Well ive practically finished making an escape map for zm mod, and im at the lighting stage.

I have a strange problem where my walls have bright light spots on them shown in the picture below -

http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zmmacdescapearcticrig61ag8.jpg

The wall on the left is the standard 0.25 x 0.25 texture, whilst the wall on the right is a "fit" size texture, as you can see the problem affects both walls.

The funny thing about this problem is this -

1) Ive tried lighting the map with a light_environment and no other light entites, and the problem is there

2) Ive tried lighting the map with one white light (constant 500000, linear 50000) and no light_environement and the problem is still there.

3) Ive tried lighting the map with 64, 32 and 16 lightmap scales, and yes, youve guessed it the problem is STILL there.

Can anybody offer any explanation as to why this is happening please, im really baffled by it.

I'm not totally sure, but try leaving the "Constant" "Linear" and "Quadratic" keyvalues blank (default) for your lights. Just give your lights a brightness setting only (the fourth group of numbers in the "Brightness" keyvalue. Default is 200) and see what happens. Also, it could be a leak in your map. Fix any leaks and then come back if the problem persists.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

The problem happens if i light the map using only the light_environemt entity and no light entities.It also happens if i put one light entity in and dont use the light_environment.It happens if i use both.

I have narrowed the problem down though.

The walls are displacements. If i make them normal walls then the lighting is fine. If i change the power of the displacement i get more spots with a higher power.

EG power 2 = the screenshot you see, power 3 = more spots and power 4 = alot of spots.

Im pretty sure it has something to do with the displacement brush and not the lighting.

My map doesnt have any leaks or any errors at all btw.

<div class="abouttext">Message submitted 7 minutes after original post:</b></div>
My compile log btw -

** Executing...
** Command: "d:\valve\steamapps\dsswoosh@blueyonder.co.uk\sourcesdk\bin\vbsp.exe"
** Parameters: -game "d:\valve\steamapps\dsswoosh@blueyonder.co.uk\counter-strike source\cstrike" "D:\CSSMAPS\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68"

Valve Software - vbsp.exe (Dec 11 2006)
1 threads
materialPath: d:\valve\steamapps\dsswoosh@blueyonder.co.uk\counter-strike source\cstrike\materials
Loading D:\CSSMAPS\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.vmf
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (0)
Chop Details...done (0)
Find Visible Detail Sides...done (0)
Merging details...done (0)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (1)
writing D:\CSSMAPS\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.prt...done (0)
Creating default cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials:
skybox/sky_day01_07*.vmt
Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps.

No such variable "$hdrbasetexture" for material "skybox/sky_day01_07rt"
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_day01_07 to build the default cubemap!
Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Building Physics collision data...
done (37) (503628 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 1330 texinfos to 1093
Reduced 26 texdatas to 24 (639 bytes to 499)
Writing D:\CSSMAPS\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.bsp
1 minute, 52 seconds elapsed

** Executing...
** Command: "d:\valve\steamapps\dsswoosh@blueyonder.co.uk\sourcesdk\bin\vvis.exe"
** Parameters: -game "d:\valve\steamapps\dsswoosh@blueyonder.co.uk\counter-strike source\cstrike" -fast "D:\CSSMAPS\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68"

Valve Software - vvis.exe (May 22 2006)
fastvis = true
1 threads
reading d:\cssmaps\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.bsp
reading d:\cssmaps\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.prt
264 portalclusters
507 numportals
BasePortalVis: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Optimized: 1706 visible clusters (0.00%)
Total clusters visible: 43278
Average clusters visible: 163
Building PAS...
Average clusters audible: 262
visdatasize:19224 compressed from 21120
writing d:\cssmaps\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.bsp
0 seconds elapsed

** Executing...
** Command: "d:\valve\steamapps\dsswoosh@blueyonder.co.uk\sourcesdk\bin\vrad.exe"
** Parameters: -game "d:\valve\steamapps\dsswoosh@blueyonder.co.uk\counter-strike source\cstrike" -noextra "D:\CSSMAPS\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68"

Valve Software - vrad.exe SSE (May 22 2006)
----- Radiosity Simulator ----
1 threads
[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[1 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']

Loading d:\cssmaps\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.bsp
6059 faces
1153706 square feet [166133680.00 square inches]
95 displacements
1096389 square feet [157880080.00 square inches]
6059 patches before subdivision
19265 patches after subdivision
2 direct lights
BuildFacelights: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (112)
BuildVisLeafs: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (85)
transfers 1300089, max 401
transfer lists: 9.9 megs
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #1 added RGB(19071, 33825, 39954)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #2 added RGB(4562, 8804, 11161)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #3 added RGB(1000, 2088, 2815)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #4 added RGB(258, 589, 860)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #5 added RGB(67, 166, 262)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #6 added RGB(19, 51, 88)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #7 added RGB(5, 16, 30)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #8 added RGB(2, 5, 11)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Bounce #9 added RGB(1, 2, 4)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #10 added RGB(0, 1, 2)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #11 added RGB(0, 0, 1)
Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.0622 sec>
FinalLightFace: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (9)
FinalLightFace Done
0 of 0 (0% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes.
ComputePerLeafAmbientLighting: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Ready to Finish

Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
------------ --------------- --------------- --------
models 41/1024 1968/49152 ( 4.0%)
brushes 761/8192 9132/98304 ( 9.3%)
brushsides 10985/65536 87880/524288 (16.8%)
planes 21370/65536 427400/1310720 (32.6%)
vertexes 10410/65536 124920/786432 (15.9%)
nodes 3438/65536 110016/2097152 ( 5.2%)
texinfos 1093/12288 78696/884736 ( 8.9%)
texdata 24/2048 768/65536 ( 1.2%)
dispinfos 95/0 16720/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_verts 2903/0 58060/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_tris 4000/0 8000/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_lmsamples 178392/0 178392/0 ( 0.0%)
faces 6059/65536 339304/3670016 ( 9.2%)
hdr faces 0/65536 0/3670016 ( 0.0%)
origfaces 5552/65536 310912/3670016 ( 8.5%)
leaves 3480/65536 111360/2097152 ( 5.3%)
leaffaces 7029/65536 14058/131072 (10.7%)
leafbrushes 1883/65536 3766/131072 ( 2.9%)
areas 2/256 16/2048 ( 0.8%)
surfedges 60731/512000 242924/2048000 (11.9%)
edges 33656/256000 134624/1024000 (13.1%)
LDR worldlights 2/8192 176/720896 ( 0.0%)
HDR worldlights 0/8192 0/720896 ( 0.0%)
waterstrips 563/32768 5630/327680 ( 1.7%)
waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%)
waterindices 12174/65536 24348/131072 (18.6%)
cubemapsamples 0/1024 0/16384 ( 0.0%)
overlays 0/512 0/180224 ( 0.0%)
LDR lightdata [variable] 604944/0 ( 0.0%)
HDR lightdata [variable] 0/0 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 19224/16777216 ( 0.1%)
entdata [variable] 22138/393216 ( 5.6%)
LDR leaf ambient 3480/65536 83520/1572864 ( 5.3%)
HDR leaf ambient 0/65536 0/1572864 ( 0.0%)
occluders 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder polygons 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder vert ind 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
detail props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%)
static props [variable] 1/636 ( 0.2%)
pakfile [variable] 10760/0 ( 0.0%)

Level flags = 0

Win32 Specific Data:
physics [variable] 503628/4194304 (12.0%)

Total Win32 BSP file data space used: 3533286 bytes

Total triangle count: 21875
Writing d:\cssmaps\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.bsp
3 minutes, 29 seconds elapsed

** Executing...
** Command: Copy File
** Parameters: "D:\CSSMAPS\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.bsp" "d:\valve\steamapps\dsswoosh@blueyonder.co.uk\counter-strike source\cstrike\maps\zm_macd_escape_arctic_rig_68.bsp"

Does this anomaly appear on all of the displacement surfs or just these two? They look rather large, try splitting them into a few smaller displacements.
Try running full vis.
Do the spots correspond to the displacement vertices?

And it's worth noting that Constant=500000, Linear=50000 is the same as Constant=10, Linear=1, since the values are scaled based on the brightness/intensity setting, which is the intensity at 100 units away from the light's origin.

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o

I found the solution thanks to another guy i searched with the same problem.

Vrad cant handle large terrain surfaces by default and needs the -LargeDispSampleRadius added to the command line parameters

I knew it wasnt something id done wrong :smile: