Animated interior lights - broken, or need some magic?
by Pete Patterson · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 02/26/2007 (8:53 am) · 4 replies
I've been trying to use animated lights in interiors with TSE. I've tried earlier milestone releases, and now the 1.0 TGEA release.
I have had them working before in TGE, but although they compile fine using map2dif, and using some code I found in the forums to dump lightmaps, they are being generated, in TGEA animated lights don't animate, and they don't even show up as static lights. Non animated lights work beautifully.
I'm using the map2dif (also tried using map2dif plus) that ship with the engine.
Is there some trick to how to map the interior materials so animated lights work (a special shader maybe)?
Have the animated lights been deprecated in favor of in game (SG) dynamic lighting?
It was darn convenient to be able to place animated lights directly into an interior when it was being built.
I have had them working before in TGE, but although they compile fine using map2dif, and using some code I found in the forums to dump lightmaps, they are being generated, in TGEA animated lights don't animate, and they don't even show up as static lights. Non animated lights work beautifully.
I'm using the map2dif (also tried using map2dif plus) that ship with the engine.
Is there some trick to how to map the interior materials so animated lights work (a special shader maybe)?
Have the animated lights been deprecated in favor of in game (SG) dynamic lighting?
It was darn convenient to be able to place animated lights directly into an interior when it was being built.
#2
My vote would be that they be quickly and mercilessly phased out with a warning when you try to use them as opposed to compiling correctly and silently not working with the 'slow phase out' approach :-)
It should also be noted that TGEA went to release with this statement in the Doorway section of the "Torque Features" area of the flagship demo:
Doorway
Create realistic .... the portal based interiors with detail brushes and animated lightmaps are able to ..
Would it be possible to get a definitive comment from a staffer regarding the future of animated lightmaps in interiors in TGEA?
02/26/2007 (10:05 am)
Thanks for the info John.My vote would be that they be quickly and mercilessly phased out with a warning when you try to use them as opposed to compiling correctly and silently not working with the 'slow phase out' approach :-)
It should also be noted that TGEA went to release with this statement in the Doorway section of the "Torque Features" area of the flagship demo:
Doorway
Create realistic .... the portal based interiors with detail brushes and animated lightmaps are able to ..
Would it be possible to get a definitive comment from a staffer regarding the future of animated lightmaps in interiors in TGEA?
#3
Constructor will not export them at all when you export directly to DIF though you could still get at them by exporting through map2dif if you really needed them.
Honestly, animated lightmaps have not been used on a shipping TGE game since Tribes 2 (if even then?) and the dynamic mission lights are *much* easier to work with.
02/26/2007 (12:04 pm)
I don't believe they work out of the box with TGEA (no one wrote the rendering code needed for them). Map2dif and Map2dif Plus still export them but you would most likely need to go wire them up to the rendering pipeline yourself (which could be interesting with ShaderGen).Constructor will not export them at all when you export directly to DIF though you could still get at them by exporting through map2dif if you really needed them.
Honestly, animated lightmaps have not been used on a shipping TGE game since Tribes 2 (if even then?) and the dynamic mission lights are *much* easier to work with.
#4
When Constructor is released, I'll buy you a beverage, but for now quit reading the forums and get back in there and get it working!!
02/26/2007 (12:30 pm)
Thanks for the prompt replies, and for the definitive word on animated interior lights.When Constructor is released, I'll buy you a beverage, but for now quit reading the forums and get back in there and get it working!!
Torque Owner John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder)
Dynamic mission lights give you more control and allow for things like movement and complex animation and transitions (affecting color, movement, flare, ...), where the entity lights were limited to color changes using very simple animations and transitions.