What's the difference between Ambient modes?

[AluminumHaste]

I've normally been using tdm_ambient 2 as that's what came with SVN all those years ago. But I noticed the mod only shows 2 choices when using the console window, 0 and 1, with 0 being the suggested one and 1 being the cheap and fast one.

The only problem seems to be that 0 makes the textures in the map look....weird, like the ambient light isn't actually an ambient light but a point light. 1 looks normal and 2 looks the best but runs the worst.

 

2 doesn't seem to be documented that I can find, but still looks the best.

[New Horizon]

The difference is as follows:

 

0 - uses the physical ambient light within the map

1 - turns the physical light off and uses the values of that light to illuminate the diffuse texture

2 - turns the physical light off and uses the values of that light to illuminate the diffuse, normal and specular textures

 

Now you mentioned that using the '0' setting looks like the light is wrong, this should only be true if you're using the default doom 3 interaction shader. Set your interaction shader to enhanced and the incorrect shading will be fixed with the '0' setting.

[AluminumHaste]

Okay I did what you suggested and my interaction shader was indeed set to Normal, or whatever the crappy version is. I set it to Enhanced and set the Ambient Method to Enhanced also.

 

Anyways I took some screenshots of each ambient method for comparison, can you please tell me which one it's supposed to look like?

 

tdm_ambient 0

 

 

tdm_ambient 1

 

 

tdm_ambient 2

 

 

For me, tdm_ambient 2 (Enhanced) is the best looking one.

 

EDIT: BTW here's what the console says about that cvar:

 

]tdm_ambient_method

"tdm_ambient_method" is:"2" default:"0"

Method used for ambient light rendering.

 

0 = Ambient Light method (uses the ambient light for the ambient brightness)

1 = Texture Brightness method (uses texture brightness instead of light. This i

s faster but looks worse)

 

So if I understand what you're trying to tell me, is that the description in the console is backwards?

[New Horizon]

That's weird. Those results are not the same results I see on my system. tdm_ambient_method 0 uses the default shader for me, and tdm_ambient_method 1 uses the single texture pass.

 

Not sure why yours would be reversed.