use of lightgrid textured brushes

(Gringo Starr) #1

How does the compiler handle multiple lightgrid textured brushes? Can you have 2 of them right up against each other and not cause problems? Or, does each area have to be a single brush? I’ll test it if I have time, and post the results.

(rgoer) #2

I’m pretty sure you can have as many lightgrid brushes as you want, and Q3Map2 will only calculate the lightgrid within the space defined by that volume.

(Gringo Starr) #3

Cool. Do you think the seem between two brushes will cause problems?

(Mr_Tickles) #4

It shouldn’t do, I had a light shining on a floor and it was drawn onto the next room’s floor aswell, the floors weren’t joined, they even had a space between them with a vertical wall separating the two brushes and the light was still drawn across both. However, this was because the two floors were in the same plane, to cure it I had to off-set one of the planes. If the seam is between two non-planar brushes you could use the “q3map_nonplanar” and " q3map_shadeangle 60" lines in the shader, however i’m not totally sure that they would work for this.

(Gringo Starr) #5

Well, the lightgrid is an entirely different animal, but thanks for the info. :slight_smile:

(Mr_Tickles) #6

Oh, sorry. Where can I read up on all these concepts? The LDR and Shader Manual are great, but it would be good to get my teeth into the principal concepts of lightmaps, lightgrids, … other stuff.

(Gringo Starr) #7

I’m not sure that I’ve read anything that comprehensive on the topic of lighting. I’m not saying the literature doesn’t exist. I can tell you where I learned what I know. A mentor (in my case Hewster), taught me quite a bit about mapping. That’s the good thing about working on a mod, you have a “goto guy” to work with, rather than just studying source maps (not implying anything about SD, because I don’t really know how much support there is for ET, as I’ve yet to map for it! :slight_smile: ) Also, finding a good forum to ask questions. I learned a hell of a lot over at www.TramDesign.net, but I don’t think their ET forum has taken off. Of course we’re posting in a really good one. But what it really comes down to, is having a specific problem to solve. My first map, for example, I had problems with players being too dark (which I realized only from feedback). I tried increasing the sunlight, but to no avail. So, I was forced to learn a bit about the lightgrid and the use of lightjuniors (although I found out it was space below my terrain which messed up the grid, and ended up deleting the lightjuniors I put in). I then learned the command /cg_thirdperson 1 to see how the player was being lit, rather than just looking at arms and a gun. I learned about VIS because my first map performed poorly (and some may argue it still does :wink: ). So having a real problem to solve, rather than just setting out to learn concepts, helped me focus.

(Gringo Starr) #8

Wow! I just checked out the ET Level Designer’s Reference, and from a glance it is real comprehensive. Very nice work.

(SCDS_reyalP) #9

AFAIK, the lightgrid is only defined as an axis aligned rectangle. So while you could use multiple brushes, it is probably clearer to just use one large one.

(Gringo Starr) #10

Thanks reyalP, but the thing is, I’m using a 64x64x64 grid in my current work in progress. So just a little bit of trimming could probably save a MB or 2 in BSP size. I’ll try clipping the useless corners off of it, and let you know if it saves BSP size.