I am trying to add an info_overlay with the decals/overlay_light_gradient for my groove lighting, and I'm having a &!#* of a time resizing the decal properly, or even getting it to show up.

If I copy one from another map, I can sort of get it to show up. But if I create it from scratch and try to place it, I don't see the gradient decal image. And when I try to resize the info_overlay using the standard brush controls it resizes in unpredictable ways.

Can anyone give me pointers on how to use info_overlays properly? How I get them to show up properly? And how to position and resize them so I can get the gradient light for the groves to work "properly"? And is there a limit to the size of the brush I can apply an overlay to?

Thanks!

I think this answer needs to answered properly. The wiki needs a tutorial for creating floor lighting and should cover every thing such as the light.rad file, this question is asked too many times, I don't know how the floor lighting truly works and the floor lighting in my map just looks weird.

If you place an info_overlay using the point entity tool, you will need to designate the brush face/s that it's supposed to cover in the properties dialog.

Tigger wrote:
I am trying to add an info_overlay with the decals/overlay_light_gradient for my groove lighting, and I'm having a &!#* of a time resizing the decal properly, or even getting it to show up.

If you do your lighting right, the overlay is not required.

But according to the thread I was about to quote, you've already discovered that.

Just posting this here for the benefit of those who didn't see it there.

Quote:
If you place an info_overlay using the point entity tool, you will need to designate the brush face/s that it's supposed to cover in the properties dialog.

I did designate a face using the face picker. It didn't seem to do anything or show the overlay properly.

Quote:
If you do your lighting right, the overlay is not required.

But according to the thread I was about to quote, you've already discovered that.

I'm wondering if using the info_overlays is a safer way than "getting the numbers right" method. And using the overlays would allow me to control better the light bounce. Right now if I don't use overlays I have light splash in the corners of my room that look terrible.

Tigger wrote:
I did designate a face using the face picker. It didn't seem to do anything or show the overlay properly.

Did you select every face that the overlay will touch?

Tigger wrote:
I'm wondering if using the info_overlays is a safer way than "getting the numbers right" method. And using the overlays would allow me to control better the light bounce. Right now if I don't use overlays I have light splash in the corners of my room that look terrible.

I find that the overlay is there to add a bit of fine detail to the lighting around the edges; however, most of the time players will not notice it if it isn't there (though I still use it).

It is very important that you get the construction and values of the lighting correct. Most importantly, you want your light emitting texture (light_recessedcool002) to have a lightmap scale of 16 and the small section of recessed wall that is flush with the wall you are lighting should have a lightmap scale of 4 and use a light-colored texture (e.g. concrete_modular_wall001a).

I understand your problem perfectly, it took me hours to get the recessed light looking the way I wanted.

I recommend to use a brush that's the same length as the wall and a height of 16, place it beneath the wall, texture it with modular_wall001a and a lightmap scale of 4 (but you already know that). The trick the get the overlay working right, is to not copy-paste it from another map, other way you will NEVER get it right, place it using the entity tool, but before you do select the curret texture to the overlay you want and place it directly on the brush that's below the wall, this way the overlay will be applied with the values to properly create the effect and it will have the propper width and heigh, you will only need to change the length to cover the whole wall, when that's done you can hand pick the faces of the wall above this brush to finish that barely noticeble effect...

When you compile it and you see then "blotchy", it is probably because your map is leaked, reffer to this page:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Leaks

They will tell you all about leaks and how to fix them.

taco wrote:
It is very important that you get the construction and values of the lighting correct. Most importantly, you want your light emitting texture (light_recessedcool002) to have a lightmap scale of 16 and the small section of recessed wall that is flush with the wall you are lighting should have a lightmap scale of 4 and use a light-colored texture (e.g. concrete_modular_wall001a).

Tried setting the light emitting texture lightmap scale to 16, and the short section of the wall to 4 and the texture you suggested and I got blotchy lighting.

Darksoul wrote:
I recommend to use a brush that's the same length as the wall and a height of 16, place it beneath the wall, texture it with modular_wall001a and a lightmap scale of 4 (but you already know that).

Wow... I was extending the wall to the edge of the light strip. I raised the bottom of my main wall to the edge of my floor, added a separate brush below that and gave that lower brush a lightmap scale of 4. The lighting was definitely softer and more refined. Much smoother.

Will try the overlay tips next.

Wow.... I haven't tried the overlays yet, but I've made a big discovery on how to control the brightness and gradient of the light coming off of a groove light.

I discovered if I left the Scale of the texture face at x=0.25, y=0.25 the light normally coming out of the grove is very bright and you will see light bounce off the ceiling/floor and in the corners.

BUT a scale value of x=0.5, y=0.25 is a bit dimmer with less ceiling/floor and corner bounce.

And if you go x=1.0, y=0.25 the light coming off the groove is much softer and more diffuse and there is no light bounce off the ceiling/floor.

Apparently scaling the texture of the groove light texture affects what portions of the gradient texture emit, and allows you to control better the amount of light coming off from the texture.

Why is that a surprise? I am pretty sure that was how it worked in HL1 also, there are more iterations of the texture to give off light and therefore it is made brighter.