WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

[Mazy]

Nice, really like the lighting even though it probably could handle some more contrast, some cool shadows you got there too ~

[m4d1n]

hehe i like what i see but why are the lights on inside when it is day? solve energy

[seppe]

dude if the lights in youre house/school/working place also burn (are on) when it's day.

[ReNo]

Very nice man, love the shadow detail on the floor and lower walls. You should start making your own props though - I've seen nothing but sexy stuff from you, but if you could throw off the generic HL2 settings, at least a bit, by introducing your own props then...then...it would be cool! My only gripe with this is that it looks somewhat washed out, probably because, as Mazy said, it could benefit from more contrast. Not sure if you meant it to be this way though, as it makes it look somewhat hazy/dusty which may suit the setting.

[Ginger Lord]

Wheres the windows to cast those shadows?

[nooba]

Sweet!

Haven't used Hammer for ages, so I tried making something...

[Furyo]

Wheres the windows to cast those shadows?

Well I asked myself the exact same question and then I saw that the roof actually has a window texture, so it made more sense. I agree that it's not so obvious, but the sky light probably could be seen better from a different angle

[kleinluka]

Alexroyce, that's reaaally impressive! Nice work

[alexroyce]

Very nice man, love the shadow detail on the floor and lower walls. You should start making your own props though - I've seen nothing but sexy stuff from you, but if you could throw off the generic HL2 settings, at least a bit, by introducing your own props then...then...it would be cool! My only gripe with this is that it looks somewhat washed out, probably because, as Mazy said, it could benefit from more contrast. Not sure if you meant it to be this way though, as it makes it look somewhat hazy/dusty which may suit the setting.

It was suppose to look like it was HL2-ish So far I can make some simple props for my maps (along with textures), but I havent gotten too good with Max yet. Once I get better ill start making more props, but I felt that if I included some custom stuff like that it wouldent fit in with all the other things (as my props look alot crappier than the default props).

What I might do is make the window which is casting the shadow clearer, as its quite "dense" and doesnt let the viewer see the proper sky color I wanted.

[BlueCoatKarma]

It looks great, but I have to ask, how's the performance there? Aren't the lightmaps really small to get those nice shadows from the skylights?

[sensee]

that's really impressive lighting!

what entities and settings did you use to achieve that? did you use fog or something or how did you manage do get that blueish look?

[alexroyce]

that's really impressive lighting!

what entities and settings did you use to achieve that? did you use fog or something or how did you manage do get that blueish look?

Just a single light_environment gives me the nice shadows (as I used alot of blocklight brushes).

It looks great, but I have to ask, how's the performance there? Aren't the lightmaps really small to get those nice shadows from the skylights?

The preformance is fine, as Im getting over 90fps. The lightmapscale where the shadows fall is 4, so its quite low, but its definetly worth it. I dont think theres a preformance cost of lighting, either.

[Schmung]

Lovely work there mate, dunno much about the HL2 engine myself, but I imagine theres some form of memory hit from using a lightmap at that scale. Dare say it's fine if used sparingly. Is this just pracite making a scene or part of a larger level?

[alexroyce]

Lovely work there mate, dunno much about the HL2 engine myself, but I imagine theres some form of memory hit from using a lightmap at that scale. Dare say it's fine if used sparingly. Is this just pracite making a scene or part of a larger level?

Well theres obviously some sort of expense to using low lightmaps, but the impact is very very small unless you purposely make really complex stuff just to see if you can break it. Im still 4x above the minimum quality, though, and ive seen maps with much more complex shadows which ran just fine.

Im coming up with a few small pieces of work to show off in my portfolio, so these things will probably never become maps, but maybe one day ill decide to make something big out of them.

[ReNo]

Yeah the hit isn't too bad really, though I wouldn't suggest using higher res lightmaps all over the place. Use it on the surfaces you need to to get the nice effects (eg the floors and walls you have used them on), but don't waste memory with hi-res lightmaps for surfaces that don't take advantage of them.