Lighting question:

[et_cg]

Do portals affect lighting?

[Roostervier]

Not that I've seen so far, but I have not done advanced lighting yet. Maybe Sunny can help you.

[et_cg]

Supersunny is a light from the gods. All the testing I've done has no real effect on the BSP.

[FireScythe]

I think portals effect how the lightmaps are broken up into their seperate sections, but do not effects the lighting itself. Hence, why large maps without portals get memory problems when running lightmaps.

[SuperSunny]

I think portals effect how the lightmaps are broken up into their seperate sections, but do not effects the lighting itself. Hence, why large maps without portals get memory problems when running lightmaps.

Indeed you are correct! When you create portals and then do the lightmaps, each chunk or section broken off by the portalling is a separate bitmap in the lightmap bitmap tag. That way, Halo knows only to render that certain area :P

[jahrain]

Actually, portals do affect lighting. Where their are portals, there are seams in the lightmap texture UVs. So you may notice some sharp edges in the lighting where the portals are.

[et_cg]

Ahh, okay. I was looking for a way to better performance for a map I'm working on. It's still in the rough.

[SuperSunny]

Actually, portals do affect lighting. Where their are portals, there are seams in the lightmap texture UVs. So you may notice some sharp edges in the lighting where the portals are.

??? Appears fine for me. Maybe for baking lights? The engine can create lightmaps fine even if the UV's are auto set for the lightmaps, (pieces in different areas of the bitmap). Portalling shouldn't cause any problem.

[Oxygen]

jahrain, i noticed this too. but i think it depends on what u run the lightmaps at. i now run everything on medium and it turns out great. also, did anyone notice that if you have portals, tool creates multiple "light sources" or something. it says like:

...building lights. <light 1 of 4> <50&#37;>
built 4 lights.

or something like that?
i dunno.


=Oxy

[Roostervier]

jahrain, i noticed this too. but i think it depends on what u run the lightmaps at. i now run everything on medium and it turns out great. also, did anyone notice that if you have portals, tool creates multiple "light sources" or something. it says like:

...building lights. <light 1 of 4> <50%>
built 4 lights.

or something like that?
i dunno.


=Oxy
Mine did that before I ever used portals.

[SuperSunny]

Mine did that before I ever used portals.

Indeed! It does that if you have multiple light sources haha

[Oxygen]

alright, so anything that uses radiosity light in the bsp will need it's own light? because i thought the sky consisted of a single light, not multiple. and i have no other lights in the bsp yet...but it still made 4 lights. i'm not sure how it works, but it seemed to effect the lightmaps when i had portals.

either way, i just want jahrain to get the cake working...

btw, does anyone know the symbols for the materials? like one sided, render only, etc? i don't remember seeing them in the help file.

=Oxy

[jahrain]

? - 2 sided transparent
# - one sided transparent
! - render only
&#37; - 2 sided
@ - collision only
$ - fogplane
^ - latter

Thats all I can remember off the top of my head. Check the materials overview page in the help file. They go immediately at the end of the material name. Unlike at the beginning in Halo CE.

[UXB]

btw, does anyone know the symbols for the materials? like one sided, render only, etc? i don't remember seeing them in the help file.

=Oxy

Materials Overview
http://h2v.halomaps.org/editor/Materials1.html