So, there are two types of lighting in the game: static - when the light highlights and shadows are set rigidly and contained in the light map, and dynamic - the light from the Hero's torch, when using spells, the light of the moon and the sun. Our main concern is static lighting - to make your added or edited object look natural.
By default, objects are not highlighted. In other words, if you add a new object to the game, it will be dark. Recompilation of the lightmap should be done using the ModMe tool, which is part of the Gothic 3 SDK, https://forum.worldofplayers.de/foru...e-Gothic-3-SDK and developed by George.
Based on the documentation, ModMe builds a cube around a specified point or object and tries to illuminate everything that is inside the cube. For all huge objects and buildings ModMe generate *.xlmp files, where contains informaton about light glares. All more simple and smaller objects illuminates by importing *.sldat files, where ModMe places in StaticLightData folder. It is good practice to specify the hero as the starting point in order to take into account his coordinates. Lighting is performed by console command,
for example, world CompileLightMaps PC_Hero 3000.
I must say, the light objects in the game are often positioned incorrectly, too close or having huge light range. In some case glares not fit by positions of lightsource (are they placed manually??). But ModMe calculates lighting using a different model, which can lead to unexpected effects, such as too bright lighting or, conversely, the presence of inappropriate shadows. So, If you make small edits, it's wise to set a small area size slightly larger than the BoundingBox of the object, so as not to, save we God, spoil the lighting of neighboring objects.
...Lighting large areas usually requires preliminary and fine-tuning of the light sources themselves, adjusting their distance and range. Don't think that ModMe will do everything for you. To get a good result, you will certainly need experience and time.
There is a lot of abuse of light in caves. There are often two or more bright crystals side by side, which makes it impossible to correctly calculate the light map. In this case, you need to reduce the brightness or remove the light sources away from each other.
Also, do not place the torches too close to each other.
Constructions.
Constructions of entities are not always highlighted correctly. This should be avoided. If the size of the structure is small and simple, put it together at the mesh level.
Sometimes, with large-scale edits, it is convenient to put several entities into one, as in a container, and then operate with it in g3dit, while maintaining the location of the nested entities. For example, you can move an already decorated building from place to place, while maintaining the positions of interior items. Gentlemen, this trick is strictly prohibited with light objects (candles, torches, etc.)!... In this case, it will not be recognized by ModMe when building the lighting map. [Bild: attachment.php?attachmentid=54652&d=1736612862&thumb=1][Bild: attachment.php?attachmentid=54653&d=1736612862&thumb=1]
The exception is if the container is a large entity (for example, a house or a large building).
Hidden backlight.
There is a hidden backlight in the game. Objects and areas that the developers were unable to illuminate with light sources (for example, they were inconvenient or inappropriate to place) are illuminated by hidden light sources. This is a very dubious trick that can become a considerable thorn in an intimate place. The hidden highlight is located in unnamed files (<unnamed>, inherited of Fackelight) object. Always check their presence by searching for nearby objects!.. [Bild: attachment.php?attachmentid=54654&d=1741087500&thumb=1]
Carefully study the list of object classes. The presence of the eCStaticPointLight_PS class unequivocally indicates that the object is a source of static light. How it works? The static lighting sources (candles, walltorches... for simplicity say any, exclude hero's torch) does not start emitting light immediately after the game is spawned. To do this, you first need to recompile the lightmap. After that, the surrounding objects will be highlighted within the radius specified in the Range property of the aforementioned class.
Temple doors contain classes of implicit illumination. In addition, the color of the light is black, it is simply not visible. Why this was done is beyond my understanding. But this caused major problems when lighting the interior of the temple of Trelis.
Unlit objects.
There are group objects in the game that ModMe highlights only under certain conditions or does not highlight at all. One of these objects is a food palette. It consists of a wooden tray on which stew, a bottle of booze and some other small things are placed. It is unlikely that you would need to place such an ugly object in the game. But remember that when recompiling the light map, the existing ones will not be highlighted. [Bild: attachment.php?attachmentid=54660&d=1742120084&thumb=1]
The game has a Tablestuff object. Avoid using it, it looks ugly and outdated. Keep in mind that despite its obvious fake purpose, It is a lightsource.
UPD.
I managed to figure out how to illuminate group objects. The fact is that the mesh position does not always coincide with the absolute position of the object. It can be three, five, or even forty meters away from the object. This should be taken into account.
If the object stubbornly does not want to be illuminated, find its GUID by searching for nearby objects, teleport to its position and recompile the light maps again. All of the above should be done in g3dit.
And objects which can be used dynamically by hero or NPC during game are mainly taged dynamic in template.
All these objects are placed also with dynamic lighting in the world which do not work well.
You should change the items placed static in the world to "eEStaticIlluminated_Static + eEStaticLighingType_Instance".
Then also the command CompileLightmap will create static light data for these objects and illuminate them more or less correctly. In case much more than 4 light sources are nearby lightning might fail.
Another problem with the lighting has been revealed, which will take a lot of time to fix.
From the table kindly provided by George (and also earlier by Askanius), I learned that small objects should be illuminated using the Statis+Instance model.
So, get to the point.
We have six types of stones in the game: small ones - up to number 4, which are illuminated using the Static+Instance model, and large ones - starting from numbers 4 and 6 - have a huge size and are already illuminated by the Static+Lightmap model. But damn it, for some reason, the designers took the #4 stones, changed their size by more than 4 times and placed them in caves by role a small stones. Why such a perversion was necessary, I cannot understand, but it has simply catastrophic consequences, in the form of individual unlit black stones. These are the consequences of the mismatch of lighting models.
The first time i across this in Kayor's cave. But game has many places like that too, say, Rasarus's cave. In general, this cave is vivid example of incorrect lighting. Blinding light and multiple nearby light sources. This needs to be fixed. [Bild: attachment.php?attachmentid=54675&d=1742724730&thumb=1]
It took me a whole day and a hundred game reboots to solve this problem.
UPD.
Practice shows that stones with numbers greater than 2 should not be scaled to a smaller size . It cause incorrect lighting. And they need to force the Static+Lightmap model to be set, just like other big stones.
I have come to the conclusion that static lighting classes for lightsource-entities are a huge evil. This is purely for the sake of convenience, but convenience and quality are sometimes two opposite truths. In many cases, lighting can be done much more accurately using invisible light sources (Fackelicht). They can be positioned regardless of the surrounding objects and at any point where it is inappropriate to place a candle or torch. You can adjust the degree of illumination more subtly.
[Bild: attachment.php?attachmentid=54691&d=1743342530&thumb=1]
That can be fixed quite simply: position your light source or its glare position a couple of meters higher. For example, if the flare height of torch No. 1 (stuck in the ground) is about 200, then change it to 350. If there is an invisible light source nearby, remove it.
You may also need to change the range from 750 to 850. As a rule, after these changes and the new compilation of the light map, the texture game stops. UPD.
It turned out that the flickering of textures also causes campfires #1,2,3. It seems that the developers intended for a smoldering campfire to illuminate the lower half of the person sitting and a small radius around, so the lighting rank is set like a regular torch (750) and the height of the light source is shifted down (100). Alas, in this case, when calculating the lighting, the campfire begins to illuminate the ground from the bottom up, which is highly undesirable, since it leads to the flickering of overlapping pieces of the landscape. I recommend changing the rank to 800 and the height to 350. After that, the flickering of the nearby texture layers stops.
If such a defect has manifested itself, proceed as follows:
1. Move the lightmaps.pak out from Data folder.
2. Create folder Gothic3\Data\Lightmaps
3. Try to recompile lightmap.
4. Unpack lightmaps.pak into Lightmaps_old folder. Delete lightmaps.pak.
5. Merge all generated files from Gothic3\Data\Lightmaps to Lightmaps_old, replacing existing.
5. Move all data from Lightmaps_old to Gothic3\Data\Lightmaps
Probably, you should recompile lightmap two or more times. It can help. ...Due to advice from MadFaTal, to illuminate a landscape correctly, on compiling we need to set a huge distance (40000 and more).
Dangerous and underused lightsources. Fire cage - a grid with burning coals inside, although it is a light source, it cannot be used for lighting. It just looks terrible. If possible, do not use this object anywhere except in Nordmar and never in the desert.
...One of the most unpleasant objects is a lantern. The lantern is a steel cage with glass and a candle inside. It's an ugly object. At the moment, the glass mesh in the game contains errors and no flame is visible through it. Please do not use this object.
...The game has a Fackelicht_Dynamisch object for dynamic lighting. It is used in the game only a bit, a couple of times, for special effects, in particular, in ancestral tombs, where a stone inserted into a pedestal leads to a "blessing" and torches are lit by themselves. It is not recommended to use this object, or it should be done very carefully. Crystals.
Only crystals with numbers 1 and 2 emit light. The crystal with number 3 does not emit light and is fake. An analysis of the game files showed that the crystals were not always light sources - in many places, the backlight was implemented using unnamed objects (see above). And the essence of the crystal is devoid of classes responsible for the emission of light. Thus, it should be borne in mind that removing the crystal may have no effect and the area will still be highlighted.
The danger of using crystals lies in their huge range (1,500), which sometimes creates significant difficulties. Keep in mind: one such crystal is quite capable of illuminating a medium-sized cave. They should not be used thoughtlessly, placing them too close and more than 2-3. If you want to place several crystals side by side, be sure to reduce their light range!
...The whole set of crystal abuses in the cave of the robber Rasarus. There are about 5 chaotically arranged crystals with lightrange of 1500, and they are also located too close to each other. Even before recompiling the lightmap, the light in the cave is so bright that it blinds the eyes. [Bild: attachment.php?attachmentid=54677&d=1742724730&thumb=1]
Useful tips.
When arranging light sources, one should rely on local people culture - one should not place candles in the desert, where oil lamps are used, and vice versa. It looks wild.
It is very good when the light source is high up and the light falls on the illuminated areas from above. This is the best way to highlight them.
The task of any backlight, speaking of indoor lighting, is to evenly illuminate all walls and objects, unless otherwise intended. If possible,
the glare of light should not be layered and there should also be no heavily shaded areas.
I've spent a lot of time and I have to say that adding static highlighting classes is actually one of the most insanely idiotic things that Gothic3 has. Thus, it is impossible to achieve uniform illumination.
The chandelier shines with a range of 800 and a brightness of 2. In front of the throne, at a height of 2 m, there is an invisible light source with a range of 1000. There are invisible sources with a range of 600 near the fireplace on the left and right. Also at the windows and in the corners of the palace. And another one is near the statue of the king.
There is a bright glare on the carpet, this will be removed during the brightness correction of the chandelier.
If the object stubbornly does not want to be illuminated, change the type of lighting to dynamic and try to illuminate it again. It's a dirty trick, but it works. It was also used by the developers themselves.
If the object is not illuminated, but others are, change the type of illumination from static to dynamic. That should help. For some unknown reason, there are places in the game that are ignored when calculating the light map. Alternatively, do this: disable the shadow cast by the object, move this object 5-10 meters or more, recompile the light map and return the illuminated object to its place. This works 100% of the time, and even with a subsequent recompilation, the backlight will not disappear, because this place is ignored.
If you are going to light dynamic objects (all food, weapons, shells, gold coins and cups, as well as silver cups, some fake ones) with the original size, you should specify the static+instance type. For gold products, this is a very desirable setting, because otherwise the gold looks dull. If the size has been changed (increased or decreased) then this lighting model cannot be used. Just leave/make them Dynamic.
Torch No. 1 (stuck in the ground). The basic light source used everywhere. It has a lighting range of 750 and a glare height of 200. It is used for outdoor lighting of buildings. If possible, the torches should be positioned parallel as well as diagonally, making sure that the light glare does not overlap each other. Please, do not place torches on the stone or wood floor. It's stupid.
Torch No. 2, wall mounted. It is used for outdoor and indoor lighting of residential buildings and architectural structures. Lighting grade: 550. Glare height: 100. It is recommended to place wall torches symmetrically, avoiding frills. The most convenient height above the floor is so that the torch handle is at the level of the hero's head. It is not recommended to increase them by more than 1.6 (when installed on gate towers). A torch of this type is a kind of external furniture and it is foolish to install them on the slopes of rocks or wooden slats, as is done in Gotha or Bakaresh.
Lantern. The lantern is a metal frame with inserted glasses and a candle inside. Unfortunately, this object is not working properly (the candle flame is not visible through the glass). The use is the same as for wall torches, only strictly external.
Candles. In Gothic 3, there are only three types of candles: a candle stub in a plate, a candle stuck on the neck of a wine bottle, and a candle stub stuck to a skull. The lighting grade is 400. Unfortunately, they are suitable only for a poor environment, and the third, a skull candle, is suitable for specific interiors, for lighting a sorcerer's laboratory table or a bandits' hut to emphasize the evil intentions of the owner of the room. Do not place a candle bottle near the wine bottles on the table, it looks bad.
Chandelier. It is an forged metal structure in the form of a hanging rim on chains, around the circumference of which candle ends are fixed. Unfortunately, this is one of the ugliest objects in Gothic 3, due to the fact that there are no flames above the candles due to an error in the template. However, it's easy to fix. The lighting grade is up to 1000, with high intensity (2). It gives strong light glare on walls and floors. MadFaTal recommends disabling shadow casting by chandeliers to avoid ugly dark streaks on the walls. Chandeliers should be placed strictly in important administrative buildings with high and vaulted ceilings. Do not use more than 1-2 chandeliers indoors. They should be placed at a high height (the height of the hero is 2.5 ) and, if necessary, reduced in size.
A fire cage with coals. It is more of a decorative element than a light source and has limited use. It is strongly discouraged to place items of this type anywhere other than in Nordmar and in the border area with a continental climate.
The oriental fireplace. The fireplace is a metal plate with burning coals. This is an atmobut of a purely oriental way of life and should not be used in Myrtana, and even more so in Nordmar.
The oriental oil lamp (latern). The lamp is a small metal bowl with a wick, suspended on a chain. Please do not place such lamps lower than the height of the hero * 1.5...2. It is highly discouraged to hang them in the window opening, as is done in Bakares. It looks terrible. Lamp No. 3, a small oil lamp with a handle, can be placed on the windowsill.
Table oil lamp No. 1. A universal light source. Ceramic lamp of triangular shape. It can be placed on shelves, on a table, on the floor.
Wall oil lamp No. 2. Lamp, like No. 1, but made of metall, suspended by laces. A typical attribute of Oriental culture. It can be located both inside and outside buildings. The positioning can be paired or single. It is very well suited for lighting the interior of oriental houses made of white, smooth stone, as it creates a sense of comfort, and in temples - tranquility and mystery. Unfortunately, this lamp has an incorrect glare shift - it illuminates itself incorrectly and gives ugly shadows. This needs to be fixed. UPD:
1. Right value, must be entered in fields in eCStaticPointLight_PS class: Offset: 0.0/0.0/-46.0// - This will correct the incorrect lighting of the lamp's top, where only the front was illuminated and the back was shaded.
2. We can disable the CastShadows check in some class.
This will disable the lamp's shadow casting, but the surrounding objects will be properly illuminated. The choice is yours. Lighting requires extensive experience; for example, in the lower chambers of an abandoned temple, it may be better to leave the lamp's shadow casting to enhance the mysterious atmosphere. In the Temple of Ben Sala, the developers employed an high expirience psychological trick by subtly illuminating the bodies of the executed individuals in the upper part of the temple with a subtle red glow using hidden lighting. I repeat, this is a very subtle trick that affects not only the perception, but also the subconscious, in order to create a sense of mystery and sorrow in the player. This highlighting can only be noticed with careful examination
Oriental oil lamp No. 3. A metal lamp with a handle is the most popular in everyday life. It can be placed without restrictions, on tables, shelves, drawers, on a window sill. Wood-burning stoves and fireplaces are also light sources - this must be taken into account, because their rank is sometimes huge: up to 1000.
Crystals. As a rule, they are used for lighting caves "by default". In other words, they need to be positioned as neutrally as possible so that the user gets the impression that the crystals were part of the interior of the cave. You should not place many crystals, because of their high brightness, as mentioned above.
It is possible to illuminate areas where it is not possible to locate the listed light sources using invisible light sources, but this requires a lot of experience. This is also mentioned above.
The great temple of Beliar in Bakares. To create a mysterious environment, and also to emphasize the sacred character of the building, an invisible light source was used, giving a red light.
Since Beliar is a dark god, there are should not uses too much flame and light to illuminate, because there is an allusion to the altars of Innos. The flame plates will be removed from the temple.
Please, before each call CompileLightMaps, place the files from the Lightmaps folder in any other, outside the game folder.
After edits, merge the files with replacement of the former. This is the safest way, it has also been observed that the game crashes less often if you modify the light map with an empty Lightmaps folder.
It might be a good idea to disable sectors with people during the light map compilation process (Ray Bradbury would appreciate this ), as it can significantly reduce the amount of resources consumed by the game and, consequently, the number of unexpected crashes during the compilation process.
World of Players
A few words about lighting
), as it can significantly reduce the amount of resources consumed by the game and, consequently, the number of unexpected crashes during the compilation process.
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