Map Lighting

I have been working on a map for awhile now(between 70 hour work weeks) and at every new posting I get comments about lighting. Now I work in the Movie biz and deal specifically with lighting on a daily basis. The trouble is, due to the limitations of the source engine, you cant light a map like in the real world, so you have to make short-cuts and learn little tricks which not everybody knows. I was wondering if you might be interested in a sort of contest. Not a contest actually, but more of a showcase. Pick (or create) a well structured room with lots of architecture and allow everyone to take it and light it as they seem fit.No limitations(such as light emitting textures or adding entities), but the architecture itself can't be altered. Save the finished product as "your name" so we know who did it. I know I could learn alot from you guys, and so could others. Bad idea? What do you think?

Great idea. Someone once said that "A great mapper can make a simple box look good using only lighting". I think that is true, lighting can make of break a map. Also, I like the idea of having a contest since it wouldn't take very long to do (compared to making a full map).

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http://maze5.net

Cool. So we need to find a map to light, or perhaps someone could export a favorite part of a map they made. I seem to recall several people made their vmf's public for others to use.

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Quote from Nietzsche....God is dead
Quote from God....Nietzsche is dead

Hmm, not a bad idea at all. Let's just do a part of a map, one or a few
rooms. Just an open kind of 'contest' to learn sounds great.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

yep good idea.

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

if it's hl1 i'm in :biggrin: i lurve lighting :biggrin:

( i've seen a similar thing happen in a contest over at twhl i think, but it was texturing , not lighting :smile: )

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Sounds supergreat, I think it would be coolest if we just set up
lighting in one particular scene using a camera to take photos from
exactly the same positions each time.

I actually have a scene that could be used. However it doesnt give very much of choice in terms of lighting.

If no one else posts a scene here ill make one during the weekend.

Damnit, I was intending to take a long break from mapping and then something interesting like this comes along! :smile:

I'll have a go over this week, but after that I can't do much (school connection you see).

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My site

Yeah, school is coming at me real fast now. And just now that I'm more
or less over my mapping block! I've got inspiration but probably not
the time now...

Nah, school's never been too busy last year... :wink:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

This sounds cool. I'd like to give it a go. I can't really think of a good room to use.

A brilliant idea, I hope it's taken up by the more talented/experienced members.

HL2 lighting, in all honesty is piss easy in most situations. Its only a situation of putting in spotlights (just like in the movie biz) but you can place your light anywhere without having to worry about anything! I find nice colours go well, especially if you can successfully use opposite ends of the spectrum, such as orange and green.

But then again it depends on the room completely.

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

Damn Juim, great idea. Too bad I'm going back to college tomorrow, otherwise I'd be really tempted to give it a shot.

On a side note, I really miss the ease of texture lighting in HL1. It's all I would ever use and I loved it.

Sounds like a good idea to me: really easy for anyone to participate,
and it's just throwing some lights on a map and seeing what works.This is all assuming the architecture is interesting enough, of course. :wink:

On a side note, I really miss the ease of texture lighting in HL1. It's all I would ever use and I loved it.

it's the same in HL2 m8

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

Nah it isn't, the whole conversion thing takes longer, its all long winded. They tried to make HL2 mapping easier than HL1 with customization being easier too, but they ended out making it harder!

Wads are far easier than what HL2 has (all those loose vtf's floating around, all messy).

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

Nah, I kinda like the materials system. It allows folders and
subfolders so you can organize as you want. Plus that materials now
have their own properties like decals, transparancy and all...

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Nah it isn't, the whole conversion thing takes longer, its all
long winded. They tried to make HL2 mapping easier than HL1 with
customization being easier too, but they ended out making it harder!
Wads are far easier than what HL2 has (all those loose vtf's floating around, all messy).

i agree that materials are more complicated (but thats logical if you
see what they are capable of now) but i was talking about texture
lighting specifically. thats really the same: you just put your texture
name in the lights.rad with color and brightness, et voila.

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

Nah, I kinda like the materials system. It allows folders and
subfolders so you can organize as you want. Plus that materials now
have their own properties like decals, transparancy and all...

Well, i think its very hard to make a more complicated game and at the
same time making it easier to create custom content to it.

Though i think it has been easier to create maps for hl2 except for the
much higher demand of details. Hammer v4 actually has some great
features that makes it easier to make maps.

Sorry guys.. Lots of stuff have popped up that I have to take care of,
which means that i will not have time to make the scene this weekend.