wad light data

Seker · September 2007

<div class="IPBDescription">the data which...</div>hey...

i need a wad light data..... thats the file which tells the compiler which textures have they own light
can anyone tell me where to get that for ns ?

Crispy · September 2007

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Seker @ Sep 26 2007, 01:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1652273"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>hey...

i need a wad light data..... thats the file which tells the compiler which textures have they own light
can anyone tell me where to get that for ns ?</div>You need to write your own lights.rad or edit an existing one to add in the light textures. I haven't done it for some time so someone should clarify this, but it's something like:

<texture name> <r g b> <light intensity>

Seker · September 2007

thx for the info

well would then anyone be so kind and share his one ?

schkorpio · September 2007

its pretty easy to make your own - infact it will take you about 10 seconds

1. Open up notepad
2. Then just type the texture name and the R G B values and then The colour value - which you can cut and paste straight from a light entity.
3. Do this for as many light textures you have.
4.save the file as lights.rad

E.g. text in the lights.rad file

lights1_fx 255 15 30 300
lights2_fx 250 245 30 200
lightsmall1_fx 255 255 10 100
lightbig1_fx 25 245 40 600

EDIT : my whole point is, that you want to make your own, because you'll need to adjust the values to suit the lighting style of your map.
Also usually any brightness under the value of 50 doesnt seem to work (for me atleast anyway) i also found the best way was to just light up the overlay texture not the actual light texture.

EDIT2: also there is a section for mapping help <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> (just mentiong it cause there are like 3 posts in the general mapping forum here)

BigD · September 2007

The easiest way is to just use the "lights.rad" file (might be in your hammer directory? I forget) and add texture names to it. Then you can quickley look up and see what sort of ranges are used. AND ADD THEM TO THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST!

At some point, you may decide to seperate the ns lights file from the hl lights file, or you may want one for each map you make. I'd post mine for moira, but a) I've got a few lights putting out weird colours and b) this would require me to dig through my cd's to find my backup from my last hard drive failure, and I haven't gotten around to doing that. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

Seker · September 2007

i see...well....i'll make than one
thx for the help <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />

(if anyone got it though you can still post it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" /> )

uffo · September 2007

furthermore, there's an rad/lights entity you can use in hammer.
can't recall its name though, but it's there! this way you can easily have custom light infos for each map without any .rad files

BigD · September 2007

Ooh, I always forget about that guy! It can be pretty handy though. Might even be easier to use (no need for compiler setup I think?)

reiasura · September 2007

its the info_texlights pointentity
there u do the same as in the rad... entering key=texture and value=r g b bright

@ the poster who told that bright <50 dont work
i had bright=64 in a testmap that had some red lights and large green water/slime area (texlight) around the hive
64 = no reaction
65 = whole room was glowing green

i changed the r g b and it was still no light with bright 65... i think it depends on the average brightness (255 255 255 is much brighter than 0 0 0) not just the last value, so it will be always different

GiGaBiTe · September 2007

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(reiasura @ Sep 28 2007, 08:22 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1652796"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>i changed the r g b and it was still no light with bright 65... i think it depends on the average brightness (255 255 255 is much brighter than 0 0 0) not just the last value, so it will be always different</div>

What on earth are you talking about? The first 3 sets of numbers are the color data and the 4th number which you didn't list is the brightness of the light. If you're just inputing color data without a light value, of course it won't work correctly, it has nothing to reference for a light value.

The default radiosity lights file is called valve.rad, lights.rad usually doesn't have many definitions in it depending on where you got it from.

BigD · September 2007

I think he is implying that the rgb values has an effect on the brightness value. This would sort of make sense as the rgb scale does include near black values (all black, aka 0 0 0 turns full white fyi though). I found this in fact while working on a particular texture light in moira. See, at one point I lost the .rad file I had while transitioning to a new hard drive (doh). So in the process of making a new one, I had to guess what my values were. The brightness <i>was</i> supposed to be easy. Should have been 75. I'm pretty sure I had stuck to my standard default starting brightness with that texture. But trying to nail the particular shade of orange I was using on most of my lighting, man that was tough. Still isn't the same (better I think though) but it's a darker orange overall I think. I've upped my brightness of that texture off the standard 75 though now to compensate for the darker rgb values.

Actually, just try this:

Make a big cube skybox, but put the floor some consistant grey texture or something. Then, make a 3 by 3 array of spotlights pointing down on the floor, spaced reasonably apart with inner and outer angles 8 and 10 respectively. Then make them all the same brightness, say 400 or something. Play with different colours: 255 0 0, 100 0 0, 10 0 0 for one row. Etc. The interesting thing to note is that effect is more noticeable in values below 100. 100 almost looks as bright as 255, but you can't even see 10. (255 = bright red, 100 = medium red, and 10 = very dark red.)

Yeah, I spent way too much time doing this sort of thing looking for a good orange... But it's also a good way to see how a texture responds to certain colours if you change that floor texture. This is something to remember when using texture lighting too, brighter textures are more reflective than dark textures, if this makes any sense. When a texture light bounces, it sort of picks up on the colours and brightness of what it's hitting. I found this in moira because a lot of the light I use is bounced (I'm using bounce 2 in that map) This is why I settled on the rather plain grey floor that I did, because it helped light up the room better. Likewise, I use a dark ceiling to absorb that light, giving dark corners to hide up in. Of course, it could all be in my head too. (Some of the official mappers do this very well, and they probably hardly think about this sort of thing.)

Crispy · September 2007

It's to do with colour saturation. A strong 'pure' blue will react better to light than a muddy grey 'impure' blue. Also remember that the light is appearing in front of textures that have their own colour schemes. A 'pure' blue in a white room will make the room appear a very pure blue. A pure blue in a pure red room would end up with a room looking a bit purple, even though the base texture colour is pure red. Those are the extremes and they may seem pretty obvious, but you also need to apply the same thinking to all the textures and light colours and intensities you use to get the best results.

Seker · October 2007

when i want to use the ent in hammer

have i to "un-smart" and every texture with name and in target the settings ??

wad light data

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