Animated Textures.

ShenTraX

<div class="IPBDescription">Question</div> I dont have the engine at work, so i cant try it here, but can we add texture lighting to an animated texture (or at least the +a texture of the animation)?

Therortical i think its possible, but i cant test till i get home, so i wanted to ask if you guys know or have tried.

does it work like a light?

prsearle

As far as I know it's possible. hlrad only cares what texture is assigned to the face in Hammer; any texture switches when the map is running won't affect the lightmaps.

Azraiel

I would imagine so.
The light.rad file controls what textures emit light, and the half-life engine has preset profixes that are applied to the textures as to what their function is. for instance anything begining with ! is water.

ShenTraX

so it should work like a light.... like i said i'm at work and cant test, but i think it sould in theory..

Reese

the problem is that it won't look quite right. For an animated texture that is expected to cast light (I.E. a computer screen) the light will be constant. Although almost every computer screen used by anyone who has ever seen natural selection does not do this, most people expect the light produced by a screen to flicker. It's a visual familiarity we develop with television in which the light cast by the tv varies with the picture. My point is that the light you're casting won't flicker in this way, and will look wierd. I would say the best way to handle it would be like this:

1) make your computer screen.
2) cut the actual screen portion out of the casing with the clipping tool.
3) assign light values to the texture. Make a light entity with the same brightness values as your screen set to flicker also. This will give you a constantly glowing screen that also flickers. Dunno how the effect will look ingame, but it seems about right to me. Just be careful to only use this in a small room as it dramatically increases the lightdata of your map.

ShenTraX

well let me descripe what i'm wanting.

I've created numbered buttons... like 1,2,3,4,5 etc...

made +0s_b1, +as_b1
+0s_b2, +as_b2
etc...

Now the +0 is the off state, and +a being the on, i tried to tie the +a to a lighted texture, which when you pressed the button, it 'light up'

now i would try to attach a light entity and drop it in front of the button and have it turn on when the button is pressed, BUT i didn't want that effect because i want the buttons to be close, like a keypad.

i guess i may have 3 options.

1. I could make the buttons transparent-ish and put a light inside them (wierd)
2. env_render (ugh!)
3. spot light the buttons with a very very small spot radius.

i was just hoping their was an easier way...