Maybe I should be asking questions since I'm still a noob.. or maybe I should?

I was thinking about what someone on here said about part of my map being in darkness. They didn't like those types of maps.

Is there a way to make a light flash really quick every so often? Maybe even adding a sound to it.. you know like bzzzt.. bzz..

.. or how about a light that comes on when you get near it and goes off when you walk away?

Flashing lights are incredibly annoying.

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Light

msleeper wrote:
Flashing lights are incredibly annoying.

agree

You can make flickering lights but really strong flickering effects can cause seizures to people. And it's incredibly annoying anyways.

Lights turning on if you get close to them is possible but still a horrible idea, this time due to how source calculates light: every light that source thinks can change will be calculated twice; on and off so if you have 10 lights that all can be turned on or off that means that hammer needs to calculate the lighting 20 times! On and off for every light.* Compared to only once if the lights won't be able to turn on/off. That means that the file size and compile time will dramatically increase when you add those kind of lights. It's something I think you should try to avoid.

• I know this isn't 100% correct but it's a simplified example to show what goes wrong.

tl;dr: only use static lights in source.unless you really know what you're doing

Yeah, I wouldn't use flickering lights in any room that you expect the player to spend a reasonable amount of time in - they're good for broken passageways between sections and stuff, but the last thing you need when you're trying to think is a horrible flourescent flicker or strobe going off in your face. What lpfreaky says about switchable lights is true, unless you have all 10 lights turning on and off together and give them the same name (which would look a bit crap anyway). I used a couple of switchable lights in my Double Bill map to spice up the appearance of my Multi-Purpose Button, but it really did take a lot of effort to get it looking right....

The only time I believe there should be a flickering light is to grab the players' attention. Flickering lights should be used in a good or well lit place.

You can have the player initially in a dark area, and have a flickering light in the distance where as soon as you go there (or portal) it no longer flickers.
I can remember one good example in the main campaign: you see a bright wall which flickers just before you get trapped by GLaDOS saying something about "I should have just dangled a turkey leg above the ceiling".

http://steamcommunity.com/id/chickenmob ... tab=public

http://steamcommunity.com/id/chickenmob ... tab=public

I - noob, too - ran into problems as well when I wanted a light to turn off at some point.

In my case the light was supposed to turn off in a hallway when the player looked through a door into this hallway. In the end, I built the same hallway twice, once with lights on, once with lights off, and put a trigger in to open a worldportal in the door the moment the light should turn off.

I guess that would also be possible in the middle of the room with teleporters: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Teleporters

Hey zivi7.

I guess for that scenario you made it way too complicated! In orrder to trigger something when player looks at it, the easiest way is to use a trigger_look.

About flickring lights, many light entities (light, light_spot) can have several appearances... and some of them flicker.

Anyway, it's possible to set a light or group of them with a flicker appearance, name them and then randomly switch them by triggers, logic_relays and math_counters... or simply by using triggers and relays so set their status on and off.

I agree with Elfarmerino or chickenmobile though: this kind of light should be used to create an atmosphere. And preferably in small areas or destructed passages where the player simply passes by, never stays, ...and for example spotting a certain corridor in the way to the exit or a portalable surface as chicken said.

Thanks for all the great replies.

Well, I wasn't thinking of anything seizure inducing or fast blink. It was an "attention getter" as someone else noted.

The idea was that originally I based my map off another map, but added a few floors and some parts of darkness. Someone said they don't like total darkness. Because once you knock over the turrets there it's totally dark. So, I figure every 10 or 20 seconds a light could flicker and go "bzzt" like it was broke/trying to light up. You don't stay here.. it's just an area you need to pass by, so this would give you some help to find your way through.

As for getting to the end of the first floor, I have a light, but then I got to thinking.. what if the end of the first floor onto the second wasn't totally visible from afar? What if it was dark and maybe the person didn't want to go down that way at first, but if you did go down that way it lit up above when you got near as a "hey you need to go up here" type of thing.

Which leads to the question... what is the best way to fade a light on/off OnTimer or OnTrigger?

Vordwann wrote:
Which leads to the question... what is the best way to fade a light on/off OnTimer or OnTrigger?

Custom Appearance aaaannnn?
maybe zzzgdaagagazzazzz for a more spectacular effect ?

lpfreaky90 wrote:
Vordwann wrote:

Which leads to the question... what is the best way to fade a light on/off OnTimer or OnTrigger?

Custom Appearance aaaannnn?
maybe zzzgdaagagazzazzz for a more spectacular effect ?

What I want is a reliable effect where the light consistently fades from 0 to full whenever you send a relay to it, and from full to 0 (another fade) when a different relay is sent to it. This might just be impossible in source...

Vordwann wrote:
lpfreaky90 wrote:

Vordwann wrote:

Which leads to the question... what is the best way to fade a light on/off OnTimer or OnTrigger?

Custom Appearance aaaannnn?
maybe zzzgdaagagazzazzz for a more spectacular effect ?

What I want is a reliable effect where the light consistently fades from 0 to full whenever you send a relay to it, and from full to 0 (another fade) when a different relay is sent to it. This might just be impossible in source...

The completely insane way:
add 3 lights
light1: appearance abc-...-xyz
light2: just normal light
light3: appearance zyx-...-cba

Then time light 1 and 2
Get a relay on:
OnTrigger: light1, enable, 0.00
Ontrigger: light1, disable, time1
Ontrigger: light2, enable, time 1

Relay off
Ontrigger: light2; disable, 0.00
Ontrigger: light3; enable, 0.00
Ontrigger: light3; disable, time2

And enjoy your compile time ^_^

Oh fuck that. Use a dynamic light.

Vordwann wrote:
What I want is a reliable effect where the light consistently fades from 0 to full whenever you send a relay to it, and from full to 0 (another fade) when a different relay is sent to it. This might just be impossible in source...

No, it's not:

bMjXx-KweIo
As Msleeper said that can be achieved by means of dynamic lights.

I'd go for a light_dynamic in order to play with the distance, brightness, spotlight_radius, etc. inputs... Imagine a corridor with different triggers that go changing those values as you walk on them and get closer to/ away from the light source.