Platinum Arts Sandbox Free 3D Game Maker - User contributions [en]

Lighting

2009-06-30T18:28:31Z

Iokina: /* Calculating */

=Lights=

[[image:light1.jpg|thumb|right|A Map with decent light settings]]
[[image:light2.jpg|thumb|right|The same map with poor light settings. notice how cartoony it is]]

==Adding them==

to add lights, enter editmode first, and then open the main menu. From there you should see a 'new light' option on the left. From there you can choose a series of preset colours, or even specify more specifically which to use. keep in mind this method doesn't support shadow lights.

if you feel up to some console wizardry, you can try the /newent command!

/newent light 0 250 230 150

is an example of a light with an infinite radius, with values suitable to a sun.<br>
to change the values, you can use the quickedit menu (F3) or the /entset command. (You can use '.' instead of /entset.) A series of numbers will appear in your console just like the ones above.

==Adjusting values==

It's really far simpler to just use the quickedit menu (F3)...However you can also use /enset or '.'

the values are in the order of "Radius Red Green Blue" and each accept a value between and including -32767 and 32767. some of you may know this as an 'signed 16 bit integer'

Using a value of '0' gives it an infinitesimal radius. These are great for making suns.

For brighter lights, use higher values for Red, Green, and Blue. Dimmer lights can be made by using smaller values. Radius will not have an effect on brightness

===Shadow Lights===
[[image:light3.jpg|thumb|right|A 1024 1000 1000 1000 light V a 128 -32767 -1000 light]]

Shadow lights are created by using negative values for red, green or blue. The needed values are required to be significantly higher than the light making light as demonstrated by the screenshot on the right.

/newent light 128 -1000 -500 -250 is an example of such a shadow light

==Calculating==

Now, if you've tried adding a light and aren't seeing the results - have no fear! Your light will not shine until you have calculated it. In fact, every time anything is edited around a light it must be re-calculated before you can see the results of your lighting.

The easiest way to calculate a light is to open the main menu (ESC), click on 'editing GUI', flip on over to 'Light' and click on 'Calculate'. You will also notice there is a slider, usually set at 0. This is your quality setting, and you can movie it between -2 and 3.

* 3) 8xAA, alpha-masked model shadows (think very nicely blended shadows on mapmodels)
* 2) 8xAA, model shadows
* 1) 8xAA
* 0) 4xAA <-- Default
*-1) 2xAA
*-2) no AA, no shadows

===Patching===

Often you'll do small or little changes that'll destroy plenty of lightmaps, never fear, the /remip; patchlight command (Or in Main Menu>Editing GUI>Light>Patch) will recreate ONLY the lightmaps which you destroyed. Unfortunately, it adds onto the collection of current lightmaps instead of overwriting them, so you're bound to notice graphical glitches. Take note that you should ALWAYS do a calclight 3 before releasing a map. This is only handy when you find small errors and don't wish to wait for a few minutes for everything to recalculate. Take care when using though, chances are it'll look BAD.

Also if you decide to disrupt a calclight for whatever reason, you can quite likely continue it with this command, but no guarantees that'll it'll work as you'll expect it to.

===Level of Detail===

For the time when you decide to use High detail lighting, on a very huge map, in which a normal calclight would generate textures excess to 250. /lightlod comes to the rescue (don't just set it to a value above 1 or you'll get even more textures).

To use /lightlod to it's full, you need to set it to 1 or a value above, for each number is the size of the cubes and below in which the lightprecision for will be halved, so those cubes will receive lightprecision 16 instead of the default 32. To actually make any use of this you need to lower lightprecision to values like 64. and say lightlod is 3. you can easily watch the textures soar down to about 90 from 250, and you'll still have nicely detailed areas. And do not use for small maps under any circumstance, it's a pure waste as you can just decrease the lightprecision instead. It's recommended to use on size 12 and above maps.

=Ambience=

==skylight and ambient==

Ambient is used to set a minimal light level everywhere the map is lit. Choosing a high value makes seeing easier, but washes out the textures and makes them look bad, while choosing a low values means you might not be able to see, but will be able to create a lot of contrast between lights.

Skylight on the other hand can be used to light the whole map, assuming you don't mind there being about 5 shadows playing with each other. considering all the shadows it casts, this command is PERFECT for use in outside areas for ambient lighting, assuming you use values like 50 (note it's greyscale unless two or more channels are provided). So using this you can have a low ambient, and still have nice ambient lighting outside. This is especially useful when you insist on creating a map with very dark mazes and normally lit outsides.

==blurs==

Making the shadows softer can be the difference between making a map look real, and fake. Choosing a value of 1 on the appropriate blur commands will result in a 3x3 blur, while a value of two will return a 5x5 blur. Note you still risk making your map look like poo-poo, so you should check your map thoroughly.

the commands are /blurskylight and /blurlms

=Lerp && misc settings=

Normals are a pain in the rear, once you get to big maps, they take the majority of the calculation time. The lerp settings adjust how finely normals are created, and at what angles averages and new surfaces are calculated. Note this can be the difference between making a map look GREAT to making it look like poo-poo. Note the screenshots on the right, they were taken with different lerpangle settings.

==lightprecision==

this determines how big the lightmaps are, in turn how many textures get used and how long it takes. low values means the light is very precise and tons of textures gets used and created, high values in turn result in less textures being used and shorter calculation times. while causing several imperfections.

==lighterror==

==Lerpangle==

==lerpsubdiv==

This is a subdivider of sorts with the lightmap textures. The default value is two. With high lightprecision values there's bound to be all kinds of oddities in the lighting, take a look at the village map. Using higher values means normals will take a lot longer to calculate, and look considerably better. low values means it'll look worse, see top right screenshots for an example.

1 is recommended for small maps with a low lightprecision value
most maps are fine with 2.
a value of 3 or higher is recommended for maps that use high lightprecision values and if the mapper still wants nice looking lighting.

==lerpsubdivsize==

==edgetolerence==

==batchlightmaps==

==roundlightmaptex==

Lighting

2009-06-30T18:28:13Z

Iokina: /* Calculating */

=Lights=

[[image:light1.jpg|thumb|right|A Map with decent light settings]]
[[image:light2.jpg|thumb|right|The same map with poor light settings. notice how cartoony it is]]

==Adding them==

to add lights, enter editmode first, and then open the main menu. From there you should see a 'new light' option on the left. From there you can choose a series of preset colours, or even specify more specifically which to use. keep in mind this method doesn't support shadow lights.

if you feel up to some console wizardry, you can try the /newent command!

/newent light 0 250 230 150

is an example of a light with an infinite radius, with values suitable to a sun.<br>
to change the values, you can use the quickedit menu (F3) or the /entset command. (You can use '.' instead of /entset.) A series of numbers will appear in your console just like the ones above.

==Adjusting values==

It's really far simpler to just use the quickedit menu (F3)...However you can also use /enset or '.'

the values are in the order of "Radius Red Green Blue" and each accept a value between and including -32767 and 32767. some of you may know this as an 'signed 16 bit integer'

Using a value of '0' gives it an infinitesimal radius. These are great for making suns.

For brighter lights, use higher values for Red, Green, and Blue. Dimmer lights can be made by using smaller values. Radius will not have an effect on brightness

===Shadow Lights===
[[image:light3.jpg|thumb|right|A 1024 1000 1000 1000 light V a 128 -32767 -1000 light]]

Shadow lights are created by using negative values for red, green or blue. The needed values are required to be significantly higher than the light making light as demonstrated by the screenshot on the right.

/newent light 128 -1000 -500 -250 is an example of such a shadow light

==Calculating==

Now, if you've tried adding a light and aren't seeing the results - have no fear! Your light will not shine until you have calculated it. In fact, every time anything is edited around a light it must be re-calculated before you can see the results of your lighting.

The easiest way to calculate a light is to open the main menu (ESC), click on 'editing GUI', flip on over to 'Light' and click on 'Calculate'. You will also notice there is a slider, usually set at 0. This is your quality setting, and you can movie it between -2 and 3.

* 3)8xAA, alpha-masked model shadows (think very nicely blended shadows on mapmodels)
* 2)8xAA, model shadows
* 1)8xAA
* 0)4xAA <-- Default
*-1)2xAA
*-2)no AA, no shadows

===Patching===

Often you'll do small or little changes that'll destroy plenty of lightmaps, never fear, the /remip; patchlight command (Or in Main Menu>Editing GUI>Light>Patch) will recreate ONLY the lightmaps which you destroyed. Unfortunately, it adds onto the collection of current lightmaps instead of overwriting them, so you're bound to notice graphical glitches. Take note that you should ALWAYS do a calclight 3 before releasing a map. This is only handy when you find small errors and don't wish to wait for a few minutes for everything to recalculate. Take care when using though, chances are it'll look BAD.

Also if you decide to disrupt a calclight for whatever reason, you can quite likely continue it with this command, but no guarantees that'll it'll work as you'll expect it to.

===Level of Detail===

For the time when you decide to use High detail lighting, on a very huge map, in which a normal calclight would generate textures excess to 250. /lightlod comes to the rescue (don't just set it to a value above 1 or you'll get even more textures).

To use /lightlod to it's full, you need to set it to 1 or a value above, for each number is the size of the cubes and below in which the lightprecision for will be halved, so those cubes will receive lightprecision 16 instead of the default 32. To actually make any use of this you need to lower lightprecision to values like 64. and say lightlod is 3. you can easily watch the textures soar down to about 90 from 250, and you'll still have nicely detailed areas. And do not use for small maps under any circumstance, it's a pure waste as you can just decrease the lightprecision instead. It's recommended to use on size 12 and above maps.

=Ambience=

==skylight and ambient==

Ambient is used to set a minimal light level everywhere the map is lit. Choosing a high value makes seeing easier, but washes out the textures and makes them look bad, while choosing a low values means you might not be able to see, but will be able to create a lot of contrast between lights.

Skylight on the other hand can be used to light the whole map, assuming you don't mind there being about 5 shadows playing with each other. considering all the shadows it casts, this command is PERFECT for use in outside areas for ambient lighting, assuming you use values like 50 (note it's greyscale unless two or more channels are provided). So using this you can have a low ambient, and still have nice ambient lighting outside. This is especially useful when you insist on creating a map with very dark mazes and normally lit outsides.

==blurs==

Making the shadows softer can be the difference between making a map look real, and fake. Choosing a value of 1 on the appropriate blur commands will result in a 3x3 blur, while a value of two will return a 5x5 blur. Note you still risk making your map look like poo-poo, so you should check your map thoroughly.

the commands are /blurskylight and /blurlms

=Lerp && misc settings=

Normals are a pain in the rear, once you get to big maps, they take the majority of the calculation time. The lerp settings adjust how finely normals are created, and at what angles averages and new surfaces are calculated. Note this can be the difference between making a map look GREAT to making it look like poo-poo. Note the screenshots on the right, they were taken with different lerpangle settings.

==lightprecision==

this determines how big the lightmaps are, in turn how many textures get used and how long it takes. low values means the light is very precise and tons of textures gets used and created, high values in turn result in less textures being used and shorter calculation times. while causing several imperfections.

==lighterror==

==Lerpangle==

==lerpsubdiv==

This is a subdivider of sorts with the lightmap textures. The default value is two. With high lightprecision values there's bound to be all kinds of oddities in the lighting, take a look at the village map. Using higher values means normals will take a lot longer to calculate, and look considerably better. low values means it'll look worse, see top right screenshots for an example.

1 is recommended for small maps with a low lightprecision value
most maps are fine with 2.
a value of 3 or higher is recommended for maps that use high lightprecision values and if the mapper still wants nice looking lighting.

==lerpsubdivsize==

==edgetolerence==

==batchlightmaps==

==roundlightmaptex==

Lighting

2009-06-30T18:26:38Z

Iokina:

=Lights=

[[image:light1.jpg|thumb|right|A Map with decent light settings]]
[[image:light2.jpg|thumb|right|The same map with poor light settings. notice how cartoony it is]]

==Adding them==

to add lights, enter editmode first, and then open the main menu. From there you should see a 'new light' option on the left. From there you can choose a series of preset colours, or even specify more specifically which to use. keep in mind this method doesn't support shadow lights.

if you feel up to some console wizardry, you can try the /newent command!

/newent light 0 250 230 150

is an example of a light with an infinite radius, with values suitable to a sun.<br>
to change the values, you can use the quickedit menu (F3) or the /entset command. (You can use '.' instead of /entset.) A series of numbers will appear in your console just like the ones above.

==Adjusting values==

It's really far simpler to just use the quickedit menu (F3)...However you can also use /enset or '.'

the values are in the order of "Radius Red Green Blue" and each accept a value between and including -32767 and 32767. some of you may know this as an 'signed 16 bit integer'

Using a value of '0' gives it an infinitesimal radius. These are great for making suns.

For brighter lights, use higher values for Red, Green, and Blue. Dimmer lights can be made by using smaller values. Radius will not have an effect on brightness

===Shadow Lights===
[[image:light3.jpg|thumb|right|A 1024 1000 1000 1000 light V a 128 -32767 -1000 light]]

Shadow lights are created by using negative values for red, green or blue. The needed values are required to be significantly higher than the light making light as demonstrated by the screenshot on the right.

/newent light 128 -1000 -500 -250 is an example of such a shadow light

==Calculating==

Now, if you've tried adding a light and aren't seeing the results - have no fear! Your light will not shine until you have calculated it. In fact, every time anything is edited around a light it must be re-calculated before you can see the results of your lighting.

The easiest way to calculate a light is to open the main menu (ESC), click on 'editing GUI', flip on over to 'Light' and click on 'Calculate'. You will also notice there is a slider, usually set at 0. This is your quality setting, and you can movie it between -2 and 3.

3)*8xAA, alpha-masked model shadows (think very nicely blended shadows on mapmodels)
2)*8xAA, model shadows
1)*8xAA
0)*4xAA <-- Default
-1)*2xAA
-2)*no AA, no shadows

===Patching===

Often you'll do small or little changes that'll destroy plenty of lightmaps, never fear, the /remip; patchlight command (Or in Main Menu>Editing GUI>Light>Patch) will recreate ONLY the lightmaps which you destroyed. Unfortunately, it adds onto the collection of current lightmaps instead of overwriting them, so you're bound to notice graphical glitches. Take note that you should ALWAYS do a calclight 3 before releasing a map. This is only handy when you find small errors and don't wish to wait for a few minutes for everything to recalculate. Take care when using though, chances are it'll look BAD.

Also if you decide to disrupt a calclight for whatever reason, you can quite likely continue it with this command, but no guarantees that'll it'll work as you'll expect it to.

===Level of Detail===

For the time when you decide to use High detail lighting, on a very huge map, in which a normal calclight would generate textures excess to 250. /lightlod comes to the rescue (don't just set it to a value above 1 or you'll get even more textures).

To use /lightlod to it's full, you need to set it to 1 or a value above, for each number is the size of the cubes and below in which the lightprecision for will be halved, so those cubes will receive lightprecision 16 instead of the default 32. To actually make any use of this you need to lower lightprecision to values like 64. and say lightlod is 3. you can easily watch the textures soar down to about 90 from 250, and you'll still have nicely detailed areas. And do not use for small maps under any circumstance, it's a pure waste as you can just decrease the lightprecision instead. It's recommended to use on size 12 and above maps.

=Ambience=

==skylight and ambient==

Ambient is used to set a minimal light level everywhere the map is lit. Choosing a high value makes seeing easier, but washes out the textures and makes them look bad, while choosing a low values means you might not be able to see, but will be able to create a lot of contrast between lights.

Skylight on the other hand can be used to light the whole map, assuming you don't mind there being about 5 shadows playing with each other. considering all the shadows it casts, this command is PERFECT for use in outside areas for ambient lighting, assuming you use values like 50 (note it's greyscale unless two or more channels are provided). So using this you can have a low ambient, and still have nice ambient lighting outside. This is especially useful when you insist on creating a map with very dark mazes and normally lit outsides.

==blurs==

Making the shadows softer can be the difference between making a map look real, and fake. Choosing a value of 1 on the appropriate blur commands will result in a 3x3 blur, while a value of two will return a 5x5 blur. Note you still risk making your map look like poo-poo, so you should check your map thoroughly.

the commands are /blurskylight and /blurlms

=Lerp && misc settings=

Normals are a pain in the rear, once you get to big maps, they take the majority of the calculation time. The lerp settings adjust how finely normals are created, and at what angles averages and new surfaces are calculated. Note this can be the difference between making a map look GREAT to making it look like poo-poo. Note the screenshots on the right, they were taken with different lerpangle settings.

==lightprecision==

this determines how big the lightmaps are, in turn how many textures get used and how long it takes. low values means the light is very precise and tons of textures gets used and created, high values in turn result in less textures being used and shorter calculation times. while causing several imperfections.

==lighterror==

==Lerpangle==

==lerpsubdiv==

This is a subdivider of sorts with the lightmap textures. The default value is two. With high lightprecision values there's bound to be all kinds of oddities in the lighting, take a look at the village map. Using higher values means normals will take a lot longer to calculate, and look considerably better. low values means it'll look worse, see top right screenshots for an example.

1 is recommended for small maps with a low lightprecision value
most maps are fine with 2.
a value of 3 or higher is recommended for maps that use high lightprecision values and if the mapper still wants nice looking lighting.

==lerpsubdivsize==

==edgetolerence==

==batchlightmaps==

==roundlightmaptex==