Lighting

[Half-Life_Maniac]

I feel like a n00b again...

I just can't get my lights looking right in TF2. The way we always used to do it in Half-Life was to use texture lights. Plain old light and light_spot entities were'nt used as much. Now it seems in TF2, light_spots are all there are. Looking at the VALVe maps, all I see is light_spots everywhere- all placed just below their prop models. Not a standard light entity in sight.

However, when I try this, what I end up with is in the case of a wall light, the surrounding area getting moderately lit, but the wall behind the light and the ceiling hardly getting lit at all. Also the props stay dark in some cases.

I've set the brightness up to 1000 on some of my lights, but it still doesn't seem enough.

So, any tips for lighting in Source??

[Buster Charlie]

I used some point lights, depending on the effect I want. You can also use texture lights (especially for fluorescents, check out some of the valve ones). Try checking out how the valve lights work.

The key I think to having the spot lights work for general lighting is having multiple light sources, this and radiosity bounces tend to even things out a bit.

My advice is to copy some of the TF2 lights and see how they tick, and also create small test rooms or quardon off an area to do quick rad checks. I leave TF2 running in minimized mode, do a quick compile, alt-tab to TF2 to try it out, then disconnect and repeat. Leaving both programs open at the same time (if you have a fast machine) can really save some time in this way.

[Half-Life_Maniac]

That's pretty much what I've been doing, minimised TF2 included- which is quite painful for my computer. Bloody Hammer is more of a strain than the actual game...

I was thinking about making a test room trying out all different types of lighting. Suppose I'll just have to do that.

[Logo]

From what I've seen with the Valve lights is they tend to use dark colored (almost black) lights with very high brightness and a slight color tint to get the effects they want.

Also make sure you have a logic_auto controlling your HDR settings (if you're running in HDR especially) otherwise you'll get out of control blooms and contrasts between light and dark.

[Hawk]

Half-Life_Maniac, you're dealing with the exact same thing I am right now. Keep us posted on what you find, and I'll post any of my findings.

Offhand I've found that looking closely at Valve maps can get you gorgeous-looking outdoor lighting. But the indoor stuff is a challenge, and I'm getting the same results you are... dark ceilings and some spotlights that seemingly do nothing even when at 2000 brightness.

[Nizzem]

Looking at the VALVe maps, all I see is light_spots everywhere- all placed just below their prop models. Not a standard light entity in sight.

This is true on 2fort because there is no ceiling, so majority of the light is received from the light environment. If you take a look at the indoors of cp_well where there isn't environmental light they use standard light entities throughout, usually with a brightness of 500. (You can see this for yourself at the second last cap point) (the last cap point is open to the sky box because of the rocket)

My advice to you would be try and use outside as a light source. If not, use spotlights and standard lights to fill in the gaps.

[Scoobingsthe2nd]

if you increase the outward angle to like 75, the lights cover a hell of a lot more area and seem to bounce around more. HAve you tried that?

[Half-Life_Maniac]

Looks like increasing the inner and outer angles to around 60-80 helped a lot. In some cases I've also had to add dim lights near the floor that shine upwards, underneath the real lights.