Ground Lighting

Ixith

Ok, So a few weeks ago I was looking through one of my map files as I needed to do some .ini editing to something in one and I also didn't want to bother opening Finalsun to change the lighting. So of course I went to the lighting in wordpad. Now upon editing the lighting I noticed something I have some how managed to skip over all the other times.

I then went and asked TitanMarkII if he noticed it and if so if he knew what it did. He said he had noticed it but told me that he didn't think it did anything. Provided....we are talking about TitanMarkII here so he could have very well said that so I would find out for myself. Anyways on to what I found.

This is your normal text for lighting in a map opened in wordpad. The two things in bold are what I noticed.
[Lighting]
Red=0.734167
Blue=0.428463
Green=0.992142
Level=0.000100
Ground=0.000000
IonRed=1.792941
Ambient=0.745424
IonBlue=0.019666
IonGreen=1.483521
IonLevel=0.002000
IonGround=0.000000
IonAmbient=0.351665

As you notice there is another section of lighting not presented in Final Sun. So what does it do?
Well after experimenting with it a little bit I found that the Ground lighting seems to act almost as a global negative light post to the map. If you set Ground=1.0000000 it makes the map pitch black and the only visible things will be Tiberium and building animations such as the refinery flame. Yet, when set lower to say Ground=0.1000000 it simply darkens areas of maps with no other lighting from light posts.

So What does this mean or how can it be useful?
Well using a higher value you can initially make a more real 'night' themed map. With a lower level you can make it seem as if there is a negative light post all across the map where no other lighting via lamps is present. The higher level would be very difficult to handle but if done properly you could get areas of the map that are really dark and somewhat hide your units and then unsuspecting players would come across and be hit from within the shadows.
AKA a nice big canyon could become a dark can't see too well area while the rest be fairly lit and if trying to move through the canyon you can have your tanks and stuff just lurking unseen for the most part. Or, you can have a nice dense forest of some sort and have it really dark above it and thus infantry can be hidden in the forest in darkness. Now thats just some ideas for 'night' like maps.
This feature seems more useful to me as a negative light that affects the whole map where no other light is present.
I am not sure yet to see if the IonGround does the same but I am pretty sure it will be.

I looked in all other maps I have in my directory and all the TS/FS maps (well most of them) and did not notice this feature being used. Which makes me wonder if WW intended to just leave it out or what it was originally planned to be used for in the game. :huh:

Anyways I have yet to produce good pics as I haven't been messing with this lately but I can tell you that Yelcraz Island does use the Ground lighting. (but not the ion storm one) Its values on Yelcraz are relatively low.
Ground=0.095000
This is hard to tell on Yelcraz though simply because Yelcraz as you know has many cities/villages around it. The best place to notice this is in the water. Especially though in the water in the lower left corner.

Anyways thats my crappy find and now its time to go make screenies for this topic. Very Happy

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Kalistia Crestland (2)
In Soviet Russia, grass grows on tiberium!

Lin Kuei Ominae · Seth **Joined**: 16 Aug 2006 **Location**: Germany

aren't those the values, Westwood used to make Dusk and Dawn in maps.
e.g. nod8a.map
They used triggers (that i don't understand) for this "Night to day" change , but maybe these affect the Ground lighting value.

At least it would be cool to have maps with a Night and Day change in certain time intervals.
Then with the dark canyon idea, you've mentioned, in the night and with a bit better view at the day.
Also with growing ice in the night and melting at the day, the map would have a nice changing and make it really exciting. Because you'll never know from where attacks come from.

\EDIT
ha, i found it
in expand01.mix are the inis: day.ini, dusk.ini, morning.ini and night.ini
maybe these help to create maps with a day and night change.

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Ixith · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:01 pm Post subject:

No it isn't what WW used. West Wood made a simple day night loop or actually in quite a few of their maps they have it once X amount of time or player does this or passes this point it gets darker or lighter with triggers. The triggers only effect ambiance on maps.

Heres the lighting values in nod8a.map
[Lighting]
Ambient=0.400000
Red=1.000000
Green=1.000000
Blue=1.000000
Ground=0.000000
Level=0.008000
excluding the ion storm lighting seeing as it doesn't appear to have an ion storm.

The difference between Ambiance and Ground lighting that I have noticed so far is that the times I have made ambiance equal to 0.00000 its pitch black BUT I could see more than just tiberium and building animations. Ground lighting covers more and is generally more affected by invis light posts. This may not seem like a whole lot and it really isn't but it does have its usefulness IMO.

I still have a lot to mess around with this. I hope I found more usefulness out of it and other things about it in general.

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Kalistia Crestland (2)
In Soviet Russia, grass grows on tiberium!

Titan · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:04 pm Post subject:

Hey, I remember that convo, Ix! Laughing

Quote:

Provided....we are talking about TitanMarkII here

You do make me seem like some kind of legend. Not that I have a problem with that... Nah, not at all... Very Happy

Anyhow, as some of you may know, I'm a lighting-whore and I have to get every minuscule bit right. The only and I mean only usefulness of this is the different layer of cover, as you put it, Groud lighting only excluding tiberium and building animations... But to me it's just a different ambient-stat. Wink

I recently made a similar discovery in FS, one of slightly bigger magnitude, but that one doesn't have too many uses either. Sad

I might end up posting it, but I don't think it'll be of any use and besides, I'm busy writing tuts for the SMMC atm. Wink

Ixith · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:09 pm Post subject:

TitanMarkII wrote:

I recently made a similar discovery in FS, one of slightly bigger magnitude, but that one doesn't have too many uses either. Sad

I might end up posting it, but I don't think it'll be of any use and besides, I'm busy writing tuts for the SMMC atm. Wink

O RLY? please do! I am in the mood to test things and see new things concerning mapping! Very Happy

And get those tuts out. Rolling Eyes

anways...

Nintyuk over at Tibweb asked if negative values work and well they do!

It does indeed work with negative numbers! Though...only to a certain point. Which is what I figured.
I simply took one of my maps and entered in Ground=-1.0000000 in the spot and then went in-game to find it was a little brighter though not too much brighter. So I went back to the map file and put in -5.000000 for the value. No difference that I noticed from -1. So then I went and put in -100.00000 and there was a difference...but a bad one and not in the lighting aspect either. When I entered -100 it had made random bits of the terrain black....and I mean random bits.

So in conclusion:
- Ground lighting works exactly like a negative light post but for the entire map.
- Its values should range from 1.000000 to -1.000000 and to never exceed either of those if used.
- 1 for Darkness -1 for Lighter.
- Possibly useful for more realistic 'night' maps
- Affects unit and building lighting!! So be careful! It will either make it hard to find your units in the darkness or make them really bright.

Thats all for now. I will get some comparison shots between all the different settings and stuff soon hopefully. Wink

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Kalistia Crestland (2)
In Soviet Russia, grass grows on tiberium!

Titan · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:27 pm Post subject:

I'll first have to complete my SP map, the one I'll use to explain SP mapmaking from basic to advanced techniques.

But damnit, making the in-game intro alone takes more time than doing everything else... Laughing

And the discovery really isn't anything useful, but it's very... Confusing. As in: never thought possible, but actually possible (albeit extremely limited and a tad buggy). A 'lil special, but not useful. Yes, yes, I love speaking in riddles... Very Happy

In the meantime, try solving this riddle. Yes, I just stole it from a random game. Finding out what game I ripped it from is part of the answer:

I'm always hungry
I must be fed
The finger I lick
Shall soon turn red

What am I?