several thoughts on this…
a) The question whether a light entity shows up or not should NOT be connected to most of what u discussed. Its still a riddle to me why the lights won’t show up. I d love to try a compile of that map myself and check the compile logfile. And I still don’t know what version of q3map2 you are using, and the way you describe your compiling process makes me wonder about how you actually compile. It can well be that your compile is crooked.
b) Lights won’t have a real impact on the FPS. They are compile-time entities, not runtime-entities. (This is diff with the doom3 engine where light seems to be the fps-dropping factor iirc.)
c) Your rock looks wierd… try go get a bit of a decent mountainrange done with EasyGen or FATE.
d) If you want a bit of basic light even in the shadowy areas I recommend you use key/value: ambient / 10 and k/v: _color / 1 1 1 in the worldspawn. I know lots of ppl say “ambient flattens out your map” but if you use a low value its perfect to get rid of the total dark areas imo. TheRiver II Redux uses ambient 14 and i m very happy with its lighting. (NEVER get the idea of using the gamma switch in q3map2 btw.)
If you are unsure on whether an ambient of 10 is too much: disable the skyshader which is your light source and see how dim your map will be with the ambient alone. However if you use the skyshader i m posting below it will be a lot brighter than the ambient of 10 or 12 and there s no “washing out”.
e) Your sky-shader is too old. The latest q3map2-versions can do much more and better stuff. Try this skyshader:
textures/river2nd_t/rv2ndsky_011
{
qer_editorimage textures/river2nd_t/rv2ndsky_011.jpg
q3map_sunExt 1 .95 .9 65 60 55 3 16 //color intensity-65 degree elevation deviance samples
q3map_lightmapFilterRadius 0 8
q3map_skylight 50 3
skyparms - 128 - //low value >> more curved sky
surfaceparm sky
surfaceparm noimpact
surfaceparm nolightmap
surfaceparm nodlight
nopicmip
{
map textures/river2nd_t/rv2ndsky_011.jpg
rgbGen identity
}
{
map textures/river2nd_t/rv2ndsky_011.jpg
blendfunc blend
rgbGen identity
tcMod scroll 0.002 0.001
tcMod scale 1.4 1.4
}
}
Its from the map mp_theriver_2nd or The River II. Yea its the predecessor of TheRiver II Redux, but on Redux i use fog, so you r well away with this shader. The shader has 2 scrolling blends, so you can put in the path to the fueldump clouds if you like.
The parameters for q3map_sunExt are
color - in rgb colors
intensity - says it all
degree elevation - for simulating the sun position, and you only need these 2 parameters, 90 90 would mean its noon and the sun is exactly above you
deviance samples - for penumbra shadowcasting (=soft edges)
f) What are your settings in your worldspawn? Maybe you have some weird stuff in there that gives you the trouble with your lights.
@ slayer: I think your tune wasn’t the right one when helping.
But one thing is true: ppl often don’t exactly post their problem or what they tried to solve the prob. That s why others have to ask a lot of questions to get a clue or ppl give tips that are not helpful.
