Cubemaps Refuse to Function Properly Created 6 years ago2018-06-22 04:21:54 UTC by SiMpLeToN

Hi there,

I've begun making a map for Half-Life 2 and have run into an issue: my brushes and props do not receive any specularity. I know this because weapon_cubemap is only textured without any reflectivity. I've tried manually deleting .vtf's with VIDE, building cubemaps for both LDR and HDR (yes, my VBSP has the -both parameter), my cubemaps are at least 16 units away from brushes, etc. I don't know what the problem is. All I can imagine is that VBSP generates its own cubemaps on compile, but I don't know how to get it to not do that. I’ve followed TopHATTwaffle's walkthrough for a CS:S cubemaps issue, but I did not get the same result. Any suggestions?

Link to BSP and VMF

Does buildallcubemaps in game work?

I remember reading https://github.com/ValveSoftware/source-sdk-2013/issues/40 recently but that might be a different issue (worth searching there though).

So I got cubemaps to BUILD by deleting all the .VTF's from the .bsp. It only works if I also delete the default cubemaps for LDR and HDR. My next problems is that all reflective surfaces are now super bright and shiny in HDR mode and to a lesser extent in LDR mode. Furthermore, seem to be using the map's skybox texture for their reflection data. How do I get the cubemaps to actually use the environment?

Hey man. Few things.

1) Check your compile log, you're getting a few warnings - "Too many light styles on face"
2) You really only need one cubemap per room. That room with the vending machine had 3.
3) So after I removed the extra 2 cubemaps, I compiled and added water to check reflections.Not sure what other issues you're having. This was HL2 btw.

Tetsu0 said:I compiled and added water to check reflections.

Keep in mind that water uses real-time reflections and might not reflect what cubemaps will look like.

As for the cubemap problem, you might be doing something wrong in the process. Just to be sure, follow these instructions and see if you get the right results.

Tesu0 said:1)

2)

3)

1) For the too many lighting styles error, I believe it was coming from the point_spotlight on top of the vending machine. I removed it and not only did the strange lighting artifact on the floor go away, but so did the compile error.

2) I read somewhere that somehow more cubemaps is better...guess not. Just wanted to try just in case.

3) I'm concerned about the props' reflections. I think water is reflective no matter what. I think water_lod_control makes it so or something.

Dr. Orange said:follow these instructions and see if you get the right results.

Will do.

Thanks for the help guys! I'll keep updating the link if you want to follow along. I've changed the map since the last upload.

Side note: how does it look?

Fixed. Thanks so much for the support guys!! Like an anvil off my chest. I was doing everything right except mat_reloadallmaterials. GAH! Each room has only one cubemap now as well. I believe another problem may have been caused by a BSP with the same name in two locations that the game can read. One was in a custom/maps folder and the other was in hl2/maps. The game probably didn't know which one to use. Once I deleted one, it seemed to help.