Map'sp lights. How to make it fade? Created 7 years ago2017-02-26 16:14:46 UTC by abbadon

Hi!, I wonder if is it possible to make a light turn off fading to black and then turn on another that fades from black to fullbright. There are some flags in the light entity named m_iOnstyle and m_iOffstyle but they don't work at all. I did read TWHL's tutorial btw.

I seem to remember on and off styles being implemented by either a mod like Spirit or by Xash3D. Or maybe it was just in the FGD for one of those and were left behind. Either way, I don't think it's possible in standard Half-Life. It is possible in Source with the SetPattern input, though.

I seem to remember on and off styles being implemented by either a mod like Spirit or by Xash3D. Or maybe it was just in the FGD for one of those and were left behind. Either way, I don't think it's possible in standard Half-Life. It is possible in Source with the SetPattern input, though.

Mmmm, the mod runs under Xash3D, probably I need to check the manual for this feature. :/

It's not that the light looks bad, but It coul be great that the transition of light1->light2->light3 will be using fade in-out styles.

you can have fading lights initially off but the problem is that when you turn them on, they dont start from the beginning but from anywhere in the cycle... it seems like the frames are advancing even when its off. Maybe you could code something. I think I have once seen a fading light in a mod with unmodified engine but dont know how it was done...

If you knew exactly how long the cycle was and where it starts, you might be able to jury rig up a solution with the right timing.

I have tried to use one env_fade, but I am sure that I did not setup all flags correctly, because it does not work. also I did try to use several lights with different intensities, but it´s quite choppy, like if you turn on several lights at different times.

you could fake it with an illusionary texture, gradually changing it opacity with many env_renders, or with static animated sprites

Jessie, that would probably be very unreliable

Haha!!, that could be a nightmare to make it coordinate with the rest of events!!

but I mean HL supports dynamic lights, even Quake did, the one casted by explosions, rpg and stuff. You would just need to create a simple entity to use it manually in maps...

i think this might be useful 4 u http://twhl.info/articulator.php?art=167

I have tried to use the "custom appearance" flag as seen on the TWHL tutorial and I´ve obtained very good results with light spots simulating flames. I have read that you can use letters but also capital letters and numbers. What they do exactly?. Letters made the light vary from fullbright(z) to to totally dark(a).

Did you try fucking around with the custom appearance, as you would with a candle maybe?:

If for "fucking" you mean try to use different values, yes. I tried. (i did read candle and fucking and start worrying myself a bit, haha!!)

But what I was asking is that if capital letters and numbers apply different effects more than intensity as normal letters do. The problem of messing with lights is that they require re-compiling all the map to see its effect.

^ yeah, it would be nice if you could see a real-time preview for testing purposes. Test maps can be fun, but also very tiresome with the constant recompiling.

And sorry I didn't read more carefully the first time; what Bruce pointed out seems to be quite a pain in the ass. Faking it somehow is probably your best bet, and for your fps performance as well..