[How-to] Use rtlights

[fabzor]

There are 2 main kinds of lights in Nexuiz; realtime lights (rtlights) and radiosity based lights(the regular kind you see in radiant).

You can place the radiosity type of light in your map editor, typically GTkRadiant with an operation as simple as place light, but the realtime lights need to be placed ingame with use of the console and various commands.

the console commands are as follows…

Settings:
r_editlights : enable/disable editing mode
r_editlights_cursordistance : maximum distance of cursor from eye
r_editlights_cursorpushback : push back cursor this far from surface
r_editlights_cursorpushoff : push cursor off surface this far
r_editlights_cursorgrid : snap cursor to grid of this size
r_editlights_quakelightsizescale : imported quake light entity size scaling
Commands:
r_editlights_help : this help
r_editlights_clear : remove all lights
r_editlights_reload : reload .rtlights, .lights file, or entities
r_editlights_save : save to .rtlights file
r_editlights_spawn : create a light with default settings
r_editlights_edit command : edit selected light - more documentation below
r_editlights_remove : remove selected light
r_editlights_toggleshadow : toggles on/off selected light’s shadow property
r_editlights_importlightentitiesfrommap : reload light entities
r_editlights_importlightsfile : reload .light file (produced by hlight)

Edit commands:
origin x y z : set light location
originx x: set x component of light location
originy y: set y component of light location
originz z: set z component of light location
move x y z : adjust light location
movex x: adjust x component of light location
movey y: adjust y component of light location
movez z: adjust z component of light location
angles x y z : set light angles
anglesx x: set x component of light angles
anglesy y: set y component of light angles
anglesz z: set z component of light angles
color r g b : set color of light (can be brighter than 1 1 1)
radius radius : set radius (size) of light
colorscale grey : multiply color of light (1 does nothing)
colorscale r g b : multiply color of light (1 1 1 does nothing)
radiusscale scale : multiply radius (size) of light (1 does nothing)
sizescale scale : multiply radius (size) of light (1 does nothing)
style style : set lightstyle of light (flickering patterns, switches, etc)
cubemap basename : set filter cubemap of light (not yet supported)
shadows 1/0 : turn on/off shadows
corona n : set corona intensity
coronasize n : set corona size (0-1)
ambient n : set ambient intensity (0-1)
diffuse n : set diffuse intensity (0-1)
specular n : set specular intensity (0-1)
normalmode 1/0 : turn on/off rendering of this light in rtworld 0 mode
realtimemode 1/0 : turn on/off rendering of this light in rtworld 1 mode
<nothing> : print light properties to console



Dont panic, you dont need to remember all of these, but its important to know these few as they are often used

r_editlights 1 = turns on rtlight editing
r_editlights 0 = turns off rtlight editing

r_editlights_edit shadows 0 = turns off shadows to save speed and processing time

r_editlights_edit color 0 0 1 = will make a light red
r_editlights_edit color 0 1 1 = will make a light yellow
r_editlights_edit color 1 0 1 = will make a light purple
r_editlights_edit color 0.3 0.3 0.3 = will make a light dimmer whilst keeping the lights radius

r_editlights_edit radius 150 = small light
r_editlights_edit radius 320 = medium light
r_editlights_edit radius 475 = largeish light
r_editlights_edit radius 550 = large light
r_editlights_edit radius 650 = pretty huge light
r_editlights_edit radius 900 = huge light

r_editlights_save

you get the idea, radius scales the light sources and is very important

be very careful to put in as few lights as possible, and to make the overlap as little as possible.

this work of lighting your map is a constant tradeoff between visual quality and speed.

after you have finished placing you lights dont forget to r_editlights_save

[Sepelio]

I was wondering how real time lights were added. I wanted to use flickering lights in a map and had no idea how to do it.

Thanks!

[Moo]

Wow, this looks like a useful tutorial! I might use this sometime soon.

[fabzor]

to make it flicker,

spawn a new light
r_editlights_spawn
*click on a wall or something*

make it big enough (not essental)
r_editlights_edit radius 340

give it a corona (not essential)
r_editlights_edit corona 1

make the corona a less insane size (fairly important unless you want bigbig effect)
r_editlights_edit coronasize 0.1

r_editlights_edit style 1
or
r_editlights_edit style 2
or
r_editlights_edit style 3
or
r_editlights_edit style 4
etc...

have a look at all of them, theres about 10

have fun :)

[grasshopper]

Im so glad to see these kind of specific tutorials . some people search and never find any answers to things like this . thank for posting a helpful topic

[fabzor]

no worries grasshopper ;)

Now that you know how to use rtlights, use them very sparingly! they really slow down even fast computers!

[00Hugo00]

Me i know also, i can place sometimes lights.

[LordHavoc]

It is particularly important to pay attention to these r_editlights_ commands:
r_editlights_copyinfo (saves properties of current light)
r_editlights_pasteinfo (applies saved properties to a light)
r_editlights_edit normalmode 1 (causes a light to be visible in normal rendering, without the world dynamic lights option)
r_editlights_edit diffuse 0 (causes a light to emit no diffuse light)
r_editlights_edit specular 0 (causes a light to emit no specular light)
r_editlights_edit ambient 1 (causes a directionless light effect in the area of the light, different from diffuse and specular, it is soft lighting, which has some uses...)

It is worth noting that diffuse, specular, and ambient can be set to values above 1 if you desire a particularly strong effect, when all are 0 the light renders no lighting at all (but can still do a corona).

[Moo]

Cool.... And nice to see you here, LordHavoc... :D