Sharply defined shadows

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elt
34 Posts
Posted Jun 08, 2011
So I'm learning things about lighting, but I'm a little stumped on how to make a light cast sharp-edged shadows specific to geometry.

Current example: I have a room seperated into upper and lower sections with a series of prop_static trusses (world model truss_512.mdl), and above them, a large light prop with a light and an env_sprite giving a nice glow. The light DOES cast shadows on the floor from the trusses, but they're diffuse, blurry, and they don't seem to follow the geometry of the trusses at all. The trusses are skeletal, full of holes, but the shadow below them is solid, a wide black shadow-bar with blurry edges. What I want is a sharply-defined shadow of the truss geometry spanning across the floor.

What am I missing? My shadows suck.

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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
Posted Jun 08, 2011
Replied 9 minutes later
Try an env_projectedtexture. They give off sharp lighting :wink:
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elt
34 Posts
Posted Jun 08, 2011
Replied 21 minutes later
Excellent! env_projectedtexture is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
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msleeper
4,136 Posts
Admin
Posted Jun 08, 2011
Replied 21 minutes later
Also look into the lightmap scale, but you want to use this sparingly (since it can significantly increase map filesize).
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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
Posted Jun 08, 2011
Replied 1 minutes later

msleeper wrote:
Also look into the lightmap scale, but you want to use this sparingly (since it can significantly increase map filesize).

Can it make a map 200MB big?

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DaMaGepy
361 Posts
Posted Jun 08, 2011
Replied 8 hours later

chickenmobile wrote:
Can it make a map 200MB big?

yes with lightmap scale 1 on a huuuge wall, where every pixel storel a different light :smile: