again Night..

(Segbroek) #1

Can somebody please tell me how to make a night level… i really need to… (Operation Chariot)… is it something in the worldspawn or something? :???:

Thanks in advance :banana:

(sock) #2

The game already contains night style maps : Goldrush and Radar. The map goldrush is with the SD editor as an example to help you out with ET mapping.

Sock
:moo:

(Segbroek) #3

don’t get it… look at goldrush & then? :???:

(Danyboy) #4

hmm if your don’t know how to make a map night or day - oh dear - but im not here to say things like that :stuck_out_tongue:

The diff between what makes your life day + night is the sky - so in ET if you want to run a map at midday - u choose a sky that appears to be midday

anyway - create a sky for your map - 1 brush that spans the entire ceiling of your map - then - borwse textures/skies or skies_sd and hey presto you get a list of all skies - pick a sky texture that looks like nightime - and make sure the texture has a white line around it in the texture subset window

here endeth the lesson - unless you still dont understand and ill simplify my response :stuck_out_tongue:

(redfella) #5

Ure lighting effects will also need to reflect the time of day. For example, if ure doing a night map you will obviously need to make sure u create lights for a streetlamp model. And also perhaps map objects to need to be of concern… Ie. using a ‘closed’ sign in the barber shop window instead of an ‘open’ sign.

Just use common sense and ull be set.

:eek2:

(cicero) #6

read the earlier post but I have one question… Will changeing the sky to a nightsky also mean that the brightnes of textures will change? You obviusly don’t want a nightsky and full bright textures on you walls…

(Loffy) #7

I can tell you what I did. It gives some insight to this, i hope.
I made a map with the key: ambient and the value: 200 in the worldspawn. (You can open the worldspawn by selecting a brush, like a wall, and pressing the letter “N”.)
I made a skybox (surrounding my map area) and applied a sky texture to it. I applied “wurzburg”. I dont remember the exact name. But it is called wurzburg-something. You will find it under the menu Textures. Just drag down to “skies_sd”.
Anyhow, the map looked nice, but the light was to … hm… It was crappy. I didnt have the “cool” looks, like some of the better maps out there.
Then I removed the key: ambient and the value: 200 (in the worldspawn).
That made some walls (outside) much darker.
But the overall impression was that the map became better (outside). The light from the sky made some nice shadows on the ground.
I tossed in some extra light here and there, where the map was too dark.

So, if you change the lightning in a map (like you describe). For example, if you change the sky. Or if you remove ambient light and add a few light entities (like I did), you will get darker/brighter textures. The house walls, for example, will become darker/lighter. Even if the texture by itself still is the same.

I stay away from ambient light. I use lights entities, light textures (like some of the lamp textures) and sky shaders instead.

// Loffy

(cicero) #8

well I almost got it…THX!

The skybox you’re refering to, is that the box that contains the whole world? If so I think I got it… I’ve made a box out of caulk surrounding my whole world, hollowed it out and added a night texture to the sides visible in the map. So then I shall select one brush and in the key field write ambient and value shall be for exampel 200 as you wrote… If this is so then I got it. One thing, does it work like 100 means darker and 500 much brighter? Then what is default?

THX!!

(Loffy) #9

Yes, the box is the big box that completely surrounds the world. You can apply sky texture on the insides of this box. Ofcourse, you dont have to do this on the bottom, because there is terrain ontop of that bottom. So the bottom is not visible for the player. And, it would perhaps look silly of there was a sky in the bottom. :slight_smile:
Yes, you can select a brush in your map (not an entity, just a brush). Then press “N”. You will see that it is a worldspawn. And then enter Key: ambient, Value: 20. Higher number = more ambient light.
But, as I said, sometimes ambient light is un-cool. it gives an overall light to the map (which is nice) but the risk is that you will have a dull and boring map. The map looks boring because there are no contrast, no cool shadows, and it looks… un-cool.
In sum: It is hard to decide what is the best strategy for your map when it comes to light. Try ambient light. If you like it, then you keep it. But you can also try making a map with a nice sky texture (like the Radar sky, called wurzburg-something) and some lights here and there (and no ambient light). Try and experiment.
// L.

(Danyboy) #10

Pleeease stop giving this bad advice!

Do not set your ambient to anything over 20 (at a max)

The higher the ambient lighting the duller your shadows will be and in turn the duller your spectrum of colours.

(cicero) #11

okej…and what would the typical ambient light be on a dark evening? What is default ambient light?

(Danyboy) #12

if i make night maps i dont have ambient light - simply because there is no light apart from artificial lights

Its a painstaking process of BSP compilation and adding models and light entities - soz

For a night map though go for 0-10 ish if u need ambient lighting and make colour slightly orange as if given off from any artifical lights thay may be near

(cicero) #13

How do I change colour of ambient light? Just selecting a brush and pretend that it is a light entities, and then enter ambient + value?

(Danyboy) #14

ambient lighting is done through worldspawn

here are keys and value needed:

ambient 12
_colour 0.5 0.5 0.5 (those are the RGB values like in light entities)

(Stektr33) #15

While it on this topic I want to shoot my question out there.
_color seems like the acceptable values are 0 thru 1, am I correct?
I’ve always been accustomed to something like 0-255. Can someone clear this up for me?? Thx.

BTW, I’m doing a night map on high mountains, but I did add some ambience, just to give it a little little umphf in the light department. I did something like ambient=.1 (some low value like that)…is it not even worth it to even add that? I have lighting all over the place, to give my map night elements.