light_environment too dark

[rex64]

I saw someone use light_environment before. I think you guys recommended 78 degrees. However everything is too dark. Even the tops of bildings. I put the light at the top middle of the room.

angle:
0 78 0

 

[Raeven0]

You need a sky, and you might have set the brightness too low.

78 only makes sense when the sun (or moon) is 78 degrees from the horizon...

 

[FictiousWill]

select the entity, move the camera inside it and look down. Open it's properties and use the point option to line up the sun just the way you want. Make sure your ambient value is decent, like "num num num 200"

 

[Ti133700N]

-78 degree for the pitch value

 

[Raeven0]

-78 degree for the pitch value

Ah. Correct.

And, while we're at it, an angle of 0 78 0 would point the light_environment north-northeast, with no downward angle.

 

[rex64]

how about this

Im a lil confused with eveyone's comments. Is this correct:
0 -78 0 200

It looks too dark. I would like to look like it is 1:00 PM. Please see screenshot. Actually, the screen shot does not display it real well. If you are inside the castle, everything is almost pitch black. 3 of the 4 sides of the outside of the castle are very dark. The one lit side looks like moonlight (although it is cool looking).

 

[giant384]

to solve ur problem go to the skybox name and change it to sky_dust or w/e name u want it will fix the problem where the sky looks like a box

 

[rex64]

very cool

That is very cool. But my real problem is I want it to look like daytime. And this light makes it look like nighttime. Thanks.

 

[FictiousWill]

Ambient: 255 255 255 300

That'll blast the sunshine like there's no tomorrow.

 

[rex64]

settings

How does this look?

Pitch Yaw Roll: 0 -78 0 600
Pitch: -78
Brightness: 255 255 255 200
Ambient: 255 255 255 300

 

[rex64]

skybox

I am only using a skybox texture.

Do I just apply a sky texture to the inside face of the big room? I tried this before and it did not seem to work. I have the other faces set to nodraw.
"to solve ur problem go to the skybox name and change it to sky_dust or w/e name u want it will fix the problem where the sky looks like a box"

 

[Raeven0]

Pitch/yaw/roll should be three values. It's pitch, yaw, and roll. There is no magical fourth modifier... at least, not when we're restricted to three-dimensional space.

Ambient = light from sky; brightness = light from light_environment (sun). In the screenshot, it looks like the side of the castle that points away from the sun is dimmer, which is exactly what happens in real life... but if you want it to be brighter, you probably need to up the ambient brightness (the final value is the brightness; the first three are color). 300 is probably bright enough to burn the surface of the earth to a blackened crisp. How about... 80?

If the inside of a building is dark, it's because you forgot to include windows large enough to allow light in, or because there are no lights inside the building.

 

[rex64]

ok

Ok. Does my brightness look ok? I think I have all the values correct now. How is Pitch (Y) diffrent from the other Pitch?

Pitch Yaw Roll: 0 -78 0
Pitch: -78
Brightness: 255 255 255 200
Ambient: 255 255 255 200

 

[Raeven0]

I think light_environment needs that second Pitch because if you try to change the entity's yaw via the things in the upper-right corner (the black circle and the text box), the existing pitch and roll are removed. Having a separate Pitch that isn't deleted when the yaw changes corrects this.

The difference between the pitch in Pitch/Yaw/Roll and the actual Pitch property is that the former measures clockwise and the latter counter-clockwise. (Setting the Pitch/Yaw/Roll pitch to -90 results in the entity pointing straight up; setting the standalone Pitch to -90, straight down.)

Those values are acceptable if you want the sky and the sun to be of equal brightness

 

[clarky003]

Brightness: 255 255 255 400

Ambient: 255 255 255 100

these are ideal values for a daytime map. 440 is the maximum value for both

 

[rex64]

thanks. skybox also

Thanks. My lighting is much improved.

I still have the question on the skybox:

I am only using a skybox texture.

Do I just apply a sky texture to the inside face of the big room? I tried this before and it did not seem to work. I have the other faces set to nodraw.
"to solve ur problem go to the skybox name and change it to sky_dust or w/e name u want it will fix the problem where the sky looks like a box"

 

[Raeven0]

Why would you do that? You'd at best get sky on the inside of the room.

 

[Limpet]

The default sky has those blue lines going around it. You can change the sky or set your texture quality (i think thats the name) to highest and it will be fixed.

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

Do I just apply a sky texture to the inside face of the big room? I tried this before and it did not seem to work. I have the other faces set to nodraw.

IIRC for HL1 the entire block that was supposed to represent the sky had to be covered in the skybox texture (all the sides, including the ones you can't see). As far as I know, it's the same in HL2.

There's no need to cover all the other faces in the nodraw texture cause the should be touching the 'void' and won't be rendered by the engine anyway.

 

[rex64]

skybox

When I apply the sky_day02_02b texture to my skybox (all sides of it including back...) it looks very strange even in the editor. Please take a look.

 

[GonzoBabbleshit]

aah, that's what you're doing wrong!

You need to use the tools\skybox texture (it's just blue squares with 'skybox' written on it), the actual picture of the sky will be placed over that ingame.

If you want to use a different sky there's a list here, you put the name of the sky you want to use in the map properties box which is under Map>Map Properties.

 

[Secret_Machine]

This map look very intresting. And big. I hope you'll be releasing it here soon!