Help with ExtraLight

cccp_leha · Post by **cccp_leha** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 12:15 am

I'm having trouble with ExtraLight(). I need is a white stripe between 32 and 64, so I make one control sector, floor/ceiling at 32/64, light level 200 and the actual sector, floor/ceiling at 0/128, light level 70, I get bright walls and bright floor with methods 0 and 2, and only a bright stripe on the walls from 32 to the ceiling with method 1. Now if I add another control sector and set its floor/ceiling to 0/128 and light level 70, it seems to give me the wanted effect. Is this the way it is supposed to work or am I doing something wrong/misunderstanding something?

HotWax · Post by **HotWax** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 9:13 am

That function is bound to have bugs and be a bit unpredictable as it was never properly finished.

cccp_leha · Post by **cccp_leha** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 2:24 pm

Ah, that explains everything. I was expecting it to work just like the Wiki description:

If you have a real sector, floor/ceiling height 0 and 128, and have a control sector with heights 64 and 96, you would get sort of a white bar from 64 to 96 in the real sector. You can, of course, apply slopes, colored lightning and/or any effect to the control sector.

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 4:07 am

Yeah...I can't remember the reasons... but it's unfinshed... ask randy... randy knows... randy knows everything... at least about Zdoom

.

HotWax · Post by **HotWax** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 12:41 pm

The reason is that the sprite drawer would have to be completely redone to support changes in light level, light color, etc, at arbitrary points along the sprite as it draws from top to bottom..

Wow, that was about as clear as crude oil.

Mr. Tee · Post by **Mr. Tee** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:12 pm

Does anyone know if Randy is planning on removing this function?

If it worked properly and all the time, I would definitely use it (although I imagine there would still be problems if you used more than 2 light layers in one section, as that would mean the renderer needs to draw more than one "fake floor").

Think about it though, building shadows could slope down a neighboring wall and such.

HotWax · Post by **HotWax** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:13 pm

Mr. Tee: There's no problem at all with using more than 2 light layers. Randy's demo map showed several stacked "light volumes" in the same room.

The only issue is that it doesn't actually affect sprites within that sector.

Also, I very seriously doubt Randy would consider removing a function that people have put to use. That's exactly how you create backwards compatibility issues, which so far he has strived to avoid.

Mr. Tee · Post by **Mr. Tee** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:15 pm

Oh. Well that's not so bad if that is the only thing wrong with it...

... It DOES make a bottomless cavern look a little neater though!

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 2:16 pm

HotWax wrote:Also, I very seriously doubt Randy would consider removing a function that people have put to use. That's exactly how you create backwards compatibility issues, which so far he has strived to avoid.

Of course he won't!

1. There are maps which use it
2. Remember the discussion about the 'spawn' function a few months ago? Randy wrote in the Wiki that it might go away soon until he found out that it has been used in actual maps (including high profile ones like Daedalus) So whatever he disliked about it, he accepted the fact that he couldn't do it anymore. This is mostly the same!

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 4:17 am

I think this feature can still be used to great extenst without the sprite thing. I wopuldn't minds if I saw varying lightrs on the walls... it would add to the wall decor and look cooler and it wouldn't bother me if it affected the sprites or not... in gact, if it diod effect sprites it would look silly IMO... after all, light doesn't do that in real life... I just want to see that strange bug fixed and that will satiusfy me... if you use it to make gradiants then you just set the floors light value to the lightest or darkest value... thiswill look just fine IMO.

HotWax · Post by **HotWax** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 2:59 pm

Light doesn't affect moving objects in real life?! Fuck, you should have told id software that, it would have saved them 4+ years of coding!!!

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 2:36 am

Mmmm, okay... just ignore me

.

Risen · Post by **Risen** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:31 am

You know what would be really cool? A Light_Gradient special. Don't know how easy or possible, but it would save a whole lot of sectors!

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:06 am

And due to the palette limitation it would look awful.

Risen · Post by **Risen** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:12 am

Not any worse than light sectoring as it is done now, I'd imagine.

Colored lighting could of course look awful. But it's up to the mapper.