Custom Map Makers

I'll make this one short but I was explaining to someone else what radbump does to lights.

This compile and setup of entities probably wasn't the best for my point but still it got across.

Now this is how I set up my point-lights for bumpy, this is the best method to use to get the best effects from the secularity of your textures on the engine.


The top light points to the info_null with a light value of 1000, the bottom light doesn't point to any other entity and has a light value of 50. The bottom light would normally be a higher value but on Oaks I found that it being set to a lower value worked out for me.
With this arrangement you have the top light show the light coming from the model above and the bottom light giving light to walls and surfaces which the light above doesn't

http://gotdelirium.com/maps/norm_rad_difference.gif
Here there is 4 images which are rotating.
"Norm" refers to a normal compile which doesn't include any other switches.
"Norm, Bounce 8" refers to a light compile which only includes -bounce 8.
"Rad" refers to a light compile which only includes -radbump (a switch which only works using any of the FS_q3map_Radbump.exe files)
"Rad, bounce 8" refers to a light compile which includes -radbump (a switch which only works using any of the FS_q3map_Radbump.exe files) and -bounce 8

You can see a small difference between the normal compile and the compile with 8 bounces. With only 2 light entities you would expect the difference to be quite minimal.
The major difference you can see here is when -radbump is used. There is a clear definition of where the light source is and where its coming from, also the light itself is a lot clearer. Though there is a difference between one light on this compile and a whole map, compiling with -radbump has increased the compile time quite significantly and with the addition of 8 bounces even this small map took a while to compile.

Compile times aside I do think a lot more of you 3rd party mappers should look into using FS_q3map_Radbump.exe and -radbump. The use of specular textures adds a lot to the map but just know there is more to bumpy than just making specular and bumpy textures

This has been put as an article on my site, enjoy

Post any additions to the topic if you have any and I'll add them to the article

Nice topic - I'd like to see the effect on having a cubeProbe somewhere in the scene.

Make your light entities linear. It will bring out the specular in the center where the light is hottest.
Cube will kill that "slobber" effect we often see and add specular in dark areas. Weird but true and not really an effect i like too much to be honest since the specular is way too visible when a low level light hits the surface.
This probably happens cause -radbump seems to bounce light in a similar way -bounce switch does so surfaces in dark areas receive too much light.
Setting lights at lower values and then boosting light with a lightdensity key in world spawn might fix this.
-Radbump in some cases created unrealistic specular to me. Just like bounce it blurs thin shadows (i think it's cause for every bounce level -filter or -samples switch is being repeated, not sure about this since i haven't properly tested it yet) so i wouldn't use both bounce and radbump switch at the same time.

Where can i set the light stage compile to have -radbump?

xandaxs wrote:Where can i set the light stage compile to have -radbump?

You'll have to create a batch file to add it.

nice, but can u say us how to handle the new cube_probe or sth like that? i mean the new entitiy, i used it all over my map and it was an realy ugly bug, then i removed some and it was better, but not realy perfect..

nemNEMnem wrote:nice, but can u say us how to handle the new cube_probe or sth like that? i mean the new entitiy, i used it all over my map and it was an realy ugly bug, then i removed some and it was better, but not realy perfect..

Place one cube per area at head height.
Don't place them every few units of 5 cubes in one room. If you have a town square, place one cube in the middle.
Ignore any shorter path that leads from the square and place another cube in the middle of the next open area.
Cubes have a very wide range and a single cube can cover a lot of ground so a map like casa would need maybe a dozen of cubes for everything to work well.

and what if my map has hills?
and another question: i am am working with terrain, is it possible to make that bumpy, too?

nemNEMnem wrote:and what if my map has hills?
and another question: i am am working with terrain, is it possible to make that bumpy, too?

Place them at equal distance or in every valley.
Sure you can bump map, normal map or parallax map terrain too.