Portal 2 and lighting the rooms

Portal 2 and lighting the rooms

Re: Portal 2 and lighting the rooms Posted by Necromancer on Mon Jul 30th 2012 at 3:16am
Necromancer
392 posts
Posted 2012-07-30 3:16am
392 posts 1499 snarkmarks Registered: May 5th 2008
Any ideas here: in my Portal map it is kind of difficult to create adequate lighting sometimes. Even when I put a light in the middle of the room (also even changing the light to white color) the room still seems like it is darker than it should be.

Does this happen to anyone else too, or any ideas maybe how to get more light out of a light source, or to better light up a room? Thanks.
Re: Portal 2 and lighting the rooms Posted by Niborius on Mon Jul 30th 2012 at 12:13pm
Niborius
1007 posts
Posted 2012-07-30 12:13pm
Niborius
member
1007 posts 1116 snarkmarks Registered: Mar 23rd 2009 Location: The Netherlands
When you insert a light entity, and go to the properties of the entity, you can see a textbox that determines the color of the light (ex: 255 100 100 200)
The first three numbers are each color (Red, Green, Blue) but after that is another number, which determines the brightness. Set it to something like 500 and you'll definitely see results.

Otherwise, there are textures that emit light as well.
In the texture browser, type in the filter box "light" and you'll get a selection of light textures. Only the ones with a lamp icon below them emit light I believe, but I might be mistaken.

That last method is what I used for almost every room. Especially using this method: Link
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Nibgames
Re: Portal 2 and lighting the rooms Posted by Orpheus on Mon Jul 30th 2012 at 2:19pm
Orpheus
13860 posts
Posted 2012-07-30 2:19pm
Orpheus
member
13860 posts 2024 snarkmarks Registered: Aug 26th 2001 Occupation: Long Haul Trucking Location: Long Oklahoma - USA
First off you gotta ask yourself, what size room it is. You cannot expect one light ent to light en amphitheater.

Also, you can bounce a light a few dozen times and it will light the dark corners nice.

Lastly, texture lighting is rather hard to get to look right if you are attempting to use it as a primary light source. It works best as accentual lighting.

/2cents

The best things in life, aren't things.
Re: Portal 2 and lighting the rooms Posted by Necromancer on Mon Jul 30th 2012 at 7:41pm
Necromancer
392 posts
Posted 2012-07-30 7:41pm
392 posts 1499 snarkmarks Registered: May 5th 2008
Thanks for the ideas. I'll try those out today sometime.
That last method is what I used for almost every room. Especially using this method: Link
1)So then would you recommend not even using the light entity or do you use both?

2) I have light panels in my map too but I made them all with instances and they provide very little light, so I put a light entity in front of them. So maybe I shouldn't make the panels with instances because your link said to use a prop_static?

I definitely need a better method because many times when trying to make a room bright enough (with my methods...haven't tried new ones yet) I get lots of errors with too many light faces on a surface at ... (or something like that)
Re: Portal 2 and lighting the rooms Posted by Necromancer on Wed Aug 1st 2012 at 8:03pm
Necromancer
392 posts
Posted 2012-08-01 8:03pm
392 posts 1499 snarkmarks Registered: May 5th 2008
That last method is what I used for almost every room. Especially using this method: Link
That method works great. Thanks!