light_spot issues

I'm having some issues with light_spots in Hammer 4 - When I compile my map, they aren't casting any er, light. I've noticed that in-editor, each has a little thing to mark their range, and I've deducted that this range marker has to in fact hit some brushes or something to light them. However, it's a rather short range marker for my purposes and I want the range to be farther - Is there some way to adjust this? I've played with the "Maximum Distance" field and it seems to do nothing, and there appear to be no other fields to adjust the range.

This might be a bit obvious, but perhaps the range is directly related to the brightness?

I've had problems with them too, but havent had time to tinker much.
You could play around with the Constant, Linear and Quadratic fields,
which determine the relative fall off rates of the light, and see if
they make any difference. You might also want to try making an
info_target or something as the light_spot's entity to point at, just
in case it helps. I'd be interested in hearing an answer as to why they
aren't working properly as well.

I'm not having any such problems with light_spots. Consider making it brighter or setting the Max Range to Zero.

The problem might be that we dont have the full sdk yet.

No, range hasn't been related to brightness - I've set the brightness to 1000, 2000, 100, whatever, and it still won't show up. I'll make a test map and experiment with the Constant, Linear and Quadratics and see what I can figure out.

Not the full SDK? This might explain why extra RAD makes my map come out full bright...

Nope, it comes out fullbright because -extra isn't a valid option in
the new compile tools yet hammer gives you the option of setting it.
Extra seems to be run by default in RAD now and you need to turn it off
rather than turn it on. Just set it to normal and it should work
properly.

Hi. :dorky:

I have created a spot_light in one of my test maps, and in "target_to_point_at" (or something like that) i put the name of a "info_node" entity (where i wanted the light to point at). And the light worked fine for me, i did not play with range yet...

i noticed alsos, that the lights needs to have a name... :rolleyes:

No problems compiling with all options "normal" ... BSP, VIS & RAD. :smile:

I hope that helps, if i am not wrong, i don't have installed hammer in this machine... Be easy with me, and sorry about my bad english... i am from spain

What's wrong with your English? It's clear and concise. You're more of an effective communicater than some people whose English is their native language.

I believe people are always more critical of themselves than they deserve.

Awww, how lovely.

People getting along and being friendly! :smile:

bump

You light_spot needs to target and info_target. The info_target must have the "target name" of the direction you want the light_spot to aim at.

And has someone already said this?

hehehe, thanks i try to learn better english every day. :smile:

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<TD style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; COLOR: gold" bgColor=black>? posted by G.Ballblue</TD>
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You light_spot needs to target and info_target. The info_target must have the "target name" of the direction you want the light_spot to aim at.

And has someone already said this?

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Yes, i tried it with "info_target" too. Maybe the best entity is "info_target" and not "info_node" as i said. Anyway it works in both ways. I have not tested range things yet.

See you all

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting ReNo</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Nope, it comes out fullbright because -extra isn't a valid option in the new compile tools yet hammer gives you the option of setting it. Extra seems to be run by default in RAD now and you need to turn it off rather than turn it on. Just set it to normal and it should work properly.
</DIV></DIV>

it`s still fullbright here and i tried it with the target entity & a lightspot, but i still dont see any lights , only the whole map in fullbright light :sad:

If it's fullbright then you haven't run RAD on your map successfully, check your compile log.

If you are running a map with no lighting, the game will set mat_fullbright 1 which will affect all maps until you restart the game, or use a -mat_fullbright 0 console command to turn it off.

Thought I'd add my question here since I have a similar problem...

I started lighting my first level last night and i made a few different kinds of lights (so far .. so good).

I picked the light entity and started copying/pasting it to different places on my map. But only the first one actually emits any light! As far as i can tell I don't have any compile errors.

There's also some other weirdness. I added two spotlights in one area and they were working fine. Then I deleted all the non working light entities i created and remade them manually. Now my spotlights aren't working either!

I'm really really new, so this is probably some simple mistake. Any ideas?

also: my map is HL2:DM if that matters

Ok, I found that lights don't work if they intersect a brush. I had them halfway into the walls and moving them into the area fixed it.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting satchmo</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext> You're more of an effective communicater than some people whose English is their native language.</DIV></DIV>

Case in point:

G.Ballblue said:
You light_spot needs to target and info_target. The info_target must have the "target name" of the direction you want the light_spot to aim at.