Beginner to Lighting Needs Help (pics inside)

[billy7777]

One of the cool things is that when you place a light in the scene in the editor it instantly shows you how the lighting looks on all the objects around it. (then I can adjust the brightness, radius, etc. to get things perfect)




However when I go to "build my lighting"... the light doesnt look anything like when I placed it. (please see pictures below)




Here is when I first place the light....



http:\\http://www.lasthalfofdarkness.com\sc...relighting.jpg

Heres what that light looks like after the lighting has been built...

Its refusing to use the wide radius and place light on the building too


http:\\http://www.lasthalfofdarkness.com\sc...erlighting.jpg


I have tried boosting the light brightness to some over exaggerated number to to see... but it still doesnt work right

Do I have some global settings or another light that is overpowering this particular light?

[darthviper107]

It looks like a lot of your meshes don't have enough lightmap resolution

[billy7777]

Thanks... Yeah... I was curious about that.

but do I really need to go into all of my static meshes and check the box "Override Light Map Res" and then change the res from 64 to 256(or higher)

Or did I import my static meshes too small or do something else weird?

[darthviper107]

The default setting for lightmaps can be set for the object from the content browser, depending on what it is the default of 32 might be too small. You can really only use low resolutions on things like a big flat surface that can use most of the lightmap and doesn't need a lot of shadow detail.

If you still have problems with the illumination, make sure your light isn't being blocked by the light source mesh.

[billy7777]

Thanks again... yes makes sense now

[billy7777]

It sort of helps that I adjust light res up on my static meshes ... however it not 100% correct yet. Heres another example...

Heres a sign with 2 lights on it... I have set the light res on the static mesh sign to 1024 and have set both lights with SHADOW FILTER QUALITY=SQF_High and min/max shadow resolution to 1024

This is before the lighting is built... when I first place the 2 lights




Heres after the lighting is built...


Its like theres no light radius... it just floods the entire sign with a dim light... but I want it to look like 2 lights with 2 bright point points on the sign

Its perfect when I first place the lights in the editor... so I am sure UNREAL can do it... but when I "build lighting" it doesnt do it correctly.

any ideas?

[.CrUsH.]

Fu King Lightmass....

Sorry had to :P

Can you give some more information how how you are positioning the lights and what kind of lights they are?

Possible UV problem? Hmmm

[billy7777]

LOL! Yeah... I dont blame you.

They are just standard "point lights" and positioned directly in front of sign

I guess it could be a UV issue... but what confuses me is the light falloff and radius on the static mesh when first positioning the lights is perfect... so the editor can do it and shows it exactly how I want it... but then something about "building light" makes it look completely different.

I am guessing the one in the editor while you are positioning it is "dynamic" and then when you build lighting... things are done differently when the lighting is "baked"

So not sure if its a limit on the UDK... or if its possible to have a light with a bright spot on the static mesh as shown when first positioning the light in the editor?


Or if I might have something weird set in global lighting settings that might need changing?

but would not know where to even begin to look.

[.CrUsH.]

Yeah I've had some lights do a similar thing. I think UDK might just "estimate" what the light may look like. How would BSP brushes look if you put them in place of the Static meshes without moving the lights at all?

[billy7777]

I think I am just a newbie at this... I think my static meshes need to have 2 UV channels for correct lightmapping... is this correct?

[.CrUsH.]

I think so. You can generate the second set of UV's and see if that works. Make sure you're not overwriting your first set of UV's when doing so though.

[billy7777]

Oh... ok thats the trick... I just played around and made 2 uv channels and it works... I didnt understand how important this was... but It looks like you really need to always have 2 uv channel on all static meshes if you want the correct lighting

[.CrUsH.]

Awesome! Good to hear man

What kind of map are you making?

[Adrenen]

Yes indeed meshes need 1 UV map + another one for lightmap, also Crush I suggest you using double sided material for this water bottle, should look much better

[.CrUsH.]

Thanks Adrenen I was messing with my material when I took the picture of this to show Billy.

I have having a hell of a time making the cap opaque and the bottle every so slightly see through.