Does anyone use light instances in hammer?

[Vaya]

Hi

 

I'm pulling apart Valve maps to further my understanding of lighting on the source engine. 

 

I noticed that both GG_baggage and CS_office use instances for lighting

 

What are the benefits of this? Is it just consistency/time saving or is there more to it? 

 

Sorry there isn't much references I can find regarding light instances- just instanced brushwork for breaking up visgroups and allowing easier management of rotated/off grid geometry. 

 

Cheers

[spence]

It's mostly for consistency as you mentioned. If you want to change the color or intensity of a specific light fixture you can just update the values in the instance and it will apply those changes to every instance of that light. Otherwise you have to search through the map, create a group of specific lights, or use the entity reporter to make changes on many objects. 

Edited November 26, 2014 by spence

[Vaya]

Thanks