Light Bleed

[grayman]

I know this has been discussed before, but I don't remember any suggestions or solutions.

 

I have several spots in my map that exhibit this problem.

 

Here's what it should look like:

 

 

And here's what it looks like if I back up a couple steps:

 

 

Note that the light is behaving as if the column and wall on the right aren't there.

 

I've tried moving the visportals and the light and the effect keeps returning in different forms.

 

Suggestions for fixing?

[Moonbo]

Why not try getting rid of any caulk on the offending brushes, also you can try moving the light origin slightly off-center. If all else fails, also try erasing the brush/patch and rebuilding them, of turn them into a FS.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Moonbo

[Bikerdude]

And some options to add to Moobo's suggestions -

1. Place shadow textured patches on the caulked serfaces,
   
2. Use shadowcaulk in place of caulk, because it seals like calk but isnt rendered.
   

I made a little test map with 5 colums, with the following textures starting from left to right - shadow, shadow2, shadow_bak and shadowcaulk. You can see that caulk and shadow calk are the only ones that intsect the adjacent brush. Where as shadow, shadow2 and shadow_bak do not etc.

 

 

[rebb]

That's weird. Why would the light suddenly stop casting shadows ? Is this maybe tied to the LOD in some way ?

Is there a bug report for this sort of thing ? Preferably with a test-case map ? So many questions ?

[grayman]

Tried Moonbo's suggestions ...

 

1 - get rid of caulk - no change

 

2 - move light center - no change

 

3 - convert two corner walls and column to 2 func_statics, backed by caulk sealing walls - SUCCESS!

 

I'll try this on the two other problem spots I have.

 

Thanks!!!

[nbohr1more]

AFAIK, only LOD entities can be set to disable shadows based on distance.

Edited December 20, 2013 by nbohr1more

[grayman]

AFAIK, only LOD entities can be set to disable shadows based on distance.

 

I don't think this is a distance-based problem. In picture 2 above, if I slide to the left, moving farther from the light, the shadows return.

[grayman]

For the other two light bleeds, one is fixed by adding two shadow patches and removing a light, and the other is fixed by moving a light. Neither of those supported a func_static solution like the first situation.

 

Thanks for the help.

[rebb]

It might still be useful to put a bug-report up with a small test-case - i don't recall ever seeing this sort of thing happen in vanilla Doom3.

[Moonbo]

Because the issue was fixed by turning some geometry into FS, I think it was likely just a hiccup with how the engine renders worldspawn. I had several instances with complicated geometry causing some really strange visual glitches (world polygons not rendering, textures turning pitch black, etc). By turning part of the geometry into func_statics, it simplified the worldspawn and the visual glitch went away. So probably this isn't a "bug" per-se as much a limitation of the renderer.

[AluminumHaste]

I have a suggestion; don't use parallel lights, they are buggy.

 

Oh it's not a parallel light, hmmm, tha's weird, I've only ever had that problem with parallel lights.

[Springheel]

I'm having what looks like a similar problem. The images below are different by only one step forward (click the thumbnail to see the animation). It happens whether circular stones are a func_static or worldspawn. The light is a typical light. The lantern is set to noshadows, so I'm not even sure what is casting the shadow. I've never encountered this before, and I'm not sure what to do about it.

[grayman]

Can you one-by-one turn off the suspect lights to see which one is casting the light?

 

That might give you a clue as to how to handle it.

[Sotha]

Also check that there is no overlapping patches. I mean the circular stone surface could have two identical patches overlapping, or overlapping two patches, other of which is face is pointing to the other direction.

 

Such overlapping patches can cause strangeness.

[Springheel]

It's the light positioned atop the streetlamp. That's the only light in the area. But I don't know what's casting the shadow. From that angle, it would have to be something _higher_ than the stone patches. I've turned off all the filters, and there's nothing there.

 

I deleted the lamp and light and recreated them, but the problem was still there.

[Moonbo]

You said that the lamp light isn't casting any shadows right? Do you have moonlight or something similar in the scene too that might be causing this? I ask only because the boxes near the lamp are making shadows.

[Springheel]

The light is shadowcasting, but the lamppost model has its shadows turned off.

[Moonbo]

Just a stab in the dark but possibly turn the default light on the lamp off and see if a separate light entity at around that same spot solves it. Otherwise possibly make the patches smaller by turning the cylinder into two endcaps.

[rebb]

None of this can be properly investigated by third parties without a test-case map to try things out.

[Bikerdude]

@Spring, have you resized any of the models..? as this will screw up the shadow casting causing weird shadows etc

[rich_is_bored]

The console variables r_showsillouettes and r_showshadows might help you find the culprit.

[Springheel]

Thanks, r_showsillouettes found the problem. There was a leftover cap from the cylinder that was facing down so it was invisible both in the editor and in game.

[rebb]

What was causing the shadow to switch on/off based on distance ?

[Sotha]

What was causing the shadow to switch on/off based on distance ?

 

My interpretation is: overlapping patch caps, like I suggested in #14.

[Springheel]

What was causing the shadow to switch on/off based on distance ?

 

That I don't know. But deleting the cap solved the problem.