Hi...

First, I'd like to thank SKDR, for his help with the lighting, on my map, but I guess I'm just too damn dense to figure this out :(

I've got the light setup, and it works, and it's even casting shadows to a degree, but...

1) The direction of the shadows are wrong, even though I've adjusted both pitch AND yaw, they don't seem to move.

2) I'm using a light yellow-white for the lighting, atm, which is fine for the non-shadow area's but the shadow area's are not very dark, and I'd like them to be atleast a bit darker.

What I need, or would like to know....


What have people found to be good light settings for a mid-morning sunny, but with clouds day, and what have they found to project the most realistic shadows, as far as Pitch, Yaw, and Color settings.

I'd also like if someone could explain what the different settings in the 1.0 FGD for the light_enviroment mean. I mean Pitch/Yaw/Roll are fairly self explainatory, but what is difference between the regular, and diffuse settings? Any help would be appriciated...

If you want a cloudy day (such as the dod_flash sky), where shadows are not very appearent, try using the bounce command on HLRAD.EXE. This will make the light bounce around and smooth out shadows. If you want really sharp shadows, use a bounce value of 0 or 1. Smooth is 2-5.

I always turn off the diffuse settings with 0 0 0 0. It's good however when you want the shadows to be another color than the bright spots... :rolleyes:

Was there a light environment used in KOLN? Because i cant get my map that dark! or was there just basic lights put around in different places.

Originally posted by PrimalRage
Was there a light environment used in KOLN? Because i cant get my map that dark! or was there just basic lights put around in different places.

Koln light env settings are somthing like this:
Pitch: -45
Brightness: 192 192 192 25

I don't thing the Diffuse Brightness was used.

I always use Diffuse Brightness. I find that setting the light level less than the Brightness produces very nice results. For example:

Brightness: 255 255 128 100
Diffuse Brightness: 255 255 128 50

Diffuse Brightness effects the shadows, so the shadows should be darker then the normal light.

Diffuse brightness supposed to be sky light (not the Sun's light you set in Brightness). This is kind of ambient light, and it's not directional (unlike Sun). So it affects mainly shadowed areas, but pay attention if you set if to different color than Brightness, cause it creates strange colored areas at the edges of shadows.
For example if you set Brightness to yellow and Diffuse to blue ("clear sky color") you may get green "borders" of shadows.

PS. If anyone knows what light settings was used in caen2 I would appreciate it PM or mail.

Ok...

Well I got the shadows the color I want....

Thanks for the great help guys...

Now the problem... :(


The shadows, regardless of what I put the pitch/yaw/roll to don't seem to move.. they're all still as if the sun / light was comming from Due east... And I'm wanting it to come from a roughly south-east, so that the shadows are about 45 Deg's offset from the rest.. I've tried setting yaw, and roll.. Pitch I have set where it looks ok.. but not entirely.. I've even tried changing it, and it doesn't seem to make a difference...

Any ideas?

Originally posted by Cyber-Surfer
Ok...

Well I got the shadows the color I want....

Thanks for the great help guys...

Now the problem... :(


The shadows, regardless of what I put the pitch/yaw/roll to don't seem to move.. they're all still as if the sun / light was comming from Due east... And I'm wanting it to come from a roughly south-east, so that the shadows are about 45 Deg's offset from the rest.. I've tried setting yaw, and roll.. Pitch I have set where it looks ok.. but not entirely.. I've even tried changing it, and it doesn't seem to make a difference...

Any ideas?

Change the pitch/yaw/roll in the text list not with the compass'

Only pitch and yaw work with light entities try putting the pitch at -30 and the yaw at 15 and see what happens

If you still have problems then delete the light entity and put another one back in

i think the pitch yaw roll will not solve it - he needs to change the ANGLE to make the light come from the N, W, or S instead of E.

Pitch is for how HIGH up the sun is -40 for most of Europe is good.
-90 is good for equator/N africa.

ANGLE is the direction it comes from.

*sighs*

I'm at a total loss.. and getting really frustrated with this... :(

yeah I think tommy is probably right, roll and yaw don't do anything that I can tell

just make a small test map and experiment if you can't get it to work right

One idea: if you don't close the "properties" box for the entity(light_env) in hammer before you save it, your changes do not take effect. So, you may actually not be changing the settings when you believe you have. (first hand experience, very annoying)

*sighs*

I've tried roll, pitch, yaw.... Well atleast the shadows aren't horizon level anymore...

There is no angle feature on Light_enviroment... If you turn off smart edit, the Pitch/Yaw/Roll one turns into angle.. so..

And it seems no matter what I do, it just doesn't wanna work... :( It's getting seriously frustrating...

*sighs again*