lighting difficulties Created 17 years ago2006-06-05 14:34:22 UTC by 3mil

im trying to create an airplane hanger. and id like for it to initially be dark (almost pitch black) exept for a red button in the distance. once the button is pressed a series of spot lights turn on one by one untill the room is illuminated. but im having trouble with two things, making the room start off really dark and keeping it dark in between spot lights.any suggestions?

Well, are you using light_spots? If not, you're looking at a point source, which is going to spill light everywhere.

As for keeping it dark to start off with... is the hangar in a dark map, or what?

Suggestion, too: gotta have dramatic CLUNK noises when each light comes on... right?

I got an idea...
Place lights and light_spots in your hanger now give them the same name or possibly give the two light entities two different names aka "Lighton1" and "Lighton2"

Now use a trigger to turn them off as the map starts...Your hanger will be pitch black. Now trigger that button to 'Turn the lights on'...

of course you gotta have the "clunk" noise Seventh-Monkey and habboi thanks that sounds pretty cool

"As for keeping it dark to start off with... is the hangar in a dark map, or what?"

yeah, just relized i forgot to check normal for VIS and RAD when compiling so things should work allot better now

good that you sorted it, but in future - dont double post. Use the edit button

If you use a multi-manager to turn on each light_spot in sequence (at intervals), each light has to have a different name.

It sounds like it will be a good-looking effect!

However..be aware! For each uniquely named light, your compile time will increase because the overall lighting has to be calculated for each individual light! The bigger the area which is potentially affected by each light, the longer the compile.

Name one light and compile. Name another light and compile. Just to see how much compile time is added.

Should be noted too, if you add to many pointlights -lights that can be turned on/off/flicker, etc- you'll get the dreaded Warning: Too many direct light styles on a face Error.

Usually, your map waill still compile/run with these, but it's not recommened, and among other things, will add dreadful amounts of time to your compile.

Last but not least, use textlights for any lighting that doesn't have to be dynamic.

thats what i was worried about, the compile time being long. but its not too bad, and the maps coming along nicely as well.