Lighting problems
by Tony Oakden · in Torque Game Engine · 02/20/2005 (5:34 pm) · 10 replies
Most of my game is set indoors in BSP boxes. My first thought was to make each room as a basic box then dress it with BSP and static mesh. This works fine but lighting seems to be flaky. Basically any lights placed inside the room don't seem to light the BSP placed in the room and animated characters don't seem to take the directional light properly. Maybe I'd be better using static mesh to dress the rooms? I'm using the basic TGE.
My question is... Is it worth buying Synapse. The description is a bit vague so if anyone has used it and found it offers a significant improvement then I'd be interested to know specific details of how it imrpoves things.
TSE is another option. But I'm a bit worried about TSE as I'm aiming for the budget end of the games market and TSE seems to have a rather high machine spec requirement.
Any one got any thoughts on this?
My question is... Is it worth buying Synapse. The description is a bit vague so if anyone has used it and found it offers a significant improvement then I'd be interested to know specific details of how it imrpoves things.
TSE is another option. But I'm a bit worried about TSE as I'm aiming for the budget end of the games market and TSE seems to have a rather high machine spec requirement.
Any one got any thoughts on this?
#2
It seems a very reasonable price
02/20/2005 (5:56 pm)
So Stephen you recommend I purchase Synapse then? It seems a very reasonable price
#3
We bought it, and while we haven't yet used all the functionality it makes available, it was an excellent purchase.
02/20/2005 (6:05 pm)
Quite honestly, I've never heard of any project that was frustrated with their purchase!We bought it, and while we haven't yet used all the functionality it makes available, it was an excellent purchase.
#4
02/21/2005 (12:57 am)
@Tony, the Lighting Pack is superb. I have it.
#5
However, when i switch to DirectX the lighting pack doesn't seem to have any effect, no lightmapping on interiors (or light of any any) no texture on the players weapon.
Is this just a flaw with the demo that it doesnt work with DX or is the full version the same?
02/21/2005 (2:26 am)
I was looking into getting the lighting pack, the demo looks amazing when using OpenGL.However, when i switch to DirectX the lighting pack doesn't seem to have any effect, no lightmapping on interiors (or light of any any) no texture on the players weapon.
Is this just a flaw with the demo that it doesnt work with DX or is the full version the same?
#6
Timlon, John has a patch which adds DirectX support back in, which he's sent to interested people who ask about the pack. This will be released in the next version of the Lighting Pack (not too far away from being released), and may also be released as a private resource / patch for owners of the Lighting Pack. So, yes, the full version supports DirectX, no probs.
02/21/2005 (2:41 am)
The Lighting Pack is awesome. Extremely useful stuff, and besides making your games look better, it has some really nice tools that help you customize the lighting-look of your game (one of the most important, but underappreciated aspects of a game's impression / feel). It also has some good tutorials on how to model your lighting, and much more. I can't recommend it highly enough, honestly. Also, John Kabus (creator of the Lighting Pack) is really helpful with support for Lighting Pack owners, and it always helps make a purchase feel better when you know the person behind the product you're buying cares about it. Plus, it's backed by us here at GG. :)Timlon, John has a patch which adds DirectX support back in, which he's sent to interested people who ask about the pack. This will be released in the next version of the Lighting Pack (not too far away from being released), and may also be released as a private resource / patch for owners of the Lighting Pack. So, yes, the full version supports DirectX, no probs.
#8
02/21/2005 (1:59 pm)
OK I've bought it and will try to integrate it at the weekend. My next question is this: I've made quite a few modifications to the engine already - mostly in game\player.cs and game\aiplayer.cs but in some other places too. Can anyone tell me the minimum number of files from Synapse which I'll have to merge into my new code base? Unfortunately I've not been using version control at home so have no easy way to do this.
#9
02/21/2005 (2:48 pm)
I bought it too. I haven't bothered with version control - I read someone it wasn't used anymore.. can anyone shed some light on this? (apologies for the pun).
#10
02/21/2005 (5:30 pm)
Actually just correcting my email. THE changes I've made are mostly in teh game directory in source in player.cc and AIplayer.cc. But I've also made changes in various other source files. I can probably work out which ones I've changed by date stamps but it would be really useful to know which files in the light pack have changed. 
Torque 3D Owner Stephen Zepp