Detrement to using higher lightmap?

Hey all, nother question form a former cs1 mapper, moving to cs:s.

When compiling maps for cs1, there was a radiosity command that double
the lightmap detail. It made the compile take a really long time, but
the shadows loooked far better.

Is there a way to do this in hl2, and, far more importantly:

Will there be a performance hit in game?

There are no lightmaps in HL1

you can set the value of the lightmap on a per face basis now. the texture dialogue box has a field that you can enter a non-default value.

the advice that valve/others have given is to reduce the lightmap on large surfaces that have little detail, or surfaces that a player will never be close to.

everything relates to performance, so it'll be down to you to try and strike a decent balance. good luck. :smile:

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i eat paint

There are no lightmaps in HL1

There were, other wise we wouldnt have light in HL1 =P, they were just very large (like 256x256 I believe).

But you can look at a what light map size on a brush is by going to the
3d window and change it to "light maps" (right click in upper left hand
corner). Other wise do what Fishy said.

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Posting And You

the advice that valve/others have given is to reduce the lightmap on
large surfaces that have little detail, or surfaces that a player will
never be close to.

Good advice. Serves another purpose as well: it keeps filesize down a
bit. With the large maps of today that may be a thing to consider.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog