Inconsistent lighting problem

IzziTheLizard · Unreal Old Friend

Inconsistent lighting problem

IzziTheLizard · Unreal Old Friend

lightmap resolution....fixed!

Sly. · Unreal Old Friend

I'd say you should try to change parts of the BSP architecture.
In my opinion the source of your lighting problem could be the shapes of the trims. Instead of making them regular cuboids you cut their ends to some kind of "slope". The engine tends to dislike this and the results are such errors. You should avoid such shapes.

As I said, I would replace those "shaped" brushes with regular cuboids but even this would not be the best solution:

The best solution would be if you have made the trims with just two or three brushes by using the brush sinking technique.

I can't describe such things very well that's why I was searching for this tutorial. Brush sinking works in every Unreal Engine version and is very useful. It keeps your BSP simple but has the same effect as what you can see in your map.

PS: I would still change it. You have made your BSP architecture more complex although there is a better way to do it. The results will be worse BSP errors if you continue like this.

-- Edited by Sly on Tuesday 10th of May 2011 12:35:51 AM

stevelois · ...

Look like a low quality shadows inherent to a standard lightmap of 32 for most case.

As the other "cutted" shadows, it is due to BSP complexity. Except playing with geometry orders, there is not much you can do if you want to keep your current geometry.

Odedge · Feedback-Master ..

Random Tip: I have found that you will get more consistent shadows if you tend to use subtractive brushes to remove "stuff", rather than using multiple additive brushes.

IzziTheLizard · Unreal Old Friend

Thanks guys. Lightmap adjustment from 32 to 8 helped a bit. I'm not entirely happy with the final look but it seems I'll have to live with it because I just can't fix all this geometry at this point. Thanks for the tutorial, sly, I obviously use additive brush sinking a lot but it seems if I plan my map correctly I can get better results with subtractive sinking. My previous maps have usually been indoors so I haven't had to deal with directional lights that much before. Once I put that puppy in it exaggerated all the imperfections in the geo....

Lord_PorkSword · Connoisseur of Bourbon!

I've found that I quite often play with 1 main source directional light getting the right position and angle to give the best shadows. I then add a couple extras, in different positions/angles with a low brightness to make the shadows a bit softer from the main source.

Apart from that ya map looks quite interesting M8! :tumbbsup:

Odedge · Feedback-Master ..

Looking at the picture again, you could try readjusting the yellow trim BSP so it doesn't angle when it meets perpendicularity. Since you are using a material that has squares in it and that square fits perfectly in the "corner", you wouldn't have that angled shadow effect in some areas?

A bit tedious, but you can test it out first if you're still having that shadow problem.

IzziTheLizard · Unreal Old Friend

Yeah, basically I just don't want to spend the time to fix the trim. It would be like hours of work to adjust the trim on the whole map. I'm mainly annoyed by the floors, which are harder to fix. You can see on the bottom right how that one line of tiles is soo much darker than what's right next to it. I fixed that by changing the geo but there some floors that would be very hard to fix. I have multiple directionals already. Softer ones to fill in the shadows. It helps but it's not great.