Hi, guys. I've been trying to port Portal's levels to the Portal 2 engine (making a remake, if you will) using the Portal 2 Authoring Tools, Hammer. I'm almost done with the first level (Test Chamber 00), but there's a lighting issue that has annoying me since I started to map it.

Basically, in the second room where you must put a simple cube on a button, right after you wake up in the vault, there's a diagonally placed wall. The problem is: in the wall and in the adjacent wall (facing the door), a weird shadow seems to be coming from nowhere. I already tried to make a regular corner (two walls forming a 90? angle) and the shadows don't appear. However, I WANT A DIAGONAL WALL, since I'm remaking the test chamber.

I've already tried anything you can imagine: lights, directional lights, spot lights, brush lights, different brightnesses etc, but nothing works.

So, guys, what I haven't tried yet? And what are those weird shadows?

Screenshots:

This is how the corner is supposed to be:

http://imageshack.us/a/img818/8715/originalportal2.jpg
This is how it's built in Hammer (with those walls selected):

http://imageshack.us/a/img526/2717/originalhammer.png

As I said before, I tried a regular corner and, as you can see, the walls look normal:

http://imageshack.us/a/img213/6724/testportal2.jpg
In Hammer:

http://imageshack.us/a/img824/3047/testhammer.png

(Sorry for the low resolution images. That's the only way I can map with my not-so-good PC xD)

Any ideas?

If not, see if the button base is causing it. Those have caused light errors before.

Feel free to PM me for more help.

@TopHATTwaffle: I set all props' "Disable Shadows" and "Disable Vertex Lighting" properties to "Yes" - it didn't work. I lowered the lightmap grid to around 2, and got this: http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/5136 ... ortal2.jpg, which didn't help that much.

@josepezdj: No, it's not a func_brush. Actually, I made that angled wall by using the Vertex Tool, which is safer than using the Clipping Tool. I tried setting the alignment to "World", but didn't work either.

Well, I still have the problem. Things I tried to do so far:
- Use many kinds of lights to brighten the shadows;
- remove props that could potentially be causing those shadows ? for instance, floor button, cube dropper, window frames etc;
- put a BLOCKLIGHT brush in the door frame (avoiding any lighting or shadow coming from the other room);
- lower the lightmap grid;
- align to "World", what I knew was not going work, since the other wall (that also receives the shadow) was aligned to "World".

None of them worked. I will change those brushes to func_brush and see what happens. But, even if it works, it's not the ideal solution. They are supposed to be WORLD BRUSHES!

Let me know how that works out.

I tried to make those walls into func_brush and got this: http://imageshack.us/a/img689/2287/func ... ortal2.jpg. Obviously, I had to seal them and it solved the problem, but, as you know, it's not the best mapping solution (not very professional).

@TopHATTwaffle:
Hammer

http://imageshack.us/a/img171/4195/labl ... hammer.png
In-game

http://imageshack.us/a/img208/691/labli ... ortal2.jpg
Still got nothing, apparently.

@josepezdj: There are two lights in the observation room: an ordinary ligth entity, supposed to light the lab, and a spot light coming from the window and facing the test chamber, supposed to light the chamber. Both of them come with the instance (I'm using a func_instance), although I have tweaked them a little for my purposes. I already tried to change the spot light's angle to face the shadow area, but it didn't work, at all!
Following your advice, I put a default light in front of the walls, but the result looks rather odd: http://imageshack.us/a/img715/4249/defa ... ortal2.jpg.

I tried also a 100% constant light, but didn't work either. I will try some more light configurations to see what I get, or move the wall. If you guys have any more ideas or configurations, let me know. Thank you for helping me out.

Also, At this point, that level is so tiny anyways, just use the func_brush if you cannot figure this out within an hour.

Felipe, I know the lights coming from the observation room if you're using an instance, I was meaning the rest.... outside the observation room... Try higher values for that light entity you placed outside instead, and place it in the center of the chamber. Increase the intensity parameter (the last value of the 4 ones) to for example 30 and also increase the value for Constant to for example 1000. Let us know then.

josepezdj wrote:
I know the lights coming from the observation room if you're using an instance, I was meaning the rest....

josepezdj wrote:
observation room if you're using an instance, I was

WAIT FOR IT

josepezdj wrote:
using an instance

Collapse the instance, I bet the issue goes away. I've have VERY strange lighting issues with instances before.

TopHATTwaffle wrote:
Collapse the instance, I bet the issue goes away. I've have VERY strange lighting issues with instances before.

It totally does not make sense; since it should be the first thing that vbsp does. But indeed; it messes up greatly sometimes. So I agree: collapse and try again!

as an instance:

collapsed:

@TopHATTwaffle: I'm compiling under normal settings: http://imageshack.us/a/img199/5760/compilinghammer.png. Yes, if the problem persists, I'll be forced to use the func_brush workaround.

@josepezdj: I understood your question, but that's the point: I have just those two lights ligthing the room. In the other room, only the two lights coming from the window were enough, and they gave me a beautiful white room, no hard shadows, no too dark shadows.

[EDIT]
@TopHATTwaffle, @Lpfreaky90: what do you mean with "collapse" the instance? Copy its contents to my actual map file?

[EDIT]
Never mind, I found it in the "Instancing" menu. I will try it out.

If all those fail, use the func_brush. BUT COLLAPSE IT FIRST.

Also, please post the .vmf and let us compile it for you to check if the issue also happens to us.