Lightmaps

[-Psy-]

How exactly do I create a lightmap? And what does it do exactly?

 

[Shinobi]

lightmaps are shadow maps created by RAD automatically when compiling maps, as far as I know they only work for BSP geometry (so no models made with max, maya etc...). If you want to bake in some shadow detail (basically adding the lightmap to your color map) you can do that with most 3D programs.

 

[-Psy-]

Well thanks..but How would I get the shadows on the texture then? I have 3dsm btw.

 

[StardogChampion]

http://www.planetunreal.com/fordy/gradientssmeshtutorials/10.html

That's for Unreal 2003/4 but it should still apply. Or you can paint the shadows manually yourself in photoshop.

 

[mindless_moder]

why would u want to do this ?...the purpose of realtime lighting and dynamic lights is to never bake shadow detail into geometry again its all calculated in realtime.

 

[Shinobi]

unfotunately HL2's lighting is vertex,, hard to get some finer shadow detail in that way.. but yeah I do agree

anyways if you want to do it in max, look up lightbaking and render-to-texture in your help files,,

 

[mindless_moder]

haha helpfiles i dont think he has helpfiles if u know what i mean

 

[-Psy-]

=/

-- Unknown System Exception

I get that when I choose Render To Texture....

 

[mindless_moder]

just dont bother about it lol. unless ur texturing a gun ..u dont need this for props.
if u still want to make it work uninstall and reinstal ur max.

 

[-Psy-]

Aye...it's just the fact that my model looks like it was rendered in the GTA Engine -_-'

 

[crackhead]

this is one big interactive help file

 

[StardogChampion]

Aye...it's just the fact that my model looks like it was rendered in the GTA Engine -_-'

If you can't do it with max, then you can just paint the shadows ontop of the texture file. That'll only work if it's fully uv unwrapped though. Look at the fences in HL2, they have some shadowing painted at the joints. It makes them look a lot better.

You can tell all the pipe models have no shadows painted onto them because they look like crap.

 

[crackhead]

u could draw shadows on with burn couldnt you. im really rubish at texturing so i duno.

 

[-Psy-]

Looks like it's back to re mapping the whole model again then =/

Btw, how do I get bumpmaps to work? And how can you check if they have compiled right? I think I did it but I can't really tell in-game lol. And how do I flatten the uv without splitting the face into like 10 parts?