How to 'naturally' light up Xen maps
A problem with Xen maps is what you do for light sources. Your bog-standard light fixtures (as with health and suit chargers) will just stick out like sore thumbs due to their technological nature. So to get around this, there are two methods commonly used to make lights- by making crystals or using special bioluminescent plants.
Tie some crystal looking solids into func_wall entities (try making some spikes, then carve/clip their points off, and rotate them around a bit- so it looks like someone's teeth after they've been smacked in the mouth, perhaps!). Good textures to use are the various "crys_" textures found in xeno.wad. These look best when slightly transparent, so set their render mode to texture and FX amount any value you want (perhaps around 150).
These on their own won't give off any light, unless you've added the names of these crystal textures to your lights.rad file (i.e. made them into light emitting textures), so add a light entity near the crystals that emit the right colour. Finally, create a halo around the light using an env_glow, placed just inside the tip of the largest crystals for the best effect, with the following properties:
render mode: additive
FX amount: 150
FX color: (same colour as light entity)
sprite name: sprites/glow01.spr
If you don't fancy making loads of fancy crystals, then just opt for the easier way and use a special Xen entity instead. Place a xen_plantlight entity on a surface somewhere (like xen_hair entities you don't need to set the directional arrow unless they're hanging off the ceiling or wall). Just set the FX color field and make it target a light entity nearby that emits the same colour. These entities react to the player coming close to them, so by doing the above the light will turn off when the player comes too close and the plant retracts into itself.
Crystals:
Tie some crystal looking solids into func_wall entities (try making some spikes, then carve/clip their points off, and rotate them around a bit- so it looks like someone's teeth after they've been smacked in the mouth, perhaps!). Good textures to use are the various "crys_" textures found in xeno.wad. These look best when slightly transparent, so set their render mode to texture and FX amount any value you want (perhaps around 150).
These on their own won't give off any light, unless you've added the names of these crystal textures to your lights.rad file (i.e. made them into light emitting textures), so add a light entity near the crystals that emit the right colour. Finally, create a halo around the light using an env_glow, placed just inside the tip of the largest crystals for the best effect, with the following properties:
render mode: additive
FX amount: 150
FX color: (same colour as light entity)
sprite name: sprites/glow01.spr
Light Plants:
If you don't fancy making loads of fancy crystals, then just opt for the easier way and use a special Xen entity instead. Place a xen_plantlight entity on a surface somewhere (like xen_hair entities you don't need to set the directional arrow unless they're hanging off the ceiling or wall). Just set the FX color field and make it target a light entity nearby that emits the same colour. These entities react to the player coming close to them, so by doing the above the light will turn off when the player comes too close and the plant retracts into itself.
