The Difference Between No Radiosity And Having It...

[AluminumHaste]

Here are two pictures of the same room. The setup is a point light going through a window and projected onto the wall.

In the first picture we just have the default doom3 setup with just the standard engine capabilities:

 

Now it makes it hard to see anything without using your flashlight.

The next picture demonstrates how this would look in more real terms, using reflection concepts;

 

It's alot more realistic to use radiosity and I plan on using it whenever I can in maps, but it does add at least 1 more light entity to a given setup, at least. I know that I have been going on and on about this but I just hate looking at beautifully made maps, and they don't look realistic especially churches with light streaming into the windows which only light up a spot on the ground and that's it.

 

And yes, I should be working on the flash grenade but I still can't get rid of the error that crashes the map. I am still working on it but I do like to take breaks to play the games too.

Anyways, this is just my opinion and it's up to the individual to use it.

[sparhawk]

You can always create additional lights to achieve that.

[ascottk]

I used a similar idea with Krellek's Labyrinth TDS fm:

There were several lights with ambient lights below the objects in the room. It was probably one of the better rooms I made although the frame rate went down.

[OrbWeaver]

Was that the room that ran at about 4 fps on my 9800XT?

[ascottk]

Was that the room that ran at about 4 fps on my 9800XT?

Probably

[SneaksieDave]

I'm confused - when has TDM ever advocated D3 style of single secluded lights and completely black shadows? Since the start we played around with different ambient lighting ideas and they work fairly well. I don't think anyone ever wanted or would accept jet-black shadows and Mars base lighting in their TDM maps.

 

http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/sd1.jpg

http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/beta5.jpeg

http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/screen27.jpg

http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/screen33.jpeg

 

 

Edit: And just for completeness, this ambient lighting (and the resulting color of it) can also be controlled with triggers of course. I built a sample map where a torch lit an area, and that area was also bathed in a soft orange-yellow radiant glow. When you extinguish the torch, I built a simple trigger relation where the orange ambient is turned off, and a very dim blue ambient turned on, giving a cold feeling when the lights go out, but not pure darkness.

 

Total lights used: 2 (there are three in total, but only two are lit at any time).

Total extra effort to prebake textures or models or maps or whatever the hell else: none.

Performance hit: minimal - it's one extra no-shadow, no-specular light.

[AluminumHaste]

I'm confused - when has TDM ever advocated D3 style of single secluded lights and completely black shadows? Since the start we played around with different ambient lighting ideas and they work fairly well. I don't think anyone ever wanted or would accept jet-black shadows and Mars base lighting in their TDM maps.

 

http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/sd1.jpg

http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/beta5.jpeg

http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/screen27.jpg

http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/screen33.jpeg

Edit: And just for completeness, this ambient lighting (and the resulting color of it) can also be controlled with triggers of course. I built a sample map where a torch lit an area, and that area was also bathed in a soft orange-yellow radiant glow. When you extinguish the torch, I built a simple trigger relation where the orange ambient is turned off, and a very dim blue ambient turned on, giving a cold feeling when the lights go out, but not pure darkness.

 

Total lights used: 2 (there are three in total, but only two are lit at any time).

Total extra effort to prebake textures or models or maps or whatever the hell else: none.

Performance hit: minimal - it's one extra no-shadow, no-specular light.

 

Cool, thanks. I feel better now

[SneaksieDave]

Oh! Maybe people don't know? I wonder if the gang over at TTLG are under incorrect assumption that dark contrasty black-or-not Doom3 lighting is the way it will/must be in TDM? I hope not...

 

Edit: Perhaps we should make occasional explicit effort to show or mention that that is not the case.

[AluminumHaste]

Oh! Maybe people don't know? I wonder if the gang over at TTLG are under incorrect assumption that dark contrasty black-or-not Doom3 lighting is the way it will be in TDM? Hope not.

 

That's what most people think yes. They might not think it's a big deal or that great of a difference, but to me it makes a huge difference.

[New Horizon]

There is also the shader pass option that we're looking into for the Edge of Chaos guys. Looks like we would be able to store this info on the worldspawn entity. Essentially, with the shader option...you can increase the brightness of all the diffuse textures in a map so that they're uniformly lit accross the level. This is very much like using a giant ambient light, with the exception that it doesn't ruin the look of the normal maps the way the doom 3 nofalloff ambient lights do. The performance hit should be the same...or perhaps less than using an ambient.

[Springheel]

Maybe people don't know? I wonder if the gang over at TTLG are under incorrect assumption that dark contrasty black-or-not Doom3 lighting is the way it will/must be in TDM?

 

Not if they've ever bothered to look at our screenshots. None of them have pureblack shadows.