Questions about lighting in Unreal 3

[Minos]

Hey guys.

I've been using UED for some time now. It's quite a nice editor, sometimes a bit too old fashionable but quite enjoyable overall. However, I'm having a bit of a trouble with lighting. I modelled a few generic modular pieces to block out my level (sidewalks, cubes, walls, etc...) and they look terribly wrong when I throw in some simple lighting. I tried vertex lighting at first but some vertices which share the same exact space look either really bright or pitch black. They are quite tessellated and line up perfectly to each other, so it doesn't make much sense. I know the limitations of vertex lighting, I just wanted my pieces to be lit evenly :S

OK I then proceeded to lightmap those meshes. I also removed some of the loops as they weren't really needed anymore. The problem still persists though and my lightmaps also look pretty bad, with seams visible in some places and other places being lit correctly. Here's an screenshot of the lightmapped version:

Blue = Happens in the vertexlit version | Green = UVs problems

A montage showing the UVs for the lightmapped cube and the same meshes prepared for vertex lighting only. At first I thought the lighting artifacts on the cube was due to the seams being too close to the UV's borders so I scaled them down a bit and they still look the same in the editor.

Does anyone know how to work around this?

[Scinbed]

Not sure about the bright edges but why not use BSP for the cubes/buildings for now?

[Minos]

Not sure about the bright edges but why not use BSP for the cubes/buildings for now?

I could do this but it wouldn't solve the problem.

[sarge mat]

Noticed this myself once or twice. Not sure how to work around it right enough.

[Nurb]

The problem is probably that the lightmap UVs are so close that they use the same pixels in the lightmap image. Move the UVs further apart in the UV layout or increase the lightmap resolution. I think this will solve your problem. With something as crisp as a cube you may also have to separate all sides of the cube in UV space in order to get a sharp shadow edge.

[Minos]

The problem is probably that the lightmap UVs are so close that they use the same pixels in the lightmap image. Move the UVs further apart in the UV layout or increase the lightmap resolution. I think this will solve your problem. With something as crisp as a cube you may also have to separate all sides of the cube in UV space in order to get a sharp shadow edge.

Yup I did that and the problem was minimized quite a lot. It still happens here and there though but it's not such a big hassle anymore.

The vertex lighting inconsistencies on the other hand are still there and annoying the crap out of me.

[Minos]

Alright I was following the 3d buzz video tutorials and came across the same errors with vertex lit meshes I described above again. The funny thing is that 3d buzz's meshes look perfect.

This is really pissing me off

[Zeta]

You could try overriding the default lightmap the mesh uses?

It forces it to use a more detailed lightmap, which obviously hurts performance but ususally improves the accuracy of the effect.

I believe the option in is the mesh properties somewhere, I can take a look later today if you want the specific location.

[Minos]

You could try overriding the default lightmap the mesh uses?

It forces it to use a more detailed lightmap, which obviously hurts performance but ususally improves the accuracy of the effect.

I believe the option in is the mesh properties somewhere, I can take a look later today if you want the specific location.

I don't want to use lightmaps on such simple models. I just want them to get lit properly. The 3d buzz guys didn't lightmap those support beams either.

[Minos]

Just in case someone else is having the same problem: http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Lighting ... bdivisions