Hiya guys.

I have a noobish question regarding lighting and WED levels.
I NORMALLY create my levels dynamically, so Im new to WED
after a LONG absence. And I was never too good with lighting anyway.

I cant post objects ATM, so the best I can show is the "level.wmp & wmb"
that is contained in this PROJECT.
(It IS this project Im having the trouble with BTW, its just not up-to-date)

My problem is this. The level is pretty damn dark.
Play the level and you'll see what I mean, and where the lightsources are.
So I want to adjust up the ambient light levels, and maybe tweak its color a bit.

But I cant get any ambient light to stick!

Ive tried setting sunlight to zero, and left it there.

Ive tried adjusting the ambient color in WED... no change at all.

Ive tried adjusting the ambient_color in script... no change at all.


Ive also tried "mucking about" with the compiler settings.
No successes, and many failures, some horrible to see.

But I suspect it is here in the compiler settings I need the help.
A few tests gave levels me some control over the ambient, but the
I just couldnt get it back to DARK... I hope you know what I mean...

Both direct help and / or links to modern tutorials will be appreciated.

So .. HELP .. Thanks again guys an gals.

Did you try to add a static light somewhere so it touches a level block?
Btw. you don't really want to use vertex lighting, do you? It always looks pretty bad, no matter how small the tesselation is. Better use simple point lights instead (shader).

Btw. why are there Superku tracks in your game folder? EDIT: Ah ok, they are the tracks from my composer thread. I've thought they were early drafts by exile.

Btw. 2: As I suppose your game will be a fast paced shooter with a lot of bullets, I suggest you don't use models for your bullets (because of the time for ent_create, c_move and even rendering). Instead... I've made it a contribution, see here:

http://www.opserver.de/ubb7/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=391795&#Post391795

No, but I will do in a few minutes... and WHY should I? ( I want to understand)

"Vertex lighting" ... I know not of which you speak dude!
I just have light-emitting entities (SPOTLIGHT flag = off).
No WED lightsources, no shaders(ATM), no sunlight...
Compiling level with 'default' settings.
I would 'expect' that to work... but NO. Strange unlit areas are created, most noticably the back wall.
If I make all the blocks of that wall a 'single mesh' in WED, the entire wall goes black...

I just dont get it...


BTW:: Hehe, glad SOMEONE noticed the music... you get credits when I do the credits page...

BTW2:: I just saw that heading for the non-entity bullets a few minutes ago.
I havent read it yet though. But I will be.

No Luck... Added a light 'outside' the room that hits tht back of multiple blocks...

ABOLUTELY no change. Artifacts didnt even change shape at all...


As a side note... in the past, didnt WED used to have a setting to allow
the 3D view to display ACTUAL level-lighting? I cant find it...


SuperKu:: Looked at your no-entity thread. No good for THIS project,
but it has started my creative juices flowing.. Stay tuned.

I think you use 32 bit TGA or generally TGAs. Try to use bmaps.
Just my guess

Ali:: WTF?!? I have no idea what your talking about.

At THIS point, its the level geometry thats being a bitch. And they are all
using standard.wad texture...

Or am I missing the point somewhere?

If you don't use special shaders for dynamic lighting, you always have vertex lighting. See f.i. the remark under entity.lightrange in the manual:
"Without shaders, the light reflections are interpolated between vertices. The distance between vertices on level surfaces depends on the tesselation (adjustable in the Map Compiler); the default value is 200 pixels."


Hm, what gives you the right to simply use the music, have you asked the componists?


Why wouldn't it help you here? It's perfect for your game, your wasting resources with entity bullets.

Yes, I am using vertex-light (I now see). And cranking the tessalation
right down DID improve things alot, but not enough...

Im thinking its the 8-light limit COMBINED with such large blocks.
Im going to have look with the light-count shader later...
ATM Im looking at chopping the large walls into smaller blocks.


Oops! Yes they ARE Exiles work. Because I found them in your thread,
I got confused who the author was for a moment...
I am just using them as placeholders ATM cause I liked his work...
Once Ive developed this project a bit further, I will ask his permission to
us them, or as-yet-unrevealed pieces of his work, AS LONG AS NO-ONE ELSE IS!
Im not into stealing others work. EVER!

The same applies to my 'player' model. It is from the 'users resources' forum.
It is currently just a placeholder, but I think I'll ask the owners permission
to keep it. Im getting quite used to him... Its a good boned-model, by painkiller.
He offered it up for public use, but I feel better asking if I can get him.


The no-entity traces wouldnt help me because I 'intend' to need USE_POLYGON
collisions, not just ray-traces.
But that MAY change... Hard to say this early.

Ok. Couldn't you just upload a minimal example with script, just the level and dynamic lighting?


What do you mean, USE_BOX? (Because the code uses USE_POLYGON.) I don't think that's necessary for such thin objects, but you decide.