Two Sided Ambient
by James Spellman · in · 03/22/2006 (12:07 pm) · 4 replies
I'm trying to rescue some older DIFs in our library and I've grown fond of using a large two-side ambient light for base lighting. The situation is thus:
I have a trailer sitting on a dark street under a streetlamp. The inside is lit with three sets of flourescent lights. I need to make sure the interior is well lit, especially the floor, without oversaturating anything. As long as lights don't overlap, this is doable. I use the ambient to fill in the gaps.
There are two observations I make at this point which give me grief:
First, the two sided ambient affects the exterior of the trailer. It doesn't seem to be interested in the portal settings going out, only in.
Second, because the Dif is sitting on a road Dif, some of the lighting tends to spill out to the outside world and turns my night scene to day. This is a constant battle of mine as we're trying to build our world modularly.
Any advice?
I have a trailer sitting on a dark street under a streetlamp. The inside is lit with three sets of flourescent lights. I need to make sure the interior is well lit, especially the floor, without oversaturating anything. As long as lights don't overlap, this is doable. I use the ambient to fill in the gaps.
There are two observations I make at this point which give me grief:
First, the two sided ambient affects the exterior of the trailer. It doesn't seem to be interested in the portal settings going out, only in.
Second, because the Dif is sitting on a road Dif, some of the lighting tends to spill out to the outside world and turns my night scene to day. This is a constant battle of mine as we're trying to build our world modularly.
Any advice?
#2
I'll have to perform some experiments...
03/23/2006 (9:38 am)
I should have mentioned that I always keep the Restricts set an it doesn't help. The portals seem to only stop the light from entering the portals, not escaping. But sense you say it should work, there is probably something else afoot.I'll have to perform some experiments...
#3
Try running the TGE debug build and use debug render mode 7 (type 'setInteriorRenderMode(7);' in the console) to make sure the interior portals are setup correctly.
Check out this cool reference for more details on the render modes: Interior Render Modes.
-John
03/27/2006 (8:12 am)
Hi James,Try running the TGE debug build and use debug render mode 7 (type 'setInteriorRenderMode(7);' in the console) to make sure the interior portals are setup correctly.
Check out this cool reference for more details on the render modes: Interior Render Modes.
-John
#4
I always forgot about the Interior Render Modes, so that link is very helpful. Everything looks peachy as far as I can tell. I've proven that under normal circumstances that the two-sided ambient works as you describe. That makes me confindent that I'm at least doing it right.
There are situations, however, where it doesn't work. But once I got it working, I found it difficult to recreate the prior circumstances. My best guess at this point is that it is either related to overlapping Difs, fighting between interior and exterior lights or simply the position of my light within my Dif. Nothing we built has exhibited this problem, it's only things we've adapted, so there could also be something squirly in the model I've not yet identified.
For now I have something working and need to move on to other things. Thanks again!
03/27/2006 (10:06 am)
Thanks John!I always forgot about the Interior Render Modes, so that link is very helpful. Everything looks peachy as far as I can tell. I've proven that under normal circumstances that the two-sided ambient works as you describe. That makes me confindent that I'm at least doing it right.
There are situations, however, where it doesn't work. But once I got it working, I found it difficult to recreate the prior circumstances. My best guess at this point is that it is either related to overlapping Difs, fighting between interior and exterior lights or simply the position of my light within my Dif. Nothing we built has exhibited this problem, it's only things we've adapted, so there could also be something squirly in the model I've not yet identified.
For now I have something working and need to move on to other things. Thanks again!
Torque Owner John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder)
Make sure "Restrict Ambient to Zone" is checked on the light, and that the portal is setup properly. With that setup it should stop the light from exiting the interior.
-John