Sector lighting with 3D floors all messed up...

[Doom-X-Machina]

Hey all,

So, I have an issue with balancing the light properly in a sector with a 3D floor in the middle of it. Both of the screenshots below are wrong (in the way it's meant to look in my head)...

The main sector has a light value of 100 and i've set the ceiling brightness to 60 for some ambience. The area where the 3D floor sits, if also set to 100 looks way too dark compared to the surrounding sector ceilings even if I set the floor brightness of the 3D floor to the same 60. If I change the light value of the main sector or the 3D floor control sector, the area ends up too bright compared to the surrounding sectors. In the screenshots below you can see around the floor tile trim to the far right and it's corresponding ceiling... one it always not right when the other one is...

It's seems like the overall sector lighting of the 3D control sector affects everything in the main sector it belongs to. Regardless of what individual settings you apply to ceiling or floor brightness.

Anyone know how to properly control a 3D sector's floor brightness so I can get it to match up properly? It's driving me fucking mental.

Edited October 1 by Doom-X-Machina : screenshots

[Darkcrafter07]

1. What engine do you map for?
2. Is it UDMF? AFAIK, Hexen format also supports 3D floors;

3. To lit an area with a 3D floor you must understand that it's being its sector brightness value that goes lower. Imagine a room and a lamp mounted on a ceiling (3D floor) that would lit the floor, e.g. the 3D floor lighting works from top to down, and if you have placed another 3D floor beneath, the previous brightness would stop just where the next 3D floor begins.

4. 3D floors do NOT light anything above it, e.g. you won't be able to highlight your ceilings even if the 3d-floor's ceiling comes adjoins them.

5. You can control the 3D floor lighting behavior in the 3D floor's control sector's line that has the 3D floor action, by modifying its flags.

6. I usually light with 3D floors by making 1px thin sector just to show the engine where it begins.

3D-floor_lighting_demo.zip

Edited October 1 by Darkcrafter07

[Kappes Buur]

Sometimes one can take a stab at troubleshooting a screenshot,

but that is always just a guess at what the problem imay be.

It is always best to be able to inspect a map which is showing the problem.

 

In my experience with 3D sectors you have two options:

 

• 1. give brightness levels to the 3D control sector

 

which results in the brightness being applied to the area below the 3D sectors

 

• 2. also apply the brightness levels to the game area

 

which results in the brightness being applied also to the area above the 3D sectors

 

 

[Doom-X-Machina]

10 hours ago, Kappes Buur said:

Sometimes one can take a stab at troubleshooting a screenshot,

but that is always just a guess at what the problem imay be.

It is always best to be able to inspect a map which is showing the problem.

 

In my experience with 3D sectors you have two options:

 

• 1. give brightness levels to the 3D control sector

 

which results in the brightness being applied to the area below the 3D sectors

 

• 2. also apply the brightness levels to the game area

 

which results in the brightness being applied also to the area above the 3D sectors

 

 

Yes, I'm aware of this engine quirk.

It's actually this function I'm referring to:


Setting individual brightness settings to a particular plane instead of the entire sector.
It works on standard sector ceilings and floors but won't work with top and bottom surfaces of the floating 3D sectors it seems.
I may have to modify the map if I can't get it working properly because at the moment it stands out like shit in a swimming pool :(

[redEYE]

5 hours ago, Doom-X-Machina said:

It works on standard sector ceilings and floors but won't work with top and bottom surfaces of the floating 3D sectors it seems.

 

Basically what Darkcrater said above. AFAIK you can not set the UDMF surface brightness values for ceiling, floor or wall of a "3D floor". They do not work in 3D floors.

 

Here's one more test level. In it the upper areas have sector brightness 256. The area underneath the 3D floors has brightness 192 but it's ceiling is set to have brightness 128. Using these values because they're better visible in current GZDoom brightness modes. 100 and 60 turn just black.

3dsectorbrightness.zip

 

On the left is a 3D floor which (control sector) has brightness 192 but it's floor and ceiling surface brightness values are set to 128. It doesn't work. It's 192 all over.

 

The 2nd from the left, in it the 3D floor (control sector) has brightness 128. Underneath the 3D floor is a second 3D floor (it's invisible; opacity 0, type 2 non-solid) which sets the brightness of the real floor to 192.

 

The 3rd from the left, in it the 3D floor (control sector) has brightness 128. The real floor's surface brightness is set to 192. It's problem is that it doesn't affect on things which are left to brightness 128. Also this doesn't work in software renderer.

 

The 4th from the left uses 50 Transfer brightness (for sector heights) under a 3D floor. It's an old (and rarely used?) line action which predates GZDoom.

 

A 5th way could be by making a special flat which is darkened to brightness 60. It could be done just in textures lump.

 

5 hours ago, Doom-X-Machina said:

I may have to modify the map if I can't get it working properly :(

Mapping is making changes to the map. If something didn't work you'll need to modify the map anyway. So the net result is the same... :P

[Doom-X-Machina]

Ended up changing my approach to these areas. Not exactly what I was originally after, but it works.
Sometimes you just gotta adapt.

Thankyou to everyone who offered advice and posted wads.