hammer editor light tips and problems ab Created 8 years ago2016-07-28 12:07:45 UTC by hfc

i need some lighting effects for my map concept. i m making glowing objects. i find theese pics on the net to show what thhese objects looks like.

http://bigyoshop.hu/images/products/vilagito-cipofuzo.jpg

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1537016/images/o-COMPUTER-SCREEN-GLOW-facebook.jpg

http://php-phreaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/screen-glow-300x300.jpg

goldsource is using precalculated shadows. because of that trains/doors on the maps appears to shaded in their first position. for example if you place a train in a unlighted room and ride it to a lighted room train is still remains unlighted. i noticed there is some hidden rooms in half-life to overcome this problem (i guessing). for example there is a satellite rocket in half-life this rocket is hid in a lighted room. if it wasnt placed that room the rocket will be appear as fully dark when flying up to sky. also trains on black mesa inbound placed in theese rooms.

this is gave me an idea to make this glowing objects. glowing means bright light on the object itself. and dimmer light at very small radius around the object. (there is little difference for every glow type but main property of glowing is this)

i made this in hammer editor i placed my objects in bright light in another room. then tied to func_door. so it is moved in game area after the game started, which i desired to see it there. and i placed some dim lights almost touching the surface of game area which is target location of my glowing objects, i placed them before the compiling map. so succes my objects looking like glowing.

http://postimg.org/gallery/1tgk320si/

second picture in the link below, using a point light without using any of my methods.

http://postimg.org/gallery/2jwg2m6fs/

and here is the my questions

theese are my results. but there is a few problems. i have to make more smaller and large numbers of glowing objects. such as all buttons are glowing on a control panel of a space craft. this is easy i can make all buttons placed on one func_door entity. but i have some issues i cant make the doors opening right angle or exact position. i searched tuts for func_door but i cant find any useful thngs for my situation. how can i change it is operating direction? and how can i precisely measure it's operating range. i figured lip paremater on the func_door properties adjusting doors range. but is it in units i didnt figure it yet. how to use this parameter? and also need info about func_plat entity. i cant find there isnt any option for make platform to move in a particular direction or particular distance. how to use it? and i tried to give my object glowing effect with spotlights but it isnt working there is 2 parameters in light_spot entity one of them is pitch and other parameter is "pitch yaw roll" i cant make any modification on this parameter. everytime i edit this parameter it will reset when compiling the map. am i using an inproper fgd file? or is there another way to edit.

im also looking for easier implement of glowing effect. is there a way to reduce point light's radius. and is there a built-in glowing effects for that. such as renderamounts. i hope there is more time saving method than mine

http://www.interlopers.net/images/hl2tutorials/reflective_floor/ref_tutorial1.jpg

im also accepting new light effect suggestions/tutorials such as placing glow sprite on light source. or such as mirrored floor. (there is a way to illusion to make reflective solid entity on goldsource.) i dont like this mirroring effect im not gonna use that but you can suggest another light effect, for making my map more spectecular.

thanks for reading. i hope i can get more time saving way to make glow objects.

Have you tried using texture lighting with a very low brightness? I expect that would be an easier way to get the effect you want, without using up a bunch of func_door entities and making hidden rooms.

You wouldn't even need a lights.rad file if you're using a modern compiler, just use an info_texlights and add the textures you want affected with smartedit off.

thaks for the reply. installed zhlt and hammer 3.5 now. before that im using old tools. im not an expert mapper and cant use any light after that. my maps appears fullbright or fulldark i cant compile with lights yet. now gonna try and adjust other new light entities came with zhlt. i searched for tuts but i found only more confusing things that requires to edit advanced parameters of zhlt entities, or editing advanced compiling parameters. can someone send me a full tutorial for using full features of zhlt. and im also need to found full tutorials of using full features of hammer.

Here's the documentation site for ZHLT
And here's a comprehensive article on the various kinds of lights in Goldsource
As long as you're running RAD and have some kind of light in your map, it should have lighting - unless your map has a leak, of course.
If it's completely dark as opposed to fullbright, then all the lights in your map must have a low brightness setting - adjust any point lights or texture lights that you're using for illumination, rather than just to have a glow effect in the dark.

thank for the tuts. yeah it was a leak finally found it, after inspecting 1 hours. re snapped my outer walls to grid. full bright problem is solved. though it was just an experiment map for glowing objects :). having full dark problems on another map inspecting that too. it seems misused new light entities which came with zhlt.fgd. i was using "light_bounce" instead of just "light" this is solved too. but i noticed something, unlighted rooms appears as void and gives noclip like rendering effect the renderer doesnt giving any new frame and my gamemenu/console stays on the screen after closing it. idont know why, perhaps this is only zhlt effect. now im gonna try out the texture lighting after from learning it

btw i figured out how to adjust angle of a spotlight. it was changing when i tried to move it. i will learned that must re-edit after from moving it.

if there is a way to improve resolution of light maps. i can do this with a spotlight.

and i have to ask that, in my case i need a way to modify the light for lighting only some parts of a single texture on single brush.

if texture lighting doesnt gonna make it then it is useless for my case

i can make my objects parts from multiple brushes but it is same as the making func_door.

i need in this way because i want to lit just buttons on the control panel of the space craft not all the panel and light never must never gonna hit another objects near the panel because other objects will remove glowing illusion if they are lit too.

can tex lighting handle my situation?

to mimic glowing buttons and other tiny detail theres a well known method of using a thin glowing layer func_illusionary.

To make specific parts of textures glow your best bet is to use latest vluzacn tools (vhlt), with its new texture lighting functionality its possible

i like this idea. i think this will be way more time saving and precise method than func_door. thanks for the answering this solves all my problems are there any example or information or picture about that glowing func_illusionary?

and there is one more thing i want to learn, why hammer editor always resetting my spotlight/funcdoor entities' angle when after the opening properties window (or such a thing i dont realize).

everytime when i compile the map i see entities is turned wrong angle. this results with second compilaton after the fixing my entities.

Here's a tutorial about the glowing func_illusionary: http://the303.org/tutorials/gold_texture_p3.htm

If you're using it on top of a regular texture (like you want a glowing monitor screen), it's probably best to use NULL texture on all sides except the one you want to glow.

cool very helpful. thanks