Question on Ligthmaps

[Karlos_Modder]

Do i increase or decrease the walls lightmaps to get rid of the squaring of the light reflection.
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1894/lightmapsrx7.th.jpg (http://img140.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lightmapsrx7.jpg)

[MiKa523]

Decrease lightmap scale, this looks like 64 or more O_o
16 should be nice for sharp lighting.
You can also tweak the angles of the lights to improve the shape of the light on the wall.

Another question regarding lightmaps:
How come that more detailed lightmaps don't decrease fps, but only increase file size and compile time?

[Karlos_Modder]

Because the lights are static, there is hardly and CPU or GPU processing involved. The light reflecting off the wall is also static. Think that the entire wall is a picture if you will.
Edit: All my walls are set at 16 lightmap scale (by default)

[MiKa523]

I'm confused now.
Is the light on the wall a reflection (env_cubemap like?) or just normal light caused by the lights. When you already use lightmap scale 16, I guess you made kind of a fast compile? Like -noextra or something that causes rather cheap, but fast lighting.

Regarding lightmaps, I know that it is static, but I was just wondering why quality of the lightmaps and thus size/resolution doesn't effect the performance at all, since I read that somewhere.

[Karlos_Modder]

What you see in that screenshot is a wall. 3 prop_static (down lights) with 3 light_spots and 3 env_sprites. For some reason the light is showing up square on the wall not rounded like a spotlight. My Vvis compile is set to normal.

[Kev_Boy]

To be honest I've rarely found light_spots to be of any significant value, just use a normal light and make sure it's far away enough from the walls/ceiling so it looks good.

[Karlos_Modder]

But in real life lights dont shine in 360 degrees. And you get more of a realistic affect if you use light_spot

[haymaker]

But in real life lights dont shine in 360 degrees. And you get more of a realistic affect if you use light_spot

I second that. I rarely find a use for the plain "light" entity.

Don't be afraid to densify your lightmaps more if you want smoother shadows, the only downsides are longer compiles and bigger filesizes.

[fourtecks]

quick note: make sure your lightmap scale is a power of 2. examples: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, ect. This is not about your issue in your screenshot, just a reference.

[Angry Beaver]

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Advanced_Lighting#Lightmaps

[haymaker]

quick note: make sure your lightmap scale is a power of 2. examples: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, ect. This is not about your issue in your screenshot, just a reference.

Sorry if this is OT...I've wondered what the reason behind this is. I have a few that are set to 6 and some at 24 and they function as they should. Is it a math thing to help the compiler?

[Karlos_Modder]

This is my latest compile log and for some reason when i load my map in Counter-Strike: Source i get this message "CUtILinkedList overflow!" then it crahes to desktop. The only difference ive noticed in this compile log is that the numportals have dropped by 3000. Every thing else is the same. Since my last compile i have only added 50 env_sprites, 6 lights, an ambient sound . And the compile time took 20mins now it takes 5min

materialPath: g:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\karlos_58\counter-strike source\cstrike\materials
Loading C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\My Maps\Office_building_v1_cs.vmf
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1... 2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (0)
Chop Details...done (0)
Find Visible Detail Sides...
Merged 1432 detail faces...done (0)
Merging details...done (1)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (1)
writing C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\My Maps\Office_building_v1_cs.prt...done (0)
Creating default cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials:
skybox/militia_hdr*.vmt
Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps.

Creating default HDR cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials:
skybox/militia_hdr*.vmt
Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps.

Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Building Physics collision data...
done (1) (817794 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 2349 texinfos to 1065
Reduced 304 texdatas to 247 (15739 bytes to 13117)
Writing C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\My Maps\Office_building_v1_cs.bsp
12 seconds elapsed



2 threads
reading c:\users\admin\desktop\my maps\Office_building_v1_cs.bsp
reading c:\users\admin\desktop\my maps\Office_building_v1_cs.prt
1028 portalclusters
2858 numportals
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1... 2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10Optimized: 4065 visible clusters (0.00%)
Total clusters visible: 234691
Average clusters visible: 228
Building PAS...
Average clusters audible: 834
visdatasize:217342 compressed from 279616
writing c:\users\admin\desktop\my maps\Office_building_v1_cs.bsp
1 minute, 20 seconds elapsed



[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[1 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']

Loading c:\users\admin\desktop\my maps\Office_building_v1_cs.bsp
7271 faces
15 degenerate faces
212027 square feet [30531904.00 square inches]
0 displacements
0 square feet [0.00 square inches]
7256 patches before subdivision
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
zero area child patch
38748 patches after subdivision
158 direct lights
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...100...1... 2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10transfers 4126248, max 682
transfer lists: 31.5 megs
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #1 added RGB(212184, 197875, 162495)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #2 added RGB(58204, 51393, 36621)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #3 added RGB(18857, 15399, 9364)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #4 added RGB(6984, 5302, 2777)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #5 added RGB(2742, 1910, 849)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #6 added RGB(1132, 725, 274)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #7 added RGB(480, 282, 90)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #8 added RGB(208, 112, 30)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #9 added RGB(91, 45, 10)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #10 added RGB(41, 18, 4)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #11 added RGB(18, 8, 1)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #12 added RGB(8, 3, 0)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #13 added RGB(4, 1, 0)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #14 added RGB(2, 1, 0)
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 Bounce #15 added RGB(1, 0, 0)
Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.0296 sec>
0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10FinalLig htFace Done
0 of 0 (0% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes.
ComputePerLeafAmbientLighting: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Ready to Finish

Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
------------ --------------- --------------- --------
models 39/1024 1872/49152 ( 3.8%)
brushes 2120/8192 25440/98304 (25.9%)
brushsides 14950/65536 119600/524288 (22.8%)
planes 6598/65536 131960/1310720 (10.1%)
vertexes 17712/65536 212544/786432 (27.0%)
nodes 2831/65536 90592/2097152 ( 4.3%)
texinfos 1065/12288 76680/884736 ( 8.7%)
texdata 247/2048 7904/65536 (12.1%)
dispinfos 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_verts 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_tris 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_lmsamples 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
faces 7271/65536 407176/3670016 (11.1%)
hdr faces 0/65536 0/3670016 ( 0.0%)
origfaces 5311/65536 297416/3670016 ( 8.1%)
leaves 2871/65536 91872/2097152 ( 4.4%)
leaffaces 10294/65536 20588/131072 (15.7%)
leafbrushes 5576/65536 11152/131072 ( 8.5%)
areas 2/256 16/2048 ( 0.8%)
surfedges 58914/512000 235656/2048000 (11.5%)
edges 41060/256000 164240/1024000 (16.0%)
LDR worldlights 158/8192 13904/720896 ( 1.9%)
HDR worldlights 0/8192 0/720896 ( 0.0%)
waterstrips 1050/32768 10500/327680 ( 3.2%)
waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%)
waterindices 20763/65536 41526/131072 (31.7%)
cubemapsamples 84/1024 1344/16384 ( 8.2%)
overlays 0/512 0/180224 ( 0.0%)
LDR lightdata [variable] 1909748/0 ( 0.0%)
HDR lightdata [variable] 0/0 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 217342/16777216 ( 1.3%)
entdata [variable] 156278/393216 (39.7%)
LDR leaf ambient 2871/65536 68904/1572864 ( 4.4%)
HDR leaf ambient 0/65536 0/1572864 ( 0.0%)
occluders 9/0 360/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder polygons 82/0 984/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder vert ind 368/0 1472/0 ( 0.0%)
detail props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%)
static props [variable] 1/28670 ( 0.0%)
pakfile [variable] 7454123/0 ( 0.0%)

Level flags = 0

Win32 Specific Data:
physics [variable] 817794/4194304 (19.5%)
==== Total Win32 BSP file data space used: 12588989 bytes ====

Total triangle count: 22715
Writing c:\users\admin\desktop\my maps\Office_building_v1_cs.bsp
5 minutes, 26 seconds elapsed

[Karlos_Modder]

Ok, i think i found out what "CUtILinkedList overflow!". Its when the game is pre-loading textures for models, sprite..ect. So i deleted all my env_sprites and compiled and it worked

[zyklus]

Env_sprites tend to have many bugs. For me, env_sprites kept crashing my map.

[Karlos_Modder]

well i wanted the wow effect on the lights, but i got a different wow. "wow it crashes"

[Kev_Boy]

Sprites are cheap to render and do a great job on making light-source models appear to actually emit the light you see. I would advise you keep looking what the problem is instead of deleting things... :)

[Karlos_Modder]

Well that was the problem. Env_sprite, by the looks of it i had to many and when it came to loading the map the engine couldnt handle 50 env_sprite loading at once

[zyklus]

Well that was the problem. Env_sprite, by the looks of it i had to many and when it came to loading the map the engine couldnt handle 50 env_sprite loading at once

I don't think loading 50 sprites at once should crash it...

[Karlos_Modder]

well right before the engine crashed the console was displaying
loading evn_sprite (bla bla bla bla) Pre-loading..............
loading evn_sprite (bla bla bla bla) Pre-loading..............
loading evn_sprite (bla bla bla bla) Pre-loading..............
loading evn_sprite (bla bla bla bla) Pre-loading..............
loading evn_sprite (bla bla bla bla) Pre-loading..............
loading evn_sprite (bla bla bla bla) Pre-loading..............
*45ish times more*
Then the game crashed and that cuilist overflow error showed up