-dark question

(Q.) #1

While trying out newly added switches to q3map2, I found one switch which did nothing special, “-dark.”
So here is a question.
What the hell did ydnar mean by unreal1-ish in his readme?
And what is the main intention of this implementation?
Thanks in advance.

(phobos) #2

The original Unreal used point light sources almost exclusively. One characteristic of them was very harsh shadows at the edges of a cubed room, where the light fell off ver sharply. Overall, the original Unreal engine games and licenses all looked very similar because of the lighting.

Often amateur mappers would just stick in a few default point lights, placed in the center of box-maps and release. It looked ugly.

There were additional options that helped, like high-detail-corners and ambient settings, but generally lighting wasn’t all that advanced, even though expert mappers never let that stop them (I myself made some thouroughly impressive outdoor maps from arrays of point lights and spotlights).

-dark gives more harsh shadows at the edge of the light’s falloff. This may help with maps needing high contrast or dirty shadows.

(Q.) #3

Thank you phobos for your explanation.
I’m not sure this switch is commonly or generally used or not.
But maybe not. :smiley: