Recessed Lighting
Hey guys, I'm new to this website. I've been looking for a good portal mapping community and it looks like I've found one. :0)
I don't have much to contribute yet since I'm new to mapping in Hammer (though I do have some experience in UnrealEd that will certainly transfer over).
However, I do have a question.
I'm working on my first map and I'm trying to add some recessed lighting to it. I'm using the light_recessedcool002 texture the same way the sample SDK map is, but for some reason only a single light source is created from the texture instead of a whole line of lights along the wall.
I've even tried directly copying the recessed lighting group objects right out of the sample map, but they do the same thing. I also tried recompiling the sample map to see if it was an issue with compiling/hammer similar to the common cubemap problems, but the sample map recompiled just fine.
Does anyone know what might be causing this? I've got all of the textures settings set identical to what the sample SDK map has, and I've tried multiple scalings/rotations, but I still only get one light source. Is there a properties page that I need to go to to configure texture-sourced lighting?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Check your map for leaks; radiosity may fail to generate properly if there are leaks anywhere, which will cause some funky lighting artifacts. Failing that, can you describe the problem more precisely? A screenshot, perhaps?
Sweet. That was it. I had a HUGE gaping hole at the bottom of the starting elevator shaft. I feel like an idiot. 
Is there a quick way to tell if your map had any leaks when you compile short of trying to load a pointfile?
If there are any leaks, you'll notice some pretty big warnings at the top of the log. It's hard to catch them when they're just whizzing by, but just scroll the window up to the top and they should be easy to spot.
The pointfile is the easiest and best way to check for leaks, really. The log just says that you have them.
Please do not Private Message me for assistance. Post a thread if you have questions or concerns.
If you need to contact the staff privately, contact the Global Moderators via Discord.
Does anyone know what texture the lighting recessed into the metal walls is called? It's a yellowish texture (or possibly white with a yellow light on it, in which case, does anyone have an estimate of that light color?).
If it is textured lighting (which honestly kind of sucks in Source, sadly) then those values are preset and you only need to place the texture on a brush. As for which ones it is exactly, you can probably load up the example map and see what they use.
Please do not Private Message me for assistance. Post a thread if you have questions or concerns.
If you need to contact the staff privately, contact the Global Moderators via Discord.
The console command "mat_crosshair" displays the name of the material/texture under the crosshair.
im pretty sure that texture you're using doesn't produce light by default.
You can make any texture produce light by making a .rad file
Example:
mapname.bsp uses lights/light_recessedcool002 as a recessed lightsource
make a new text document in the directory the bsp is located. name it 'mapname.rad'
open the .rad file in notepad and type on line one the texturename and r g b brightness
so mapname.rad has
lights/light_recessedcool002 135 207 255 300
if there are any other texture lights, just put it on line 2. thats the values I used for that very same texture in my map.
you will know if it works, when during compile it comes to the RAD computation, at the begining of that stage it says something like:
[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[53 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']
...
[2 texlights parsed from 'h:steamsteamappsaccountsourcesdk_contentportalmapsrcmapname.rad']
where 53 is the actual number of that light its putting in the mapfrom the default lights.rad file
2 is how many lights are being parsed in from the custom rad file in the map directory, overriding any default ones that may conflict
let me know if you need anymore help 
The lighting I'm trying to duplicate is the kind of lighting found in the level where GlaDOS talks about momentum. They're indentations in the metallic walls which contain the lights/white001 texture but give off a bright, bright yellow light. I can't seem to get the same level of saturation and brightness achieved in the original level.