OK so I think it's finally time to finish and release my map that should have been out about 4 months ago . Anyway the main problem that's keeping me from finishing it is lighting parts of the map that are made up of func_brushes.

Nearly my whole map uses HDR texture lights built into the walls to provide light. That's fine for most of the map but I have hallways that need to be dynamically turned on and off and therefore are made of func_brushes. When I texture faces of the func_brushes with light textures light is emitted from them but it doesn't seem to bounce around enough and the ceiling is left dark. Also places where func_brushes meet up with regular world geometry brushes seams are formed.

Here are some pictures of this: http://s518.photobucket.com/albums/u343/fusion1224/Portal%20pics/

I've made sure there are definitely no leaks and that all the all the func_brushes are sealed with nodraw brushes. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Question, why are you making them func_brush's and not func_detail's?

msleeper wrote:
Question, why are you making them func_brush's and not func_detail's?

Good question. Well, it's a bit complicated and I don't want to give away too much of the surprise of the map but parts of my map rotate and turn on and off and you can only do this with a func_brush.

That's the problem then. func_brushes are not "real" brushes like world brushes and func_details are, and therefore are lit differently so that their lighting can try to be more realistic when moved.

msleeper wrote:
That's the problem then. func_brushes are not "real" brushes like world brushes and func_details are, and therefore are lit differently so that their lighting can try to be more realistic when moved.

They are built static no matter where they move, so if you move a lit brush into a dark room, it stays dark. I've never seen this before, is the brush stating in it's spawned position at map start?

MrTwoVideoCards wrote:
is the brush stating in it's spawned position at map start?

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my previous posts but there are func_brushes that rotate in my map but the problem I'm asking about has nothing to do with these. What I'm referring to with my problem are hallways made up of func_brushes that do not move from their spawned position and are static but are disabled and enabled dynamically over the course of the map. I need to get lighting on these hallways to look exactly the same as the lighting on the world geometry brushes that they are next to.

well your question was answered, func_brushes are static lit (and unless i'm wrong always have been in maps that were built off the .bsp structure) the lighting on them does not change. so you will just have to be very careful on how you light them. The .bsp compiler assumes they are going to move, or COULD move, and thusly the don't reflect light. and rather compiles light as if they were not there.

That makes sense. But func_brushes are certainly affected by the vrad pass of the map compilation and can emit light through texture lights as can be seen in the screenshots. What I think is happening is that vrad is only calculating one light bounce for the func_brushes because, as you said, it expects them to move.

Probably what I could do is fake it by putting some spotlights around to make it look like the light has bounced onto the ceiling.

If You Can't Make It.
### Fake It!

Yeah you're stuck really, because once you light them , it stays that way, forever.