Outdoor daytime lighting

[Tip]

What is a good method of creating a good sense of daytime in the outdoors? How can you make the lighting actually feel right and point shadows all in the same direction?
Anyone have any tips for (don't even think about the joke penis face images/icons/tongue.gif ) me?

Tip

Kids used to taunt me by singing one part of "I'm a little teapot" over and over. I can still hear the kids screaming "TIP ME OVER! TIP ME OVER!" in bed at night.

[Bean]

Zone Ambient works well for base lighting, then to get the shadows that you want, use regular lights in places you want to cast shadows. That's a good way of doing it.

[smattbac]

Try looking at this (http://www.planetunreal.com/teamvortex/outdoorlighting.jpg) (it's from here (http://www.planetunreal.com/teamvortex/davidm)).

You could try removing the light2 and use zone lightning instead.

[NutWrench]

Hey, that's a good tip!

On the subject of lighting I wish UnrealEd had:

Radiosity
Texture surfaces that emit light. images/icons/smile.gif

[ 11-30-2001: Message edited by: NutWrench ]

[Tip]

Where can I find the cylinder light?
In the light class all I see listed is charge light, distance lightning, flashlight beam, overheat light, queen teleporter light, sight light, spot light, torch flame, trigger light, trigger light, trigger light rad, and weapon light.

I appreciate all the help so far, I just need a wee bit more. images/icons/grin.gif

Tip

I love all of you. images/icons/tongue.gif

[Tip]

Wait, nevermind, it is a light effect.

Tip

Hehe...
/me slaps his own forehead

[ 11-30-2001: Message edited by: Tip ]

[NutWrench]

>Where can I find the cylinder light?

It's in the lights property sheet, under 'Lighting-->LightEffect' images/icons/smile.gif

[Tip]

Thanks Nut, but I beat you to it by 3 minutes. images/icons/tongue.gif
One other stupid light question, how do I ambient lighting or zone lighting?

Tip

I feel like such a pest. images/icons/grin.gif

[NutWrench]

>how do I ambient lighting or zone lighting?

Silly Texan. You're missing a verb! images/icons/grin.gif

--Nut
Think "HONK" if you're a telepath!

[Tip]

Sorry, I was in a rush typing that in, plus it was hard to see because of this silly ten gallon hat.
Anyways, I was in a rush because the cattle got spooked. But after riding around on my horse for a while I spotted the culprit.
A RACCOON!
So I roped the sucker and made a big Texas feast from it.

Actually, I'm not a Texan, I'm just living here. I'm from Arizona and that story is fiction (as if you hadn't figured that out already images/icons/tongue.gif ).

Anyways, looks a bit obvious that the word I missed in my hurry was "make", "create", or some derivative. images/icons/grin.gif

So please, what do I do in order to create zone lighting? Also, how do I [/b]make[/b] ambient lighting?

Tip

Please.

[Tip]

Ok, I figured out zone light and things are going well.
However, for some reason the lights are really wierd on my level. Some spots are just at the darkest they can be (they would be pitch black without the zone lighting) for no apparent reason.
Here's a pic...
http://www.geocities.com/joe_bloggs_the_1st/uedlight.txt

I already tried turning on bright corners on all surfaces but that didn't fix it. Any help?
Oh, and I still wanna know about ambient lights.

Tip

Please.

[Ultima]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Tip:
What is a good method of creating a good sense of daytime in the outdoors? How can you make the lighting actually feel right and point shadows all in the same direction?
Anyone have any tips for (don't even think about the joke penis face images/icons/tongue.gif ) me?

Tip

Kids used to taunt me by singing one part of "I'm a little teapot" over and over. I can still hear the kids screaming "TIP ME OVER! TIP ME OVER!" in bed at night. <hr></blockquote>

LOL good luck.. Unreal is good for making unrealistic lighting but its very hard to get things looking good without radiosity or area lighting. Try your luck with large-radius spotlight or cylinders, but I don't guarantee it will look good images/icons/smile.gif

[Ultima]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Tip:
Ok, I figured out zone light and things are going well.
However, for some reason the lights are really wierd on my level. Some spots are just at the darkest they can be (they would be pitch black without the zone lighting) for no apparent reason.
Here's a pic...
http://www.geocities.com/joe_bloggs_the_1st/uedlight.txt

I already tried turning on bright corners on all surfaces but that didn't fix it. Any help?
Oh, and I still wanna know about ambient lights.

Tip

Please.<hr></blockquote>

That's probably cause there's no lights on that surface. Zone lighting IS ambient lighting.

You have only two types of lights in unreal: Point-source and Ambient (ie Zone Lighting). No surface lighting, area lighting, or radiosity. images/icons/frown.gif

Basically, you're going to have to play around with spotlights, cylinder lights, omnidescence or whatever its called (lights that don't fall off till their max radius) and regular point lights as well as the ambient light level until it looks good.

In half-life you'd add one light entity and be done with it... damnit, 3dr better fix Unreal's lighting edit woes in DNF!!!! images/icons/smile.gif

[smattbac]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Ultima:


LOL good luck.. Unreal is good for making unrealistic lighting but its very hard to get things looking good without radiosity or area lighting. Try your luck with large-radius spotlight or cylinders, but I don't guarantee it will look good images/icons/smile.gif <hr></blockquote>
Did you look at this? (http://www.planetunreal.com/teamvortex/outdoorlighting.jpg) I'd say that's pretty good lightning.

[ 12-02-2001: Message edited by: smattbac ]

[Ultima]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by smattbac:

Did you look at this? (http://www.planetunreal.com/teamvortex/outdoorlighting.jpg) I'd say that's pretty good lightning.

[ 12-02-2001: Message edited by: smattbac ]<hr></blockquote>

Yeah, I did. The lighting is pretty nice for dusk, which is what it looks like to me images/icons/smile.gif

THe third pic is a bit weird though. The shadows are cast as if the sun is overhead, yet the scene is cloudy and as dark as sunset. wtf is that?


Anyways, these aren't strictly daytime outdoor lighting. Dusk or nighttime is a lot easier to do with the unreal engine. In fact, that's why I set a level I'm working on for fun at night-time, and probably why practically all the UT levels are at night save for a few exceptions. The unreal's engine is tuned for dark, moody, unrealish light, so it works best for that. It's simply not that great for bright sunny outdoor scenes. All the user maps I seen with that type of lighting (AS-Mountain I think it is.. especially comes to mind) have looked like ass.