Noob Question About Glows

[Theoden]

Hi everyone,
This is my first post on the forums and I am new to GZDoom.
I am currently playing Hexen with GZDoom but I still couldn't figure out how to enable glows for the game.
I enabled brightmaps and lightmaps from the *.ini file but I have no idea how to enable glows.
Do I need to download some glow maps or something similar?
Can you please help me, I feel like a complete noob.

Thanks in advance

[Enjay]

Hi there, welcome to the forum.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "glows". I suspect, however, that you are either talking about dynamic lights (likely) or brightmaps.

GZDoom should have come with the files lights.pk3 and brightmaps.pk3. You need to load these along with any other files that you may be loading if you want "glows". You are right to make sure that they are enabled in the menu but unless you also load the files that provide the definitions for these features, they won't work. If you want, you can set them to autoload.

[zwiki]How_to_autoload_files[/zwiki]

[Theoden]

Hi Enjay, thanks for the quick reply

Actually I am not talking about Dynamic Lights, I might be wrong but I thought there was something called "glowing flats" in GZDoom.

From ZDoomWiki: "Floor and ceiling textures can be made to glow. This effect works well for materials such as lava, computer screens, lamps, and so on. While the effect can be added to both flats and textures, it will only work when said flats and textures are applied on a floor or ceiling; if applied to a wall they will simply not glow."

They are under the topic "GLDEFS" Link: http://zdoom.org/wiki/GLDEFS

Here's is a video on youtube that I believe has this glow effect I am talking about on the torches standing in a line in the middle of the map.
YOUTUBE LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeWN9aq0PM0

As you can notice around 2:30 in the video that torches have an extra glow at the top where the flame is.
I remember seeing the same effect in another video that I can't find at the moment.

I am not sure if this is a mod or not. Or am I seeing things

[Blue Shadow]

GZDoom doesn't come with predefined flat glows like dynamic lights. You can still make them for your mods though.

The glows you're talking about are flares. The "flare effect" can be achieved by using a graphic (sprite) that resembles a flare and with some DECORATE magic you can make them into "things" (actors) that can be "attached" to torches.

[Theoden]

So "glowing flats" and "flare effect" are exactly the same thing?
I see, then in order to have that effect I need a mod or have to mod it myself.
Do you know what "GLDEFS" stand for and what they really are?

[Theoden]

This is from ZDoom Wiki:

The syntax is of this form:

Glow
{
Flats
{
flat name
flat name
flat name
...
}
Walls
{
texture name
texture name
texture name
...
}
Texture "flat name", color[, glow height] [, fullbright]
}

Use a Flats block to define a list of flats that have to glow. The glow will use default settings: the glow height is 64, the color is averaged from the mapped picture, and the flat is set to be fullbright. Use a Walls block in the same way, but for textures. Despite the "walls" moniker, keep in mind that they do not work if actually set on a wall; only on floors and ceilings.

Use a Texture entry to define the parameters yourself. Contrarily to "Flats" and "Walls", "Texture" is not a block and only define the glow for a single texture. The color parameter must be either a RGB hex triplet, such as C010A8, or one of the recognized X11R6 color name, such as SlateGray1 or PowderBlue. Optionally, a glow height parameter can be given to set how high the glow goes, this must be an integer. Optionally as well, the definition can be finished with the fullbright keyword. If this keyword is not given, the affected texture will not be set to be fullbright.

[Blue Shadow]

So "glowing flats" and "flare effect" are exactly the same thing?

No, they're not. They're different things. The flare effect has nothing to do wiht GLDEFS or glowing flats.

[Theoden]

So "glowing flats" and "flare effect" are exactly the same thing?

No, they're not. They're different things. The flare effect has nothing to do wiht GLDEFS or glowing flats.

Can you direct me to a link where "GLDEFS" is explained?
What is it exactly?

[Blue Shadow]

What you quoted on your second to last post is from the [wiki]GLDEFS[/wiki] web page.

What is it exactly?

Simply, its a lump in which one can define OpenGL effects such as dynamic light, skyboxes, brightmaps, etc...

Oh, on the flare effect matter, this is a flare effect. It isn't that good but it serves the purpose.

---

Screenshot_Doom_20111223_181654.png

Unfortunately, I can't show you a screenshot demonestrating a glowing flat because my graphics card doesn't support shaders.

[Theoden]

What you quoted on your second to last post is from the [wiki]GLDEFS[/wiki] web page.


Oh, on the flare effect matter, this is a flare effect. It isn't that good but it serves the purpose.

---

Screenshot_Doom_20111223_181654.png

That's the effect I was talking about! Thanks for the screenshot.

Do you know any link where I can download needed files to achieve that flare effect and how to apply them to the HEXEN in GZDoom?

[Enjay]

It looks like you've had most of your answers. To reiterate, the "glows" you were referring to are not glowing flats. "Flats" are what Doom traditionally uses on the floors of sectors. Glowing flats can be used to define a glow-effect that makes it look like the floor/ceiling is glowing by having it light up the walls (etc) that are beside the flat. eg a pool of NUKAGE can be defined to have a greenish glow near the bottom of any walls that are beside the pool.

A Glowing Flat:


The effect you are looking for (I think) is a flare or corona.



GZDoom does not have the built-in ability to make these flare/corona effects. It is possible to fake them by redefining the torches (etc) and having them spawn a translucent flare-like sprite at the correct position on the main sprite. It looks reasonably good but it does have limitations and sometimes doesn't work smoothly (it is prone to flickering or the flare being seen through walls even when the torch can't be seen etc). Mods like Beautiful Doom and Brutal Doom (where the above pic came from) add these kind of effects.

Here is an example of it looking a bit odd:


It looks OK in the first shot but the flare can often be seen in positions where it really isn't logical that it should be seen (ie the second shot). Sometimes it can even be seen standing by the above wall but facing away from the lamp. However, I couldn't get a clear enough screenshot to demonstrate that.

I *think* this is the latest Beautiful Doom:
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=16484

And this is the Brutal Doom Zdoom forum thread:
http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=28920

Other mods are available.



I think that there are some source ports that have built-in effects (eg possibly the Doomsday engine ? (I don't have it installed) ). In such ports the effect should be less problematic because it doesn't have to be modded in by an end user.

[Theoden]

Thank you for all the answers.