<div class="IPBDescription">Tips needed</div>I was wondering if anyone had any good tips for lighting rooms and maps as a whole. I always seem to have VERY bright spots and VERY dark spots. Any help would be appreciated.
fmponeJoin Date: 2011-07-05Member: 108086Members, Squad Five Blue
edited April 2012
Use a point light on very low brightness (you dont want your scene to be too bright and shiny, so a value like .25 or .5 can leave you with just enough specular or shininess). Use a somewhat desaturated color for your main lighting, typically (this means usually avoiding anything at 255 RGB. For instance no RGB values above 255). For lights that are not your main area light, 255 values are just fine. Keep the lighting logical: light should make sense in terms of brightness wherever it originates from, the light source is small, then smaller light. This can allow you, with a regular size light, to get downward pointing spotlights at 300-400 distance easy.
It is usually not advisable to go above 5 brightness, unless you're actually trying to do something specific, in which case go for it. Just remember that the lighting in your scene should be relatively smooth, no super bright areas, no dark areas. The whole scene should flow to the eyes.
Try not to ever use more than 3 colors in an area.
Yeah i kinda suck at lighting too.....FMPONE - can you do us another more in-depth video on lighting? the one you have is great but maybe make a more advanced one?
In addition to what fmpone said here's a few more tips:
Try to never use pure white light (255,255,255) as it just ends up looking unnatural. If used correctly it can sometimes soften other colors but often leads to a washed out look. In a map I'm working on, all the 'white' lights I use are actually 255,197,243. I think part of why off-white looks so much better is that all the surfaces they hit will be lit with that slightly different color giving a more uniform look. Pure white light is pretty much equivalent to just turning up the brightness on all the surfaces.
Try layering lights. More light sources can lead to performance slowdown so don't go too crazy, but for some of the main light sources I find good results doing something like this: -An omni light with low falloff (~40-80) around 5 intensity and specular enabled right in front of the source. This helps the source look more like its shining. -Another omni light slightly farther from the source with only about 3 intensity, no specular, and a larger falloff around 100 or so. Helps give a little extra light around the source but depends if this should naturally happen given the position of the source and surrounding geometry. -If the light needs to be directional you can also add a a directional light pointing from the source with 2-3 intensity and a pretty decent falloff (300-400). This would be where you add any atmospheric density for the light as well. -It also helps to create another omni light near where the light should hit and use 200-400 falloff with no specular to add extra ambiance.
Also in regards to no more than 3 colors in an area, I try to make two of the colors contrast, and reserve the 3rd as my off-white.
Keep in mind none of this is absolute but tends to bring good results. :)
fmponeJoin Date: 2011-07-05Member: 108086Members, Squad Five Blue
<!--quoteo(post=1923983:date=Apr 10 2012, 08:11 PM:name=Drakennz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Drakennz @ Apr 10 2012, 08:11 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1923983"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yeah i kinda suck at lighting too.....FMPONE - can you do us another more in-depth video on lighting? the one you have is great but maybe make a more advanced one?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah I think I will. I'm liking that the community is becoming more concerned about such things, I think people are starting to move beyond beginner stuff and want meat and potatoes aesthetics help.
Evil_bOb1Join Date: 2002-07-13Member: 938Members, Squad Five Blue
edited April 2012
<!--quoteo(post=1923997:date=Apr 10 2012, 08:25 PM:name=fmpone)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fmpone @ Apr 10 2012, 08:25 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1923997"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yeah I think I will. I'm liking that the community is becoming more concerned about such things, I think people are starting to move beyond beginner stuff and want meat and potatoes aesthetics help.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hahaha! don't confuse the level of achievement on a level with the level of achievement of the maker. A lot of people here aren't beginners, they are just beginning on their maps on a path that is their own. We do not all come from the same place, and we do not all have the same destination.
Though, anything shared will always be greatly appreciated ;)
fmponeJoin Date: 2011-07-05Member: 108086Members, Squad Five Blue
edited April 2012
<!--quoteo(post=1924011:date=Apr 10 2012, 09:57 PM:name=Evil_bOb1)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Evil_bOb1 @ Apr 10 2012, 09:57 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1924011"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hahaha! don't confuse the level of achievement on a level with the level of achievement of the maker. A lot of people here aren't beginners, they are just beginning on their maps on a path that is their own. We do not all come from the same place, and we do not all have the same destination.
Though, anything shared will always be greatly appreciated ;)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Didn't mean anything by it, other than people are starting to get more advanced with the editor. I'll work on something soon, and it'll save a recording which can be viewed in my sig. Have a good one.
hookeyedJoin Date: 2007-08-26Member: 62011Members, Squad Five Blue
<!--quoteo(post=1923997:date=Apr 10 2012, 10:55 PM:name=fmpone)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fmpone @ Apr 10 2012, 10:55 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1923997"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yeah I think I will. I'm liking that the community is becoming more concerned about such things, I think people are starting to move beyond beginner stuff and want meat and potatoes aesthetics help.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Yeah, I'm at the stage where I'm going back through rooms trying different lighting techniques. I don't mean to ask too much but could you provide a sample map with different light combinations?
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
Have you tried opening any of the maps you in the spark editor? Seeing how lighting is done, both in examples you like, and examples you don't like, helps to give you an idea of what to do, or what not to do, to get the effects you want.
Generally the issue sounds like my current WIP, and that is a lack of lights. You need an amazing amount of light sources, with a low intensity and range, unless you are looking to change the colour of an area quite dramtically.
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
You must have them or you wouldn't be able to play on them :p
Go to your steam/steamapps/common/natural selection2/ns2/maps folder and you will find all the games maps in there. Copy them into a different folder, so you don't accidently save over a game map, then open them in the editor and have a look around them. Also go to <a href="http://www.duplexgaming.co.uk/downloads/" target="_blank">http://www.duplexgaming.co.uk/downloads/</a> and download some of the maps currently being hosted there.
Comments
It is usually not advisable to go above 5 brightness, unless you're actually trying to do something specific, in which case go for it. Just remember that the lighting in your scene should be relatively smooth, no super bright areas, no dark areas. The whole scene should flow to the eyes.
Try not to ever use more than 3 colors in an area.
Try to never use pure white light (255,255,255) as it just ends up looking unnatural. If used correctly it can sometimes soften other colors but often leads to a washed out look. In a map I'm working on, all the 'white' lights I use are actually 255,197,243. I think part of why off-white looks so much better is that all the surfaces they hit will be lit with that slightly different color giving a more uniform look. Pure white light is pretty much equivalent to just turning up the brightness on all the surfaces.
Try layering lights. More light sources can lead to performance slowdown so don't go too crazy, but for some of the main light sources I find good results doing something like this:
-An omni light with low falloff (~40-80) around 5 intensity and specular enabled right in front of the source. This helps the source look more like its shining.
-Another omni light slightly farther from the source with only about 3 intensity, no specular, and a larger falloff around 100 or so. Helps give a little extra light around the source but depends if this should naturally happen given the position of the source and surrounding geometry.
-If the light needs to be directional you can also add a a directional light pointing from the source with 2-3 intensity and a pretty decent falloff (300-400). This would be where you add any atmospheric density for the light as well.
-It also helps to create another omni light near where the light should hit and use 200-400 falloff with no specular to add extra ambiance.
Also in regards to no more than 3 colors in an area, I try to make two of the colors contrast, and reserve the 3rd as my off-white.
Keep in mind none of this is absolute but tends to bring good results. :)
Yeah I think I will. I'm liking that the community is becoming more concerned about such things, I think people are starting to move beyond beginner stuff and want meat and potatoes aesthetics help.
Hahaha! don't confuse the level of achievement on a level with the level of achievement of the maker. A lot of people here aren't beginners, they are just beginning on their maps on a path that is their own. We do not all come from the same place, and we do not all have the same destination.
Though, anything shared will always be greatly appreciated ;)
Though, anything shared will always be greatly appreciated ;)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Didn't mean anything by it, other than people are starting to get more advanced with the editor. I'll work on something soon, and it'll save a recording which can be viewed in my sig. Have a good one.
Yeah, I'm at the stage where I'm going back through rooms trying different lighting techniques. I don't mean to ask too much but could you provide a sample map with different light combinations?
Generally the issue sounds like my current WIP, and that is a lack of lights. You need an amazing amount of light sources, with a low intensity and range, unless you are looking to change the colour of an area quite dramtically.
Go to your steam/steamapps/common/natural selection2/ns2/maps folder and you will find all the games maps in there.
Copy them into a different folder, so you don't accidently save over a game map, then open them in the editor and have a look around them.
Also go to <a href="http://www.duplexgaming.co.uk/downloads/" target="_blank">http://www.duplexgaming.co.uk/downloads/</a> and download some of the maps currently being hosted there.