Light and light-like lights

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Fracture
797 Posts
Posted Mar 10, 2013
I am making an large elevator for a darkened old area in Aperture, not like any of the models at all. It needs it's own light entity that properly illuminates it, but I cannot make a perfect light source that functions just like the light entity where it isn't too bight at the centre and illuminates in ALL directions, AND can be parented.
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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Mar 10, 2013
Replied 1 hour later
You can try making a circle-shaped brush bigger than the upper little circle-light the elevator has, turn it into a func_brush to parent it to the elevator, and texture its down face with some of the light textures like:

- lights/light_panel_cool
- lights/white004
- lights/white009

etc.

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Fracture
797 Posts
Posted Mar 10, 2013
Replied 14 minutes later
...worth a shot, i guess. o_o

EDIT: HAD NO IDEA BRUSHES COULD DO THAT! except the thing didn't like the idea of being parented to anything. the glowing remained stationary. it still has to move

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josepezdj
2,386 Posts
Posted Mar 10, 2013
Replied 23 minutes later
If you are having problems attaching it to the elevator, try using one of the elevator model's attachment points (you can watch for them using your Model Viewer). For example, there is an attachment point on the rear top called longbrake_02, check:

img
Then create a logic_auto with the following output:

- OnMapSpawn > [brush_name] > SetParentAttachmentMaintainOffset > longbrake_02 /delay 0.10 Fire once: Yes

(apart from selecting in the func_brush as Parent the elevator model name!)

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Fracture
797 Posts
Posted Mar 10, 2013
Replied 18 hours later
Actually it's NOT any of the elevator models. Its a service elevator i made from brushes and random models. It's like a service lift for warehouses. I did however have 2 of the tv monitor arms involved to mount it to the rails and I tried parenting the light cube to it

...the illumination still didn't want to budge.

edit: I settled on using a an env_projected texture, but i have to say it isn't satisfiying

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Brainstone
401 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 11 hours later
If the elevator is made out of brushes, why isn't it possible to use static lights? They won't change when the elevator moves, bcause they were calculated at compile time.

Another thing you could try is a light_dynamic with a big angle.

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Fracture
797 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 2 hours later
for some reason light_dynamic kept disregarding anything that wasn't a model. I checked the wiki and it indeed said it was glitched
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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 16 minutes later

Fracture wrote:
for some reason light_dynamic kept disregarding anything that wasn't a model. I checked the wiki and it indeed said it was glitched

if you want to use a dynamic light in portal 2; use an env_projected texture.

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Fracture
797 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 2 minutes later
Okay, new kind of glitch, the second the elevator moves, the env_projectedtexture disables itself. Literally no other entity is referring to it, it doesn't even have a name yet
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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 2 minutes later

Fracture wrote:
Okay, new kind of glitch, the second the elevator moves, the env_projectedtexture disables itself. Literally no other entity is referring to it, it doesn't even have a name yet

is there another env_projected texture in your map?
Does it happen to start at the moment the elevator starts?

Because you can only have one active projected texture in portal 2. So if another one is enabled this one is automatically disabled.

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Fracture
797 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 2 minutes later
.....yes......yes there is -_-
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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 8 minutes later

Fracture wrote:
.....yes......yes there is -_-

then check the inputs there :wink: make sure to only have one active at the time :smile:

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TopHATTwaffle
113 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 1 hour later

Fracture wrote:
Okay, new kind of glitch, the second the elevator moves, the env_projectedtexture disables itself. Literally no other entity is referring to it, it doesn't even have a name yet

You may also want to make sure that the proper flags are ticked. You'll need "Always Update (moving light)" to be checked, so the game knows that the light can move. It SHOULD be ticked by default, but it may have been turned off some how.

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Fracture
797 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 55 minutes later
okay it's working properly now, thanks. however it's doing this weird thing where it projects less distance when loving, like 100 feet less distance. Is that normal?
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TopHATTwaffle
113 Posts
Posted Mar 11, 2013
Replied 4 minutes later
Try increasing the FarZ setting on the light. That will allow it to broadcast the light at a longer distance.