Also, what effects of HDR and such take place with a portal map from the original story line? And how to add them myselves?

cornontheCoD wrote:
im pretty sure theres an entity for shadow control CALLED shadow control or something like that. I saw it in a TF2 map so it could just maybe be TF2 exclusive.

Err... What? I saw that entity in the example map!

msleeper wrote:
Increase your lightmap scale. Keep in mind that this will exponentially increase the VRAD compile time and your final map file size, so don't over do it.

you mean decrease right?

I'll take a look And how about HDR effects? I'll look it up in the example maps, but if I cant find it, help here would be great.

taco wrote:
I believe what you are talking about is lightmaps, you can read about them here: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Lightmap

The very first sentence from the article: "A lightmap is the static lighting data for each Brush face."

How to select all surfaces in the map?
(or is this a bad idea seeing the amount of surfaces which don't require change in light map?)

Bulska wrote:
ah just like UT then...

How to select all surfaces in the map?
(or is this a bad idea seeing the amount of surfaces which don't require change in light map?)

Yes, if you read what I said, this is a horribly bad idea. You only want to increase the lightmap scale for surfaces you specifically want sharper shadows. The default lightmap scale is fine in most instances.

You can adjust the lightmap scale from the texture tool.

reepblue wrote:
Err... What? I saw that entity in the example map!

That entity just controls the shadow colour and distance to project the shadow of prop_physics's and prop_dynamic.

To make 'sharper', more detailed shadows, use the Face Edit tool, select ALL brush faces you want, then change the Lightmap Scale to a lower number. (CAUTION:The lower the lightmap scale, the LONGER your compile times will be. This is due to it having to figure out much more 'detail', [lightmaps,] in your shadows.)