Quote:
WARNING: Too many light styles on a face at (1032.000000, 1862.000000, -2087.000000)

And although it doesn't seem to cause any noticeable issues I read on the dev wiki that it can sometimes cause bad lighting and i'd prefer to correct it if possible. I also read that it's usually caused by transparent materials, and the only transparent material that I have is a few sheets of glass.

Due mainly to how quickly my computer compiles maps I didn't notice this problem until it was too late so it was impossible for me to backtrack the particular change that caused this issue, so basically I'd like to know if there's any way to hunt the problem down and when I do what I can do to fix it?

Interlopers.net wrote:
To stop this error, remove lights, dont give the light names unless you need to, make sure certain lights dont shine on the face (max_shining distance or by blocking it with brushes) or simply dont use that much switchable lights. Dynamic lights are not used by vrad.exe thus dont count. Lights with the same names are counted as the same lights. Find the location of the error using the coordinates.

So what it is saying is to remove or 'un-name' light entities. Generally having named lights and/or lights with effects such as flickering create a light style and greatly increases your file size.

When you compile, vrad is in charge of storing a thing called lightmaps, a resulting texture applied to each brush's side that simulates lighting on each of those sides. You can have a max of 4 light styles reaching each side of a given brush, not more (or you'll receive that warning message). Normally it doesn't cause much visual issues, but sometimes it does; prevent it if possible.

Light styles mean ONLY the color/brightness of the light (the 3 first values you put in Brightness properties); so you can have for example 230 242 102 200 and 230 242 102 100 and they would count only as 1 light style.

Commonly, this issue appears when you name light entities because what vrad does is to store 2 lightmaps per brush face: one when the light is ON and other when it's OFF. This would be fired usually near the cube_droppers, why? because into them there are 2 light entities named and with I/O (one is blue shades to indicate it's inactive / and other orangish to indicate the dropper is active). This would suppose 4 light styles already! Only using 1 light more of your choice near it, and the warning message will be fired when you compile.

EDIT:

Read this awesome compendium about lighting by Nacimota as well...

Also, is there any way to jump to the specific locations mentioned?

Shane wrote:
I don't have any named light entities in my map. I do have a flickering laser field texture but I have used laser fields in other maps with no errors. I don't have any flickering or switchable lights in my map either.

I repeat: that could be caused by the cube droppers... Check that.

Shane wrote:
Also, is there any way to jump to the specific locations mentioned?

Ofc, in hammer go to VIEW > Go to Coordinates ... then introduce the ones the log tells you.

And again, sorry I'm still feeling my way with Hammer I'm trying to teach myself so I appreciate everyone's help

Man, you shouldn't apologize ever for asking for help, and less in this forum! remember that

You can do several things (only if that warning message REALLY annoyes you, balance the option of not touching anything if into that area everything looks good, ok? ):

1. Try to erase surrounding lights, as for instance that one of the laserfield (if you ever placed one)... as long as the func_brush is being rendered as a "constant glow", it'll look fine. Or check out for other surrounding lights and try erasing one of them.

2. Edit the cube_dropper instance (open its properties window and go to the bottom left corner button that says: "Edit Instance") and save it under a different name. This way you can go into it, erase those 2 lights I mentioned (blue and orange) and that's it.

Also, do you have any idea what texture is used for the vertical laser fields in the PTI editor? At the moment I'm using the normal one but obviously it looks a bit stupid on ceiling and floor mounted vertical laser trap

josepezdj wrote:
Light styles mean ONLY the color/brightness of the light (the 3 first values you put in Brightness properties); so you can have for example 230 242 102 200 and 230 242 102 100 and they would count only as 1 light style.

This has nothing to do with light styles. Having two lights [255 0 0 200] and [0 255 0 200] (red and green) right next to each other will still only be one light style assuming they aren't named or flickering.

Mevious wrote:
This has nothing to do with light styles. Having two lights [255 0 0 200] and [0 255 0 200] (red and green) right next to each other will still only be one light style assuming they aren't named or flickering.

Mevious, I learnt that from Tophattwaffle and I'm sure I'm right. Please read this and go to the final epigraph called "Limits". I'd say that your example means 2 light styles...

Quote:
WARNING: Too many light styles on a face (XXX,XXX,XXX)
At the coordinates specified there is a surface lit by too many "effect" lights. This includes lights that have a name (which compiles both on and off status so you could switch them) or a light using effects like flickering. Remove some of them, disable flickering effects or make sure they don't have a name.
Note: A surface may only be lit by up to 4 lights with different targetnames. This means a face can be lit by unlimited different light styles as long as they share up to 4 names.

Vrad doesn't care what a light style is, it cares about the number of different light states a surface can be in.

And no I'm not using any flickering lights in my map, and apart from the red light in the centre of the laser field all are the same colour and brightness.

Edit: The angled surface isn't responsible, tried removing it and still get the same error in the same place

http://www.mediafire.com/?17doi1ituyk999c

Uploaded the VMF, bare in mind this level is incomplete so there are still some items missing from the final chamber, I still intend to add deadly goo and the triggers required to kill the player when falling into the chamber. Also provided the edited cube dropper instances (placed in /sdk_content/maps/instances/gameplay)

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?7x128fdhm488046

I know there are two different laser catcher models, though. Just not sure how to switch between the two.