Source lighting, your best tips?

[Marcos]

Ello mapcore

Been fidling with an css map for some months now (pics will come here soon) and really enjoying mapping again. But, im still pretty newbie in the new Hammer and there is so much i havn't mastered yet. One thing is lighting.. Whenever i compile my map and run it, damn that light_enviorment looks booring. Normal lights made by the light entity dosnt really scream SEX! either :/

As i'm a big fan of lighting, please share your best tips regarding ligting in source! (and ofc any tips & tricks that's allways nice to know)

edit: yes i compile with HDR

[Punky]

You can use a point_spotlight or a light_spot or you can also create a special atmosphere to your map using an env_lightglow .

[Marcos]

Fast reply Thanks Punky

Yeah, been using the point_spotlight and light_spot. What does the env_lightglow do? Normal glow around a light?

Im very interesed in different settings, like the brightness HDR, brightnessScaleHDR, Ambient HDR ect. and any compile commands

[Sentura]

env_lightglow creates a realistic glow that dimishes the closer you get. valve themselves used these in hl2 at the end of the tunnels, though you can use them for anything (color changing is possible).

[Punky]

Yeah, they can also create cool sunset effects; heres an example of a it (the map was just a test I made a while back)the effect is way too strong though...

[dux]

Color correction and a combination of constant and linear on the light entities with a lightglow is what I used for drift, turned out ok.

[Seldoon182]

>< my eyes !

Seriously, I can't neigther share tips nor do the job for you. The best way to go, in my opinion, is test, test and test...

You can aslo check those links which are useful:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Adding_Light:fr

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Lightning

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... d_Lighting

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... ing_Basics

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... g_Settings

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Sky_List

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Lightmap

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Fog_tutorial

Good luck !

[PogoP]

I tend to use a low brightness 'light' entity about 32 or so units away from my light source, and a light_spot shining in the direction of my light.

I find you don't have to use lights in a way that would make sense in the real world. Let me explain. For example, if you have a light that emits in all directions from a wall, you would naturally think of just sticking a bright light entity in front of this light source. However, I use a low brightness light in front of it or a light_spot pointing AT the source, to show it is emitting in all directions; but then I also use as many light_spots as needed to create interesting shadows off things in the vicinity. For example, if there are railings nearby, I would use a strong light_spot and lower the lightmap of the texture that will have the railing shadow cast on it.

I'll go into more detail about lightmaps. These are very handy, something that will make your map look better than the 'newbie' style, as you mentioned. When you go to texture something, check out the 'lightmap' scale in the texture applicator. The lower this value, the sharp shadows will look on that particular face. So use this to create some nice shadows. The lowest I tend to use is 2, I think 1 is just too much. However, don't go mad with lowering your lightmap values, it will drastically increase the size of your map's BSP file. You can also raise the lightmap scale for faces that won't have much light cast on them, which will lower your BSP size.

I also do not tend to use env_lightglow. I like to use env_sprites and scale them up or down. I just think they look better in most cases. But I've not really messed with env_lightglows much, so I could be wrong. I suppose it's down to personal choice.

The colour of the light you should use is a hard thing to grasp too. For most lights, I tend to use an orangey/brown colour. It tends to look quite natural and doesn't wash out the area the light is in. Don't use particularly dark colours, drag the slider up towards the white, so that the light is close to white, with a hint of orange/brown. If you imagine the slider on the colour chart in Source as being in 8 segments, drag the slider down about 1, maybe 2 segments.

Also, for an added effect, stick a func_dustmote entity around your light source to show dust particles being lit up by the light. Don't make the particles really bright or big, just make them small and very slow moving. It's a subtle effect, but it really adds to the atmosphere of a map.

Most importantly, use your lights to highlight specific, important things in your map. If you have a doorway, try and incorporate a light above it so that people will be drawn towards it. People are drawn to light areas, so by having a medium/high contrast between light and dark areas is always a good thing. Also, stick to a specific colour palette. I tend to use yellow/oranges/browns and reds in my work, but it entirely depends on the level. As an example, do not stick a red light right next to a green light; it just won't look right. I guess that's just common sense though, really.

I hope those tips helped, I've picked them up over the past few months working on Black Mesa and my TF2 maps. However, the best thing for you to do is simply try it out, experiment and show us some pictures. Other people can constructively criticse your own work a lot better than you can by yourself (I don't mean that personally, I mean it for every level designer). Unless you're a god, like Hourences

Wow, that turned into an essay!

[Zacker]

I'll go into more detail about lightmaps. These are very handy, something that will make your map look better than the 'newbie' style, as you mentioned. When you go to texture something, check out the 'lightmap' scale in the texture applicator. The lower this value, the sharp shadows will look on that particular face. So use this to create some nice shadows. The lowest I tend to use is 2, I think 1 is just too much. However, don't go mad with lowering your lightmap values, it will drastically increase the size of your map's BSP file. You can also raise the lightmap scale for faces that won't have much light cast on them, which will lower your BSP size.

You only mention BSP size there, but another thing regarding high res lightmaps you should worry about is really the amount additional texture memory it takes. Most people have plenty of HDD space but a limited amount of gfx mem.

[2d-chris]

Lighting is ofcourse a trial and error thing, very much so in Source due to the lack of any real lighting preview.

Recently I've really put allot of thought into how best to light a scene, rather than slapping a few lights in i try to think about interesting shadows and light sources.

In this scene I created two windows with an exterior light source to make interesting shadows and contrast in the lighting. Also I used a coloured red light hidden away in a vent shaft (good olde cs style) to give the scene some interesting glow. I then use very gentle point lights of brightness (1 or 2) around and about to give some blue tints.

In this scene I tried to have a light source emiiting on all surfaces, but instead of a single big light source I used a combination of spot lights, ambient colour, moon brightness, point light ambients and another classic red styled spot light.

So the TIP here is try to light a scene from more than a single lightsource and colour, then consider how shadows will affect the scene and use high lightmap scales so you get lots of shadow detail.

When it comes to exterior day maps your often limited in terms of light sources, you have the sun and ambient, so make sure the settings you use are as good as you can make them! Instead of simply matching the light direction to the skybox texture adjust the environment light so it gives you the best effect. Slap in an env_sun where it should be and hey presto you have two suns! I'd be damned if anyone notices, if your that bothered make a new skybox, the lighting and shadows far outweighs the importance of a weird directional sun in the skybox texture.

[⌐■_■]

good thread with useful tips!

[dissonance]

I understand (correct me if I'm wrong) that lightmap sizes do not effect performance ingame, just filesize, but do they do anything to the amount of ram, either system or graphics, that is being used? tl;dr: do bigger lightmaps = more ram used?

[Pampers]

Way to many outdoor maps have their ambient lighting setting too low, creating an unnatural contrast between lit and shadowed areas, so it's important to play around with the different settings on the light_environment until you are happy with your result. Also, when placing fog in your map I would recommend setting the fog colour to something similar to the 2d skybox texture for best results

[m8nkey]

Some good tips in here.

Something vaguely related that I find useful is using displacements for curved surfaces, they result in much smoother lighting than brushes though light seams between displacements and brushes can also be difficult to hide.

The displacement toolset isn't very accomodating when it comes to geometry like cylinders or concave and convex arches. This tut has some useful techniques for quickly making displacement curves:

http://www.halflifestorm.com/?page=tutorials&tutorial=20

[Zacker]

I understand (correct me if I'm wrong) that lightmap sizes do not effect performance ingame, just filesize, but do they do anything to the amount of ram, either system or graphics, that is being used? tl;dr: do bigger lightmaps = more ram used?

Another thing regarding high res lightmaps you should worry about is really the amount additional texture memory it takes. Most people have plenty of HDD space but a limited amount of gfx mem.

So yes, they do affect the amount of texture memory used, which is usually stored on the gfx mem. If you hit the limit gfx mem limit here and it goes over and have to use the system memory, then you will get an ingame performance impact. In general you should treat lightmap memory performance concerns in the same way as you usually deal with textures and memory.