I heard there was a way to put a different texture on the backs of shaders. The reason I ask, is because I don’t like the way the trees in my map are being lit. If I can do that, how would I make them darker? I know how to brighten things in a map, but not darken them. lol Is the problem with the model? I mean, what if you let the leaves be culled, but add another slab of material on the back for viewing from that direction. Will that alone fix it?
Remove “cull none” from your leaf shader.
Add “q3map_cloneShader path/to/new/shader”
Create an identical copy of your shader, but append “_back” to the name.
Instead of “q3map_cloneShader” the backside shader has “q3map_invert”
Example:
models/mapobjects/multiplant/fern
{
qer_editorImage models/mapobjects/multiplant/fern.tga
qer_alphaFunc gequal 0.5
q3map_cloneShader models/mapobjects/multiplant/fern_back
surfaceparm alphashadow
surfaceparm pointlight
surfaceparm trans
{
map models/mapobjects/multiplant/fern.tga
rgbGen vertex
alphaFunc GE128
depthWrite
}
}
models/mapobjects/multiplant/fern_back
{
q3map_invert
// note: no alphashadow because the front takes care of this
surfaceparm pointlight
surfaceparm trans
{
map models/mapobjects/multiplant/fern.tga
rgbGen vertex
alphaFunc GE128
depthWrite
}
}
y
Cool. Now all you need is some bounced light or some skylight in your sky to fill in that pitch black, and then you’ll be rockin and rollin.
Yeah, I’m still tweaking that. 
What you see there is this:
q3map_sunExt 241 190 165 120 270 16 3 16
q3map_lightmapFilterRadius 0 64
q3map_skyLight 25 2
I assume qer_alphaFunc allows for the use of alpha channels on blended textures in the editor? I tried adding it to a shader using a texture with an alpha channel, but it didn’t seem to work. What am I doing wrong and how is this different from qer_trans 1.0 + qer_editorImage?
Use these light parameters:
q3map_sunExt 241 190 165 120 270 16 3 16
q3map_skyLight 120 4
Don’t use the filtering, as it looks shoddy on nonplanar stuff like terrain.
y
Ok, it’s starting to look a lot better. What you see in the following screens is:
q3map_sunExt 241 190 165 120 270 14 3 16
q3map_skyLight 45 4
But, there are still issues. I’m using Q3map2 2.5.11 with the following commands for light from Q3mapToolz:
“C:\Program Files\GtkRadiant-1.4\q3map2.exe” -light -fast -patchshadows -bounce 8 -super 2
This screenshot shows jaggedness on the terrain. Here is a sample of the terrain shader:
textures/ww_mg3/terrain_3
{
q3map_nonplanar
q3map_shadeangle 180
q3map_lightmapsamplesize 24
q3map_lightmapsampleoffset 4
q3map_lightmapaxis z
//q3map_texturesize 512 512
q3map_tcGen ivector ( 384 0 0 ) ( 0 384 0 )
{
map textures/ww_machogrande/kb_redrock2.jpg
}
{
map $lightmap
blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
tcGen lightmap
}
}
textures/ww_mg3/terrain_0to1
{
q3map_nonplanar
q3map_shadeangle 180
q3map_lightmapsamplesize 24
q3map_lightmapsampleoffset 4
q3map_lightmapaxis z
//q3map_texturesize 512 512
q3map_tcGen ivector ( 384 0 0 ) ( 0 384 0 )
{
map textures/ww_machogrande/kb_redrock.jpg
}
{
map textures/ww_machogrande/ma_redground.jpg
alphaGen vertex
blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
}
{
map $lightmap
blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
tcGen lightmap
}
}
The next screenshot shows how the shadows for the plants are bigger than the plants themselves. It makes it look sort of cartoonish. Here is a plant shader:
textures/ww_machogrande/models/reeds02
{
qer_editorimage textures/ww_machogrande/models/reeds02.tga
q3map_cloneShader textures/ww_machogrande/models/reeds02_back
q3map_forcemeta
q3map_lightmapsamplesize 20
q3map_lightmapGamma 1
surfaceparm alphashadow
surfaceparm nomarks
//cull none
{
map textures/ww_machogrande/models/reeds02.tga
rgbgen identity
alphaFunc GE128
}
{
map $lightmap
blendFunc filter
rgbgen identity
alphaFunc GE128
}
}
This one shows how my river looks milky in the dark areas of the map.
Looking at the shader, I guess it’s not being lightmapped? Can, or should it be?
///WATER from Pazur's custom RTCW map mp_natterbase
textures/ww_machogrande/mg_river
{
allowCompress
qer_editorimage textures/ww_machogrande/fluss_seq.tga
//qer_trans .5
q3map_globaltexture
//deformVertexes wave 128 sin 0 1 0 .3
surfaceparm trans
surfaceparm nonsolid
surfaceparm nomarks
surfaceparm nolightmap
//cull disable
sort 8
surfaceparm nomarks
{
map textures/ww_machogrande/water_fluss.tga
blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
rgbgen identity
tcmod scale .5 .5
tcmod scroll -.24 .00
tcmod turb .01 .05 0 .125
}
{
animMap 6 textures/ww_machogrande/fluss_seq.tga textures/ww_machogrande/fluss_seq1.tga textures/ww_machogrande/fluss_seq2.tga textures/ww_machogrande/fluss_seq3.tga
blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
tcmod scroll -.07 .00
tcmod turb .01 .035 0 .25
tcmod stretch sin 1 .005 0 .06
tcmod scroll -.05 .00
}
}
Sorry for all the questions. Maybe I’m lazy, as I immediately go directly to the source!
I turned off alphashadow on the back shaders, but I think it’s casting a non-alpha’d shadow anyway. See this screenshot, and let me know what you think. The shadow looks bigger than the model which is casting it! I guess I’ll try enabling alphashadow on the back shaders too.
Make sure the back shader has “surfaceparm trans” otherwise it won’t be invisible to light.
y
Also, use the absolute latest version of Q3Map2. It has fixes that address problems you’re having, in particular bugs with cloneShader/invert and q3map_skyLight.
Your skylight brightness is way too low, incidentally.
Cool thank you.
About the skylight though, what do you suggest I use for a sunset map? The settings you suggested made it look like high noon. Should I raise the sunlight and skylight, so it retains the same contrast?
Just try different numbers, increasing brightness here and there until it’s the right balance.