Help with lighting

[Cutmanmike]

Hmm has anyone made an example map of this?

[Enjay]

I started to do it, but when I saw the slope problem, I stopped and ditched the files because the feature is severely limited as a result of the bug.

[Graf Zahl]

You mean the lack of proper implementation, right? This is no bug - just an abandoned feature. Don't expect much to happen about this. I implemented this when the Doom64TC came out. I was actually attempting to port the levels themselves but that never happened because trying to figure out the XG stuff was too much of a hassle. So consider this dead. I won't invest any work here. Splitting sloped polygons for proper lighting is far too messy to even attempt this. I might resurrect it if GLSL becomes flexible enough to handle complex code but that will most likely take a few years.

[Cutmanmike]

I'd like an example map anyway. I'd just exclude the glowing for areas with slopes.

[Graf Zahl]

This isn't a map feature. All you can do is to say that some flats are supposed to glow. Create a lump like Enjay's and look in my post from Oct 7 to see how to set it for a map. But as I repeatedly said: The definition in MAPINFO will go away and move to GLDEFS in one of the upcoming versions. I have decided to throw all GL specific stuff out of MAPINFO.

[Enjay]

Well, if you want to see it, and the slopes problem, here is what it looks like using the current implementation. I just threw this together quickly, including the obvious candidates for glowing, though obviously any flat can be made to glow. (I've tried it with ceiling lights etc and it can work very nicely). It's a bit limited: you can't specify how brightly it glows or tweak the colour (AFAIK) but it's a very nice looking effect. Personally, I'd far rather things like this were being worked on than model support and the like.

All sectors in this level use light level 128 and there are no placed dynamic light objects or similar. So, any variation in appearance is purely down to the glowing flats.

[Enjay]

Can I ask if this (incomplete) feature has been removed from GZdoom? I have tried running the above file with GZDoom 10.0.21 and get the following:

Script error, "MAPINFO" line 2:
Bad syntax.

Line 2 of MAPINFO says

Code: Select all

GLOWDEFS "njglow"

Seeing as how that's the line with the GLOWDEFS instruction and it used to work, I'm guessing the GLOWDEFS feature no longer exists.

[Graf Zahl]

It has been moved to GLDEFS instead of using a MAPINFO definition.

[Enjay]

Aha! Well that would explain that. However, I'm still having difficulties.

I've tried a few things using various combinations of GLDEFS and GLOWDEFS keywords and glow definition lumps and come up with nothing that works. The format is elluding me. What should I do to make it work?

[Graf Zahl]

Sorry. Try this:

Code: Select all

Glow
{
	Flats
	{
		LAVA1 
		LAVA2 
		LAVA3 
		LAVA4 
		NUKAGE1 
		NUKAGE2 
		NUKAGE3
	    FWATER1 
	    FWATER2 
	    FWATER3 
	    FWATER4
		BLOOD1 
		BLOOD2 
		BLOOD3
		RROCK05
		RROCK06
		RROCK07
		RROCK08
	}
	
	Walls
	{
		FIREBLU1 
		FIREBLU2 
		FIRELAVA 
		FIRELAV2 
		FIRELAV3 
		FIREMAG1
	    FIREMAG2 
	    FIREMAG3 
	    FIREWALL 
	    FIREWALA 
	    FIREWALB
	}
}

[Graf Zahl]

And don't ask about 'Walls'. They only glow on floors.

[Enjay]

Thank you. Here's the above file modified for the new GLDEFS system. The slopes bug is still present (as I'm sure you know) but used carefully the feature could still be cool.

[Ultraviolet]

So, is there any plan for this to support glowing wall textures in the future?

[Graf Zahl]

No. All you could do is render them fullbright and there are easier ways to do that. Consider the glowing stuff abandoned. I won't touch it again.

[Enjay]

Understandable, but a shame. IMO it's one of the most effective looking OpenGL features - when used properly of course (just like anything else).