LightmapSettings explained

[[dice]o2car]

When developing BF2 we went for a simple yet powerful solution to simulate Global Illumination. Having real bouncing light was not even an option since the sizes of our worlds are just too big.

GILightsBaseDir = Directional angle of GILights (0/0.5/-0.5 is 45 degrees)

GILightsIntensity = Intensity of each GILight.

GILightsShadowIntensity = Controls shadows casted by GILights. (1)

GILightsFov = Spread (high value > softer shadows > slower rendering)

GILightsViewDistance = Distance between active object and lightsource (shorter > faster)

GIFillIntensity = simulated ambient

NumberOfGILights = Number of GILights to calculate (default=6 as seen on img)

UseGITopLight = A weak lightsource placed from above that work with the ring of GILights to achieve the lightdome effect.

GITopLightIntensity = Intensity of the GITopLight

SunLightShadowIntensity = Controls shadows casted by the SunLight.

SunLightFov = Spread (low value > sharper shadows > faster rendering)

SunLightIntensity = Intensity of the SunLight

Info:

- In TerrainMode only one GILight is necessary since the terrain does not feature overhangs. When setting the NumberOfGILights to 1 it will be treated as a TopLight.

- GIFillIntensity = Without it you wont be able to see textures in a room without windows (pitchblack)

- The GILightsShadowIntensity and SunLightShadowIntensity should be set to 1. Use the LightIntensity to tweak the lighting instead.

Sideinfo : The renderer calculates what lightsources that can be seen from the active pixel in the lightmap.

Good Luck.

[[PoE]Greasy_Mullet]

Major thanks man! Huge help right here.

[[FH]Augustus]

I love you.

[Sandcrab]

Now we know why you make the BIG BUCKS!! $$ !!

thanx!

[Tubbe]

Where do I send the flowers?

[B.lizzard]

Is this information still relevant to the current editor, if so, can someone explain what file needs to be changed. And what the recommended values are for each field.

When generating Terrain Lightmaps, the fields I see applied to each patch are:

PropertiesSunlight

Lightmap Generation

Intensity 0.7

ShadowIntensity 0.85

FOV 8

Softness 0

Self Shadowing 1

Object Shadows 1

I can't seem to locate where it is getting those values from. If I change the terrainlight.con from my map foldereditor it just skips over what I change.

Thanks in advance.

[killinscuds]

I've generated lightmaps: Terrain, Primary @ Medium + ignore asserts.

The statics look okay in the editor (shadows on self & other statics look okay), but don't see any shadows on the terrain from statics.

In-game (high settings) the statics self-shadows and other-static-shadows seem to show up at about 5m away... And no statics/terrain seem to be casting shadows.

I suspect that one of my lightmap settings is probably screwy (likely intensity of GI lights -vs- intensity of sun light {one may be washing out the other?}).

Does anyone have good ranges for these numbers (I'm assuming they are NOT map-size dependant, but if they are, I'm working on a 512x1 size map). Variables on the left are the LightmapSettings, comments [in the brackets are my notes/questions/speculations]:

GILightsIntensity =  [range: x(off) - y(full)]

GILightsShadowIntensity = [range: x(no shadows) - y(completely black)]

GILightsFov = [range?= x(sharp), y(light feathering), z(heavy feathering)]

GILightsViewDistance = [range?= (in meters?)]

GIFillIntensity = [what is this?  Intensity within the "feather" of FOV?]

NumberOfGILights = [range x=1 (defaults to GI_Toplight), y=6 (default, as in image), z=max]

UseGITopLight = [checkbox= on/off]

GITopLightIntensity = [range: x(off) - y(full)] 

SunLightShadowIntensity = [range: x(no shadows) - y(completely black)] 

SunLightFov = [range?= x(sharp), y(light feathering), z(heavy feathering)] 

SunLightIntensity = [range: x(no shadows) - y(grey shadows) - z(completely black shadows]

Thanks!

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

(I'm assuming they are NOT map-size dependant, but if they are, I'm working on a 512x1 size map)

That sounds like trouble. The scale 1 might cause those problems. As you posted about skewed shadows, i suspect the scale to be a problem. Only Scale 2 is fully working in the editor.

Read it here: http://bfeditor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=4571

[weatherscanner432]

Just asking, but what might be a good Lightmapsettings for night maps???

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

Easiest way to find that out is either using the editor and play with the sky.con values or look at an existing night map.

Playing with the sky.con values is funnier, though. Tune down the colors (it's those RGB values , like 0.65/0.87/0.77). The effect can be watched immediatly in both editor and game. Later on, modifying the groundhemi and the envmaps could prove necessary.

[Solid Snake]

Guys help me please...

Give me an example of settings that gives normal results. I tried to compile lightmaps and dont know what to do. On the medium settings of the game map looks fine. But on the high..... in the hangar i cant see something.... too dark. Very dark. Brickwalls frome one of the sides is almost black.

I tried to play with settings and also tried to copy sky.con from the Dragon valley for example. And set parameters like on Dragon valley. But result is one. Dark hangars and rooms, walls and objects in general.

And last question. My ground and sand after generating lightmaps takes a light blue tone. How i can fix it?

P.S. Sorry if somebody wrote about this problems. Give me link.

Edited November 10, 2006 by Solid Snake

[Catbox]

GILightsBaseDir = Directional angle of GILights (0/0.5/-0.5 is 45 degrees)

GILightsIntensity = Intensity of each GILight.

GILightsShadowIntensity = Controls shadows casted by GILights. (1)

GILightsFov = Spread (high value > softer shadows > slower rendering)

GILightsViewDistance = Distance between active object and lightsource (shorter > faster)

GIFillIntensity = simulated ambient

NumberOfGILights = Number of GILights to calculate (default=6 as seen on img)

UseGITopLight = A weak lightsource placed from above that work with the ring of GILights to achieve the lightdome effect.

GITopLightIntensity = Intensity of the GITopLight

SunLightShadowIntensity = Controls shadows casted by the SunLight.

SunLightFov = Spread (low value > sharper shadows > faster rendering)

SunLightIntensity = Intensity of the SunLight

[Sam2]

How does that help him? He wanted to know actual values as an example.

Solid Snake, what I did was open my TerrainLight.con in the Editor folder for my map and enter the similar settings into my Tweaker Bar for LightmapSettings. Gave me somewhere to start.

I hope this helps.

[Bensta]

I thought it was very helpfull, he would now know what all the settings do, and could now adjust them accordingly, There should be no real reason to post lightmap settings as an example as people dont make maps the same, every map needs different settings, the only real way to get them right is realizing what the settings do.

But your light settings for your map, (not lightmap settings) can alter the darknes/brightness, colour ect of the objects and terrain, so no matter what your lightmas turn out like, you can get the desired look by altering these.

Edited February 28, 2007 by Bensta-IDF

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

Thanks for bumping the old posts

You should also copy the TerrainLight.con to the ObjectLight.con file. Shadows from buildings are determined by the 'ShadowIntensity' . Higher values yield darker shadows. FillIntensity is the amount of ambient light inside buildings without windows.

[Ganjanoof]

Thanks for bumping the old posts

You should also copy the TerrainLight.con to the ObjectLight.con file. Shadows from buildings are determined by the 'ShadowIntensity' . Higher values yield darker shadows. FillIntensity is the amount of ambient light inside buildings without windows.

Many thanks, as many ppl, I'm experiencing trouble tweaking my light settings

I got this message in the editor degbug console after having loaded a tweaked .con file :

Ignored Warning[Console] : Unknown object or method!: LightMapGeneration.GIFillIntensity 0.45  (levels/indochine/editor/objectlight.con)

As it is expressed as Intensity, I made the guess it should range from 0 to 1

These are the settings I tried to load

LightMapGeneration.init
LightMapGeneration.GILightsBaseDir 0/0.33/-0.66
LightMapGeneration.GILightsIntensity 0.7
LightMapGeneration.GILightsShadowIntensity 1
LightMapGeneration.GILightsFov 100
LightMapGeneration.UseGITopLight 1
LightMapGeneration.GITopLightIntensity 0.7
LightMapGeneration.GILightsViewDistance 20
LightMapGeneration.GIFillIntensity 0.45
LightMapGeneration.skyWhite 0.1
LightMapGeneration.numberOfGILights 6
LightMapGeneration.sunLightShadowIntensity 0.75
LightMapGeneration.sunLightFov 15
LightMapGeneration.sunLightIntensity 0.75

The problems are : some faces of my buildings show pitch black, and rooms are very dark too.

[EDIT] : Sorry for posting delayed...

Would it be like GIFillIntensity (in the editor) is saved as skyWhite (in the file) ?

Edited March 10, 2007 by Ganjanoof

[Bensta]

Try playing with the light settings, especialy.... singlePointColor, effectShadowColor, staticSunColor... and proberly a few more..

Edited March 10, 2007 by Bensta-IDF

[1/2Hawk]

The GIFillIntensity is crap. Youd think it gives you better ambient lighting - but if it did then why have a ring GILights anyway. The reason you are getting some black faces is that you dont have enough GILights - change the number from 6 to at least 8. The reason the rooms are very dark is that your sun and most GILights arent penetrating all the way inside your building without first hitting some other geometry along the way. Either turn down your shadow intensities, or do what DICE did and compile your map's lightmaps from inside Max.

Here's a very good tut: http://bfeditor.org/forums/index.php?showt...amp;#entry52738

Some notes - On the step where it says to change the sun (light source) to Ray Traced Shadows, this will add several more hours to the process for very little extra benefit. I leave mine on the default setting (Adv Raytracing?) and it does just as good only faster. Oh, and if you go to load the terrain you may run out of memory to run your script. The fix for this is to type the following in the little pink window in the bottom left of Max: heapsize *= 2 Once you get this figured out, you'll never compile object lightmaps in the editor again.

[Ganjanoof]

do what DICE did and compile your map's lightmaps from inside Max.

Didn't know about this... actually this is shocking

Anyway, it's useless to complain... many thanks for your clear and appropriate answer, I'll try this with the help of one of our modellers, 'cause I'm just a mapper and don't know anything about Max

[urban_fighter_0181]

Should I set the lightmapSettings or just lightSettings if I wanted a night map? And how u set it?

[Catbox]

dont check...is night map...

and you can make a lot of adjustments in light settings for a nice map... darken the terrain... and darken the trees... etc...

I would look at one of the nightmaps... sky.con from SF or AFury

[urban_fighter_0181]

The terrain can;t be darken..tried many times

U can't just turn terrain sun and sky color to black

I think I should set lightmap settings..

what's the max and min value of each settings?

Which value is recommended? I dun have any booster pack, just original

[Catbox]

I can darken the terrain in my editor...

heres a zip file with the sky.con from the midnight sun map

and the sky/clouds and sunflare...

http://files.filefront.com/NIGHT+MAPzip/;9...;/fileinfo.html

[urban_fighter_0181]

It's not working,in filefront, my downloads never become successful...

[urban_fighter_0181]

OK I found the Midnight Sun map, getting its sky.con... I'll tell u when it works, thanks catbox