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Old 21-11-06, 16:33   #6
Uvavoo
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Joined: Jul 2002
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The Sun bulb

The sun bulb. The manual warns that although you can have many sun bulbs, only ONE sun bulb can be used in any ONE room and you should not raise it or lower it so it falls outside the rooms area (above the ceiling, below the floor).

Okay. What I want you to do next is delete any lights you have created.
You should now have the darkened room only lit by the dim ambient light.

Repeat the procedure as we did with the standard light and place this time a SUN bulb roughly in the center of the room at ceiling height.
Again, show light meshes, this time the mesh is only a single line, and simply points in the direction the sun is shining. Switch Lighting button and your scene should look like this.



Adjusting the sun bulb
To adjust the sun bulb we use the same controls as before except you will not have the Out and In controls. However the X and Y buttons fields will become active.
Increasing/decreasing X - will rotate the sun vertically
Increasing/decreasing Y - will rotate the sun horizontally



So, adjust the sun bulb so that it points down a little, basically until you are happy with it. Here is my adjustment.



The sun bulb does cast nicer shadows. Here is how it looks in game.



Dont forget to output your wad and test your level frequently.
You can use PREVIEW to get a more accurate view of the lighting, but be warned this is prone to crashing, so save save save.
The lighting as displayed in the level appears approximately 10% darker than it does in game.


The Spotlight bulb
Spotlight is used to pick out certain areas, perhaps lighting up a dark corner, perhaps indicating a clue.
Again, delete all bulbs in the level.
Pick Spotlight bulb and place it in the same position as before



with light meshes showing.



Adjusting the Spotlight bulb
The adjustment for the Spotlight bulb is as follows.

In addition to the controls discussed previously you also have Len and Cut, these are similar to Out and In and relate to the Distance the spotlight light will travel.
X rotates the spotlight vertically, Y, horizontally. The other controls are the same.


The spotlight is best used in combination with other lights.

Using Lights in combination
Here I have used a combination of lights.



A sun at the top of the picture, a standard light in the middle and a spotlight at the bottom of the picture.
Here is how it looks in game.



Effect Light
The effect light is quite simple. It is placed on a texture square and the intensity and colour can be adjusted. The lighting will only affect that square and will spread to those tiles adjacent to it.
Here is an example.


I have copied and pasted this bulb also to the tile next to it. This is intended to highlight the rather nice textures.



Finally, my finished, lit room.


I settled for a sun bulb, 1 fill light (standard) and the two effects lights. Experiment and see if you can light it better than me!
Here is the original again for comparison


Conclusion
As you can see there is a lot to experiment with. Just follow these rules.
1. Don't over use lights. Sometimes one bulb will be enough.
2. Experiment with different light types to get the effect you want.
3. Always start from a darker room, even outdoor areas, keep ambient light low.
4. Add flame emitters etc for dynamic light. (more about that later).
5. If there are no obvious light sources (a window for example) then choose a 'virtual' light source and stick to it.

Last edited by Uvavoo; 22-11-06 at 11:33.
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