Model Lighting Issues... Created 16 years ago2007-07-28 21:53:50 UTC by TheElzar

Now I may just be retarded...

But I'm getting a weird sort of reflective "glow" coming off of my prop models when they're supposed to be in complete darkness...

When the lights are on it looks fine, but when the lights go off, my trashcans and benches glow like fireflies...

I've tried messing around with light origins, even though I have no clue what those really do...

I also have multiple lights in many directions that go on and off via triggers, maybe this has something to do with it...I dunno...

ONCE, during a test after compiling they didn't glow in the darkness...but I haven't been able to get back to that state...

I'll post screenshots if requested, but I'm hoping that someone might be able to throw me a few bones...

ALSO: I'm having trouble with a soundscape, I've followed multiple tutorials on how to set it up, but it will not play in game...

Any spurts of wisdom would be helpful... (BTW this is for HL2)

THANKS!

You have got envmaps set up to them right?

Cubemaps?

How can you set a cubemap to a prop?

Put plenty of cubemaps to cover your map first. When you play your map type "buildcubemaps" in console. Theoretically that should do it, accompanied by a refresh of the map. However, Valve screwed it up in a recent update. Toggle mat_specular 0/1 with some map changes until the reflections/refractions all work correctly. It's a pain.. but that's source for ya :-/.

Okay, I can do that...

Theoretically...

I've had bad experiences with "buildcubemaps" before...

I usually crash straight to the desktop every time I try to do that...

I'll try here in a second...but I'm not sure if it will work...

EDIT:

Indeed, buildcubemaps crashed me directly to the desktop, do not pass go, do not collect $200...

Any ideas why it won't let me use that command?

The last time this happened I sent my .vmf to someone and they ran buildcubemaps just fine...

I read around and heard that the resolution of my window may be an issue...

I'm running on a widescreen laptop, that may be the problem...I'll see if I can tweak the resolutions before running buildcubemaps for better success...

BTW, if someone is willing to attempt to run the map and buildcubemaps to see if it works for them, feel free to send me a PM... This is one of my little projects I'd rather not throw out into public just yet...

Building Cube Maps can eats your processor power for a few seconds but even my dinosaur computer can handle it. I can't think why you'd be booted out of the game.

I would blame the laptop but thats just my general hatred towards laptops talking.

buildcubemaps crashes to desktop if you're running HL2 on a lower resolution than 800 x 600, as reflections simply aren't supported that low, i believe.

although why you would run so low, i can't think, so that's probably not the problem.

Valve screwed it up in a recent update

They seem to do that a lot. And they still haven't fixed the displacement collisions

Indeed... Valve seems incapable of fixing current problems, yet fully able to create problems where there are none... back on topic though guys.

Check your resolution as has been suggested and tell us if that makes a difference, I can't think of any reason why it would kick you to desktop other than that, and even the resolution is news to me xD.

Yea...

I'm running on a laptop with an ATI integrated card...

...a Radeon Xpress 200M...

It's on the crap side of cards when it comes to gaming, so I usually run my steam games on the lowest 16:9 resolution possible...

Which is something like 720x480...

I bumped it up to the normal 1600x800 or whatever (I'm terrible at remembering these widescreen resolutions) and my cubemaps built fine...

It's working perfect now...

Now if only I could get that stupid soundscape to perform correctly...

EDIT: Also, I changed one of my lights from a spotlight to a light entity, and now I'm getting a "Too many styles on face" error during the compile...

Any tips on fixing that?

Usually means you lighting is too complex, try simplifying the area where you changed the light entity.

Also, we've got a tutorial here on soundscapes if you weren't already using it: http://www.twhl.co.za/tutorial.php?id=109

Yea, that's the tut (one of them) that I've been using...

I followed each step correctly as far as I can tell, but the sound just won't play in game...

Also, how do you pinpoint exactly which brushes/faces are the one's with too many light styles?

Where's the feature which allows you to pinpoint faces with their coordinates...