variable] 2531256/0 ( 0.0%) HDR lightdata [variable] 0/0 ( 0.0%) visdata [variable] 89551/16777216 ( 0.5%) entdata [variable] 31998/393216 ( 8.1%) LDR ambient table 1287/65536 5148/262144 ( 2.0%) HDR ambient table 1287/65536 5148/262144 ( 2.0%) LDR leaf ambient 6248/65536 174944/1835008 ( 9.5%) HDR leaf ambient 1287/65536 36036/1835008 ( 2.0%) occluders 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) occluder polygons 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) occluder vert ind 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%) detail props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%) static props [variable] 1/81484 ( 0.0%) pakfile [variable] 14433608/0 ( 0.0%) physics [variable] 113660/4194304 ( 2.7%) physics terrain [variable] 22470/1048576 ( 2.1%)

    Level flags = 3d

    Total triangle count: 5825 Writing d:\csgomaps\de_station\de_station.bsp 7 minutes, 27 seconds elapsed


    Is this what you wanted? I found it with the actual map file itself. Sorry, this is my first map and I'm new to this.

    @goss343 It's always a good idea to look at how a real world location similar to your scene solve their lighting. In this case I'd put the lamps on the metal rafters to get them closer to the ground, and perhaps experiment with the ceiling height. Use light spots here. You can also add sky windows to get a more interesting environment, and more liggt spots on your walkway pillar.

    I wouldn't move the lights because they could really be there, you just have to configure the light_spot entities to cast light further away.

    Try to configure your light_spots like this :

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/rRXPxEg.png]

    (For the Constant, Linear and Quadratic parameters). It should now be able, with the same intensity (Brightness 4th value) to cast light much further away than before. You can find some examples in the beginning of that article i wrote a while ago :

    You don't have to put hundreds of light_spots, even if you have that many models, you can put less frequently and make them more powerful.

    You can share that part of your map in a vmf and I'll show you how i'd light this area.

    Quote from leplubodeslapin

    19 hours ago, leplubodeslapin said:

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/rRXPxEg.png]

    (For the Constant, Linear and Quadratic parameters). It should now be able, with the same intensity (Brightness 4th value) to cast light much further away than before. You can find some examples in the beginning of that article i wrote a while ago :

    Being used to physically based lighting, is there any negative impact on using this approach with the Source engine? Or is it implemented in a way where it doesn't matter?

    Quote from biXen

    17 minutes ago, biXen said: Being used to physically based lighting, is there any negative impact on using this approach with the Source engine? Or is it implemented in a way where it doesn't matter?

    There's no negative impact on using this approach, it's actually a good way to do it.

    The default falloff configuration is 100% Quadratic, which means the brightness dicrease by the square of the distance between the light source and its destination. This is the closest you can get for a "physically based" lighting. This is known in photography, if you take a picture of someone at a distance of 1 meter with artificial lights, and then you want to take the picture at 2 meters, you won't have to double your light intensity but multiply it by 4 (2^2).

    In the real world, our eyes are incredibly good for adjusting to huge gap with light intensity and an enormous amount of light can lit a big room easily and you won't have any overexposed spot (pure white spot). And a moment later, you can go to another room that is barely lit and can still see shapes and stuff.


    In games, HDR has been implemented to help with that but the range allowed by it is still extremely short (at least on source engine).

    I think this video explains it pretty well :

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    (it's been a while since i saw it but i think it's the video)


    So you have 2 solutions :

    - You can lit your room with a classic quadratic falloff with huge intensity (2000 of brigthness! why not !) and adjust the exposure parameters of HDR to make it work, but you'll need extremely powerful lights everywhere to lit your map and will very easily have overexposed white spots everywhere.

    - You can fake it with lights that cast light further away

    I prefer the second one since i feel i have better control on it, but that's not mendatory.

    Does anyone use it for CSGO though, or is it a half assed implementation? I know the linear workflow very well and I'm quite used to that. But your preferred solution is more along the lines of old Pixar, faking stuff to look good :)

    It would be nice to have a base lighting with quadratic, and maybe use some fill light for ambience if need be, but so far it seems tricky. Guess it needs some more experimentation. I need to isolate things in smaller levels for testing I guess.

    Quote from biXen

    11 minutes ago, biXen said: It would be nice to have a base lighting with quadratic, and maybe use some fill light for ambience if need be

    That's exactly what i'm doing. I'm trying to fill the space with ambience lights that cast light far away with low intensity. These light could be blue, green or red. And then i use white/orange/beige lights to do the actual lighting with artificial lights. This is how i've been able to do that for example :

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/jBg3Z23.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/cCShQti.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/baDzmWx.jpg]

    (far from perfect examples ...)


    Testing takes time because you have to compile the area with cordon tool and look at the map ingame, but you have to do it :-/

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