Dark Testchambers D:
i dont know but when i build maps they r super and doesnt look bright like the game. I am using the full compile HDR and LDR. Can someone tell me how to brighten up my rooms especially the env_projected_texture and light_spot.
Here is the link to an image:https://www.dropbox.com/s/cl40dcx93dan4iy/2013-07-05_00001.jpg
I want it too look bright like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gw25mh0r5f1es2b/2013-06-17_00005.jpg
Please Help Thanks!
First off; use the [img] tags; they're really awesome!
Second of all;
light_spots are really easy; you can set the spread angle, color, etc. You will see a preview in hammer; that should give a pretty good indication what will happen.
Projected textures are a bit more tricky;
You can only have one active at the time and one is already being used in the elevator, so in order to have it active in your map you need a trigger to activate it.
Be sure to carefully read all the possibilities and flags here and mess around with it a bit!
i understand the one at at a time deal for the env_projected_texture but for the light spot would the light project pass through a func_door because i want the effect of light coming underneath the wall? also how would make them brighter (heh heh u didnt explain)
Light_spot is just a static light. Shadows casted by it are static, too. As a normal light.
And just put them in front of the wall lights, so they appear to be brighter.
Or use those instances instead, they are brighter versions of normal wall lights: Brighter Wall Lights Instances
Thing is, a lot of Valve's maps kind of "cheat" and place a light in the middle of the room. It is a really hard effect to pull off without looking unnatural or ugly, though, so you are better off placing more observation rooms/light strips. I notice your observation room looks dark, you might want to make sure you are using the right instance. I use the labs/observation_room_XYZxXYZ_1.vmf instances. If the instance ends with _off, then it won't have any lights in it, making it (obviously) useless for lighting. That seems to be the case with your chamber, however, I don't have Portal 2 in front of me at the moment so I can't be sure.
If all else fails, you may want to edit the observation room instance (PLEASE save it as a new file!) and make the light a bit brighter.
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umm when u use the consle command create_flashlight it works similar to an env_projected_texture but it passes through brushes how does this work?
I'm pretty sure flashlights are also projected textures; it's the same reason why in left4dead you can only see your own flashlight effect; you can only have one projected texture at a given moment.
Basically source is an old engine; it first released in 2004 with cs:s, back in 2004 our computers weren't good enough to run a lot of dyanmic shadows; and the way the engine is build it uses heaps of static lights because they're cheaper to render. Thus running on lower spec machines.
If you look at the minimum specifications for portal 2 you will see that they;'re really low compared to other games from 2011.
Basically all shadows in source are static, calculated by vrad in the compile process. That's one of the reasons why compiling a map for source takes so long compared to other engines. There's the possibility for one env_projected texture at the time that will give real-time shadows. So to get the door effect you will need the env_projected texture, because it's not a static light. 