Need tips on how to do a good lighting.

Deagle2Deagle2 Join Date: 2010-11-30 Member: 75360Members
in Mapping
Currently in the wiki, there is no tutorial on how to make a good, lighting, what light should be used for what etc...
I'm a noob mapper so I could use some tips on this :D
Also is it possible to make a lighting that looks as bright as daylight (like we usualy see in other games) but still looks nice?
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Comments

  • slayer20slayer20 Killed a man once. Join Date: 2007-12-13 Member: 63157Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    This is a handy website when doing real-world lighting.

    <a href="http://planetpixelemporium.com/tutorialpages/light.html" target="_blank">http://planetpixelemporium.com/tutorialpages/light.html</a>

    It has some colors for Daylight as well as some fluorescent type lighting. Put it in your bookmarks so you don't lose it, as it can be handy when mapping for any game.
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  • hookeyedhookeyed Join Date: 2007-08-26 Member: 62011Members, Squad Five Blue
    edited January 2011
    <!--quoteo(post=1827511:date=Jan 26 2011, 04:39 PM:name=slayer20)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (slayer20 @ Jan 26 2011, 04:39 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1827511"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->This is a handy website when doing real-world lighting.

    <a href="http://planetpixelemporium.com/tutorialpages/light.html" target="_blank">http://planetpixelemporium.com/tutorialpages/light.html</a>

    It has some colors for Daylight as well as some fluorescent type lighting. Put it in your bookmarks so you don't lose it, as it can be handy when mapping for any game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    it would be interesting to see a sample map done up with those lighting techniques with the different lights. I'm still waiting on the atmospheric lighting to be enabled on the public build
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  • Deagle2Deagle2 Join Date: 2010-11-30 Member: 75360Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1827527:date=Jan 26 2011, 09:36 PM:name=hookeyed)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (hookeyed @ Jan 26 2011, 09:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1827527"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->it would be interesting to see a sample map done up with those lighting techniques with the different lights. I'm still waiting on the atmospheric lighting to be enabled on the public build<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I think the atmospheric lighting is just a gimmick, it won't realy change the lighting.


    Thanks for your link Slayer, i'll check it when I have some time =)
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  • Evil_bOb1Evil_bOb1 Join Date: 2002-07-13 Member: 938Members, Squad Five Blue
    Checking out official maps is a good way to see how things work as well.
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  • Deagle2Deagle2 Join Date: 2010-11-30 Member: 75360Members
    I read your tutorial, and I also checked official maps, I learned a few stuff, but yet my lighting is still crappy, what I learned from your tutorial is just about colors in lights, and in official maps, wel I mainly learned that spotlights are often used with bulb light, to kind of fake indirect lighting (that's what I guessed)
    But still, My lighting is nowhere close to what I want :( I would like something closer to daylight, let's say like this <a href="http://www.gameblog.fr/images/jeux/2190/Rage_Multi_Edit_011.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.gameblog.fr/images/jeux/2190/Ra...ti_Edit_011.jpg</a> (maybe a bit less, but it's a good example :-°)
    Is it possible to have such lighting in this engine?
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  • slayer20slayer20 Killed a man once. Join Date: 2007-12-13 Member: 63157Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    You mean like ACTUAL sunlight?

    As of right now, I don't think you can make a single light entity that will bath your map in sunlight.

    You'll have to do some trickery with spotlights.
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  • HughHugh Cameraman San Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
    The image you posted contains bloom rendering. I don't think Spark can bloom render yet (I'd be happy to be wrong).
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  • SgtBarlowSgtBarlow Level Designer Join Date: 2003-11-13 Member: 22749Members, NS2 Developer
    edited January 2011
    You wont be able to achive that lighting at the moment but hopefuly in the future we will get radiosity lighting and post bloom.

    My map uses the light value examples shown on that website slayer20 linked to.
    here are the video results of those values. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/SgtBarlow?feature=mhum#p/a/u/1/yF-9JCezgr4" target="_blank">youtube.com/user/SgtBarlow</a>
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  • Deagle2Deagle2 Join Date: 2010-11-30 Member: 75360Members
    In fact, I'd need sunlight as well yes, but at the moment I'm trying to make a very bright light, that doesn't make the map dark, but my example was probably not realy good, and I have hard time expressing what I think =O
    However, SgtBarlow's video (the first I saw when clicking on your channel <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF-9JCezgr4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF-9JCezgr4</a> ) represents very wel what i'd like to accomplish. I think I understood The article about light values, it pretty much makes sense, but my main problem is probably to know how to place light so that it gives a smooth result.

    @SgtBarlow : Is there anywhere I could download the map on that video to check your lighting and learn from it?
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  • slayer20slayer20 Killed a man once. Join Date: 2007-12-13 Member: 63157Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Why don't you post pictures of how your lighting looks?
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  • SgtBarlowSgtBarlow Level Designer Join Date: 2003-11-13 Member: 22749Members, NS2 Developer
    I used about 180 sources in there before the Ambient lights where added so its not a great example of to go off for a pretty performance map, its quite costly.
    Max is eager to go back and work on some cool stuff as soon as the optimisations are done so we may expect some additions to lighting that will change how you light your map. I would hold on and just do something as a place holder.

    Int = Intesity
    All you need to do is use lights (Int:25/50), then place a source near the surface (Int:5/10) to give it the extra gleem. I need to revise the way that room is lit.
    You should use the ambient light to simulate bounce.
    Dont use the exact same intensity and color for every single light or direction. Nudge the values by 1-5 points, only very slight variations from light to light in a row/cluster of lights.
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  • minibananaminibanana Join Date: 2009-09-03 Member: 68682Members
    <a href="http://img204.imageshack.us/i/uglyshadow.png/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2316/uglyshadow.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>

    Uploaded with <a href="http://imageshack.us" target="_blank">ImageShack.us</a>

    So... my shadows are coming out all wonky, any tips on making better shadows.
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  • SgtBarlowSgtBarlow Level Designer Join Date: 2003-11-13 Member: 22749Members, NS2 Developer
    That is out of your control mostly, some artifacting can happen if spot light angles are too wide ( > 80, 90 causes banding)
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  • minibananaminibanana Join Date: 2009-09-03 Member: 68682Members
    ahh ill try messing around with the lights again then to see if i can fix the shadows. Thanks SgtBarlow.
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  • ThaldarinThaldarin Alonzi&#33; Join Date: 2003-07-15 Member: 18173Members, Constellation
    No one can tell you effectively how to light, they can show you techniques and you can adapt them and see what works best for you. Me personally? I 'steal' and adapt.

    What I've done, which I hope helps, is put together a video showing some shadowing on a marine in an area of my work in progress, I've also linked a series of images showing that the majority of shadowed spot lights covers more or less the whole room; and some with some values and direction.

    I've only done one image to show my omni's, but basically around about a year ago I was having big problems with those. Basically omni's of 250-500 with input values of 0.25-0.75 and sometimes even 1; just to light an area are used. <i>None</i> of my omni's have shadows, only the majority of spotlights.

    <center><object width="450" height="356"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FPKsiEgwAEs"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FPKsiEgwAEs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="356"></embed></object></center>

    <img src="http://i.imgur.com/XlOdy.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    <img src="http://i.imgur.com/QZGya.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    <img src="http://i.imgur.com/EFxcZ.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    <img src="http://i.imgur.com/3OcWs.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    <img src="http://i.imgur.com/oekFs.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    <img src="http://i.imgur.com/h81Ux.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

    Hopefully that helps. Apologies for the lower quality youtube video, I'm not really up to speed with FRAPS, video editing etc. and I did that quickly at 2AM before I slept :)
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