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[ReD NeCKersoN]

Light that leaks through buildings at the floor, ceiling or walls is something we are all too familiar with in wq3 maps. Well, I stumbled onto a fix for this!

Here's what we are used to seeing.


Mappers can fix this in the editor. Select the brushes that the light is leaking through. In the 2d window, right click on a highlighted brush & select func_group. With the brush still selected, hit the N key on your keyboard to open the entity window. Add the key _lightmapscale with a value of 0.5 as shown in this image.


Save your work & compile the map. Final result.....FIXED!

[Pardner]

HEY! great find Red. I havent tried it yet, but Ill take your word for it. Deffinitally will keep this one in mind if/when I do another map. Does it work for vQ3 leaky lights as well?

[ReD NeCKersoN]

Does it work for vQ3 leaky lights as well?

Seems to. That last photo was taken while in vq3.

[Breli]

I haven't tried it but rather than setting _lightmapscale for a single entity it should also work if it is used globally. Just put it into worldspawn. I am using this for a while in order to make shadows more "crispy".

It takes more time for compilation though. So you may want to keep that for the final compile.

Additionally, I am using _lightmapscale .125 on all models. Looks sweet for all I can tell.

[ReD NeCKersoN]

Hmmm. Thanks for the advice! I'll do some experimenting based on your info.

[ReD NeCKersoN]

I've discovered this doesn't always work. It depends on how the brushes fit together. Setting _lightmapscale globally only fixes the leaks that are fixable with the other method.

[hika]

I may find another light leak in br_durango_r.


I think it is the only one left.

[ReD NeCKersoN]

I must have tried to fix that one a dozen times. The only thing left to do is to apply a texture to the caulked faces on the other side of those brushes since that also seems to fix these tougher problems. I'll try it.
And there's at least one more light leak in Durango.

[ReD NeCKersoN]

I compiled the untouched, original map file for Durango that I got from ICI just for kicks. No light leaks whatsoever. I suspected the new compiler might be causing this phenomenon, but no. (That's what I compiled with.) Oh and this light leak thing doesn't just pertain to wq3 maps. Other q3 engine games suffer from the same thing, which is how I stumbled onto the "hit or miss" fix. I came across the _lightmapscale info in a SOF2 thread somewhere. What's changed since beta 2.0 was released? What the hell could be causing this??? Maybe phong shading? New shaders? WTF.