Mandrake on 1/3/2005 at 11:33
Quote Posted by Squid3d
at -50 you are still picking up the shadowing from the static mesh.
it works predictably here, shadows are fine etc
Ok, it works with -100, but this seems like a hack to me. The light source is only about 2/3 of the way up the pole, so although it looks ok for shadows on the ground there may be situations where the shadow doesn't seem right.
Also I dont understand why -50 should project a visible shadow upwards, BUT project an invisible lightgem altering shadow downwards, and yet -100 doesnt.
:weird:
Mandrake on 1/3/2005 at 11:42
Quote Posted by Squid3d
it doesn't affect it anyway that i can see and if it did/does then setting the innerRadius so the rays cast start from an offset point (ie, ouside the geometry)of the lights cone should fix it.
One thing it affects, is that the pole part of the lamp post is totally dark, because the light source is "inside" it...
So where is this innerRadius property ? I can't seem to find it :erg:
Squid3d on 1/3/2005 at 11:55
The lamppost was unlit in the original as it was being occluded by the actual light fixture.
innerRadius is found under the lightShape category of your lights props, you may need to add it (can't remember if i did or not).
right clicking a blank area of a viewport menu bar and selecting to show Actors-Radii View also helps.
my experience with lighting is wholly in 3d dcc apps (xsi, max etc) and i initially got confused as you can usually only set a cone angle and inner radius on directional type lights. while it doesn't seem to affet the geometry lighting it does affect the lightgem...
i have been known to be wrong though :D
The Nay-Sayer on 1/3/2005 at 11:58
Thought I'd just add my question to the mix;
Does anyone know how to do those twinkley glowy natural light glows??? Like the ones coming off the windows in the actual game...
Mandrake on 1/3/2005 at 12:03
Quote Posted by Squid3d
The lamppost was unlit in the original as it was being occluded by the actual light fixture.
innerRadius is found under the lightShape category of your lights props, you may need to add it (can't remember if i did or not).
right clicking a blank area of a viewport menu bar and selecting to show Actors-Radii View also helps.
my experience with lighting is wholly in 3d dcc apps (xsi, max etc) and i initially got confused as you can usually only set a cone angle and inner radius on directional type lights. while it doesn't seem to affet the geometry lighting it does affect the lightgem...
i have been known to be wrong though :D
Ok, found the LightinnerRadius option - I tried setting it to a few values including 100, and it didn't seem to affect the shadowing of the light gem, so I guess hardpoint offset -100 will have to do for now...
darkcosmos on 1/3/2005 at 13:34
Quote Posted by The Nay-Sayer
Thought I'd just add my question to the mix;
Does anyone know how to do those twinkley glowy natural light glows??? Like the ones coming off the windows in the actual game...
Those are some kind of custom emitters. If you click on one in the OM maps, you can see what it's called and search for it. I think it's "LightShaftfromWindow" or something. You could also cut and paste one from another map into yours...
Weasel on 1/3/2005 at 19:15
Quote Posted by doctormidnight
Also I was wondering if someone could explain the basics of making a door that actually works. I've looked at the tutorials that (sort of) have to do with doors, but none of them really seem to deal explicitly with creating a selectable door.
Oh and one other thing: am I correct in assuming that every building that you want to have a working door has to be created from scratch, and can't be one of the static mesh things?
To make a door, you add a door from the object browser (or actor browser, or whatever it's called). I don't have it in front of me, but it's somewhere like Moving\Doors&DoorFrames\. Just make sure you are adding an object like that and not a static mesh (from the static mesh browser). That's all you have to do. The player will automatically be able to frob it to open it. If you want to change the direction or speed or other things like that you have to add extra properties (I haven't done that yet), but the door will function as soon as you place it.
To answer your other question, you would not be able to add a static mesh building and then cut a hole in it to put a door in it. There may be some small static mesh buildings that already have the door holes and insides modelled (I haven't looked), and with those you would be able to add a door.
Krypt on 1/3/2005 at 19:42
This was a problem we encountered occasionally while developing the game. Just one of the many quirks of the lighting engine. The way I would fix this problem is by re-adding the lamp post as a static mesh instead of a gamesys actor (right click it and go to Static mesh>Select [meshname] in browser to find the mesh), turn Render>CastShadows to False on the mesh (you have to manually add that property to change it), then add a new light with the same values and place it just below the top of the lamppost instead of above it.
There are a couple useful tools to help with lighting that I just remembered while looking at this. One is radii view in the editor, which allows you to see a visual representation of the radius of a selected light in the editor, which is a lot more meaningful to me than a number in the properties. Activate it by right clicking on the top bar in your 3d view window and going to Actors>Radii view. Another helpful tool is the shadow volumes viewing tool. Type "shadowvolumes" in the game console, or in the console down on the bottom-left in the editor to see the shadow volumes created by your shadowcasting lights. These can sometimes surprise you with how big they are in relation to how the shadows actually look in the game. The volumes are generally much larger than the actual visible shadow.
doctormidnight on 1/3/2005 at 20:52
OK, I'll give that a try Krypt. Kind of a pain in the ass to have to copy all the lighting information, is there an easy way to extract the info and apply it to a newly created light source, or do I have to just write everything down and go from there?
I'll post back when I get it fixed and you guys can see if it's working correctly.
BTW, this level is going to be called "In the Ghetto." My homage to the classic film Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood will have a "town" in shambles, with guys walking around doing the "Man, I got these cheeseburgers, I suck yo d**k!" And of course there will be a fence called "Forties and Nines." Fortunately I have the DVD so getting the audio in and editing it will be no problem at all, I just hope the spacial effects don't do too much damage.
Mandrake on 1/3/2005 at 21:33
Quote Posted by Krypt
This was a problem we encountered occasionally while developing the game. Just one of the many quirks of the lighting engine. The way I would fix this problem is by re-adding the lamp post as a static mesh instead of a gamesys actor (right click it and go to Static mesh>Select [meshname] in browser to find the mesh), turn Render>CastShadows to False on the mesh (you have to manually add that property to change it), then add a new light with the same values and place it just below the top of the lamppost instead of above it.
Just wondering,
Does this achieve anything different than just adding the LightHardPointOffset property and setting it to an appropriate negative value ? (Which is a lot easier) Or is there a downside to using LightHardPointOffset ? (Apart from the fact that the light is not quite casting from where it should....)
