Shadows are very harsh and dark on shader light

[Lazarus]

Is there a way to make a shader light not cast hard shadows 

 

I have always struggled with this, cause i find the shadows to hard.... anyway to soften them via a model key or something (cause when i start adding plant models, my map will become more darker). Shadows are okay, but no shadow is 100% dark on a day.

[NAB622]

There are two decent solutions here:

Use -bounce on your light compile. It will give you the exact effect you are looking for (Light bouncing from surface to surface), but it will cost extra time to render. 3-4 bounces should do it.

A quicker solution is just adding more light sources to the room.

 

If you want the fastest (Although worst looking) solution, you can use _minlight on the brushwork below the x-wing to prevent any harsh shadows (Make it a func_group first). A value like 25-30 will probably work fine.

[Lazarus]

_min light is a no go, i ll try to add bounce to the compile and see fi that works... a compile for me at the moment is less than a minute, so i am patient

[mjt]

For foliage you can use q3map_lightimage with surfaceparm lightfilter instead of surfaceparm alphashadow - it will filter light through the rgb part of the specified q3map_lightimage .tga / .jpg / .png

Generally speaking I also try to avoid ambient - instead going for more bounces or the floodlight option, carefully tweaked of course.

For shader lights there is also the q3map_lightmapFilterRadius option to be specified on the light emitting shader itself - to give you a little more direct control about blurring / filtering the result.

 

@NAB622 do func_groups respect _minlight input separately from worldspawn? As in can I use it on any func_ entity like func_doors as well even if global ambient is at 0?

[NAB622]

Just now, mjt said:

do func_groups respect _minlight input separately from worldspawn? As in can I use it on any func_ entity like func_doors as well even if global ambient is at 0?

I believe so. I know it works with other parameters like _lightmapscale, so I don't see why _minlight would be any different.

[mjt]

1 hour ago, NAB622 said:

I believe so. I know it works with other parameters like _lightmapscale, so I don't see why _minlight would be any different.

I see it lacking in the help documentation in NetRadiant Custom - I just tried it and it didn't work

[NAB622]

On 7/13/2022 at 10:26 PM, mjt said:

I see it lacking in the help documentation in NetRadiant Custom - I just tried it and it didn't work

Bummer. I don't have any means to test anything right now, either. Sorry. Good to know, though.