how to block light?

<DIV>I have built a corridor that is leading to an elevator.</DIV>
<DIV>The light is very dim in the corridor almost dark when u get to the ele...</DIV>
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<DIV>So the effect i want to create is .... the elevator doors open and bright light from the elevator is streaming out into the corridor.</DIV>
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<DIV>The problem is ... the the elevator doors dont block light really... and u alrdy have lit walls on the sides .... </DIV>
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<DIV>I found the tools texture block light ...so i tought ill make a brush, cover it with the block light texture and tie it to ... um i tried func_brush </DIV>
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<DIV>i placed the brush inside the elevator before the doors ... but its not working that way</DIV>
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<DIV>so my question:</DIV>
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<DIV>can anyone tell me how to use that block light tool properly ? wich entity do i tie it to ? </DIV>
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<DIV>maybe theres a better solution than my approach ... but my basic idea was to have the light blocked ... then trigger to kill the light block entity as soon as the elevator doors open.... wich i guess would be ok because u never come back with that elevator :smile: </DIV>

Im trying to do the same thing, but with a fan. I have a ceiling fan that is below an open hole in the roof with light shining down into the interior of the room. I want the fan blades to block the light so that it casts shadows onto the floor while its spining.

I hope somebody replies to this post with an answer for both our sakes.

Hi there.

I don't know if what you ask is possible, but when reading your message, i was thinking about another possibility to do what you want.

I think you can do the same with a light, spot light, or any light that you want, and a trigger_once, first the light should start off, and when you cross the trigger (brush converted to trigger_once entity with invisible texture) it activates the light, you can also make that it opens the elevator at the same time too.

But with the fan, i am not sure what to do... but i noticed that some entities have flags or properties about casting shadows... you can take a look if you already have not. But i will investigate that.

See you out there.

do you remember in the begiining of HL and that crate-carrier opened the door to a hallway and the light streamed out of the door? That wasnt light It was a func_door set with a yellow texture and set to be see-through. It was a trapezoid shape which moved at the same speed as the door to give the illusion that the light was streaming out.

I see no good way to do this using a func entity. So what you might want to do, is make about 10 lights all in the same place at the end of the hall by the elev. and make it gradually birghten at the same rate as the doors open. You will probably have to use a multi-manager or whatever the HL2 equivalent is to turn on one light at a time in a sequence corresponding to the opening of the doors. So that as the doors open wider, the light in the hall at that end get's brighter.

I was thinking something like that would work for the elevator effect -
maybe have no light inside the elevator except for a (wide)
point_spotlight, and set the doors to enable shadowing. Then when they
open, the shadow should move away and light up the corridor outside.

The fan would be similar, except that you'd need to set the enable
shadows flag on the func_rotating making up the fan. Maybe I'll take a
look at de_prodigy and see how they did it.

I haven't actually tried any of this yet, so I don't if or how well it works.

erm, with the FAN issue...

I know it's possible bcause the same effect is in HL2 in ravenholm with the propeller on the engine trap. I am not sure how that heppened. I will figure it out and write a tutorial schnellfalls.

I'll bet you that all of this is easily possible if you use the light_dynamic entity. Try it.

<DIV>Its impossible to achieve a nice effect with dynamic lights... that i found out in the last hours :biggrin: </DIV>
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<DIV>But i got it nice with a point_spotlight entity and a normal light entity ... both inside the elevator .... i was fooling around with up to 8 point_spotlights ... but in the end 1 just looked fine ... but im tweaking some more... ill post a screenshot when im satisfied :biggrin: </DIV>
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<DIV>but anyhow why is there a block light texture in /tools ? </DIV>
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<DIV>there must be a way to block light somehow... if anyone knows plz post </DIV>

You might also try messing with areaportals to see what you can achieve that way. They allow you to dynamically control visibility, and I presume that also means lighting.

http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/Levels/performance_and_visibility.html

I would like to thank all of u for ur input on the subject, it is greatly appreciated. I already have looked at the flags and made sure that the "disable shadows" (or anything regarding shadows) were set to the proper setting. I am not using the fan from prodigy, I made my own, if that helps u at all.

Also, if u ever make that tutorial, Nickelplate, I'll be the first to read it.

Thanks again to all.

use tools/toolsblocklight texture

if doesen't work, i dunno

in my map i have several cars made with brushes tied to entities func_physbox they cast a shadow on the ground so maybe they would work
by tieing a physbox to your elevator doors?