What causes - better yet - how do you fix really dark walls such as:




I've tried adding cubemaps but with no luck. I'd like to just lighten up the back wall a bit - Its unnaturally dark.

Try smoothing groups

Looks like the angle to the env_light just simply doesn't light that wall. Try messing with the ambient light settings or adding a point light.

Got it. The trick is using info_no_dynamic_shadow entity and you're able to pick faces that don't get a shadow cast. Its still a bit dark, but now its not a black void.


Before and ................. After (images "corrected" with Picture Manager)

Originally posted by Ca-Chicken-Soup
Try messing with the ambient light settings

..you can also add an info_lighting entity to the door model.

:)

Originally posted by ultranew_b
..you can also add an info_lighting entity to the door model.

:)

I would have suggested that but it does seem the wall is also black.

In this pic it would benefit from a info_lighting entity, where the door is darker than the wall.

Check that... Furyo is right - its the smoothing groups. You do need to click apply to make them work, however. I'll look into the info_light for the doors.

Cheers

My current map project has a lot of dim lights and I've realized to the extent that Vis affects lighting. No Vis information will mean that the Rad will only light surfaces with direct light hitting it... so alot of of situations like you mentioned. Then a quick Vis gets most of it resolved, but still a full Vis has the most reflected light. I'd imagine that full Rad compile would also help this.

So I'm trying to not trip on lighting too hard until I do a full compile.

Changing your brushwork or changing the lightmap scale should fix the issue but you also want to set "disable shadows" to "yes" in that model's properties