I have made a swinging light and everything works fine except the rope doesn't show up.. How do I fix this?

Is there a red/green line between your move_rope and keyframe_rope in hammer? If not, it means your move_rope isn't pointing to the right place.

How do I point it to something?

Place a keyframe_rope entity by the lamp. Set the keyvalue "Next KeyFrame" in the move_rope to the keyframe_rope.

A swinging light? A DYNAMIC swinging light?

...

God, hope your framerates are still playable.

Ricotez wrote:
A swinging light? A DYNAMIC swinging light?
...
God, hope your framerates are still playable.

One dynamic light in a level is still playable, unless its lighting an uterly complicated structure and you're playing with a GeForce 4, there's nothing to worry about.

It's not a dynamic light, it's a point_spotlight parented to the lamp.

But it swings, so the light changes position, so the lightmap can't be precalculated in hammer and must be calculated while playing. That makes it dynamical. You don't need a light_dynamic just for it to be dynamic. Once you named a light, it is dynamic. Once a light changes position, or it fades in and out, or it flickers, or whatever that doesn't make it static, it's a dynamic light and it will be calculated in-game, resulting in lower framerates as the source engine isn't the best engine for dynamic lightning. If you have a light that remains on one position but changes its luminosity, while compiling only the brightest and the darkest lightmaps will be created, all the others will be in-game.

Okay, I have to admit, a few dynamic lights in a map don't really have an impact on playability, but much further than a few you shouldn't go.

sssummer wrote:
It's not a dynamic light, it's a point_spotlight parented to the lamp.

According to the Valve Developer Wiki, a point_spotlight IS a light_dynamic with some added sprite effects.

Fusion wrote:
According to the Valve Developer Wiki, a point_spotlight IS a light_dynamic with some added sprite effects.

Also from the wiki:

Quote:
If the 'No Dynamic Light' spawn flag is checked this entity will just provide a sprite effects, and will not illuminate other objects.

So it is not always a dynamic light.

It depends if sssumer wants the swinging light to actually cast light or not as far as a performance drop goes.

Well I want to know if it's possible to have the point_spotlight to actually give off light, not just bring effects.. making it much more realistic. Is this possible?

sssummer wrote:
Well I want to know if it's possible to have the point_spotlight to actually give off light, not just bring effects.. making it much more realistic. Is this possible?

Short answer: Yes.

Just make sure you have the "No Dynamic Light" flag unchecked.

Thanks, works great!