Bardic on 1/11/2005 at 10:52
I don't think that would be a problem. The game just displays the DDS file full screen, I would assume you could have a picture of a person, or a screenshot of your level as seen from above if you wanted.
van HellSing on 1/11/2005 at 11:19
I also thought about using maps as illustrated, collectible books for puzzles etc.
OrbWeaver on 1/11/2005 at 11:25
Quote Posted by Krypt
1. Use as few lights as possible, and only make them shadowcasting if the shadows will be really noticable. Turning up the ambient makes this easier.
Is there a lights-per-surface performance issue like there is in Doom 3? I.e., is one big ambient light better than a lot of small ambient lights (assuming none of them is shadowcasting)?
Krypt on 1/11/2005 at 19:21
Quote Posted by OrbWeaver
Is there a lights-per-surface performance issue like there is in Doom 3? I.e., is one big ambient light better than a lot of small ambient lights (assuming none of them is shadowcasting)?
Yes, it's per pixel lighting like Doom3 and has all the same limitations. Every light that touches a BSP surface or static mesh creates another render pass on the entire thing, not just where the light hits. The more lights in a scene the more of a performance hit you'll get. I think we tried to stick with 6-8 omni lights viewable at any given time in T3, 2 or 3 of them shadowcasters. You might be able to do a few more, but don't go crazy. You can do a lot with 8 lights if you're creative and efficient with their uses, it's not as bad of a limitation as it sounds. Also shadowcasting lights add polys, and if they're large radius and hitting a lot of objects the polys can add up quickly. You shouldn't place overlapping shadowcasters if you can help it.
Ambient lights are handled sort of differently. Most of the time you'll want to set a level ambient and be done with it. Level ambient has no performance impact because it's the first render pass done on everything and it'll be there even if you have no level ambient settings (black is an ambient color too). Any kind of ambient placable lights are cheap enough that you don't really have to worry about their effect on performance. The tradeoff is that they look pretty crappy.
Bardic on 1/11/2005 at 19:52
Also, correct me if I am misleading anyone, with any shadowcasting light default range on the shadow is the same as the light itself. You can make the shadow extrusion distance 1/2 or 2/3 of the light radius and get some better performance that way. So that any Omni's that do overlap won't cast twice as many shadows.
OrbWeaver on 1/11/2005 at 20:20
Quote Posted by Krypt
Yes, it's per pixel lighting like Doom3 and has all the same limitations.
I had a feeling that might be the case. Plus, you cannot see the light volumes (so it is difficult to work out what they are hitting), and I would guess there is no scissoring as this is an OpenGL feature.
Can we assume that the "Show Flesh overlit geometry" feature in the editor is the same as Doom's show lightcount option?
Bardic on 1/11/2005 at 20:49
I think there is a command in the editor when you load up the level to show a box around each light. So you can see what overlaps and how many objects are encompassed in the light.
(
http://www.ttlg.com/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=ConsoleCommandReference)
I think these should help anyone see how the lights are hitting any objects, there was another one, I think, but I can't find it.
visshadows
vislights
shadowvolumes
