Negative light angle

[IrocJeff]

Poking around Kejim_post sample map and saw some lights that had a down angle or -2 on them. What exactly does the angle property do? Does it shine all the light down? I didn't see anything in the entity Window  describing this.

[mrwonko]

Why don't you just try it? My tests suggest that it doesn't do anything.

[Asgarath83]

it's like func_door angle -1 or -2 orient the entity on top or bottom. a light with -2 i think a spot light by bottom to top, if it's linked to a info_null. angle -1 make a light by top to botton. good for ceiling lamps. -2 i think can be used for light placed under the floor, that enlight ground by grates and a lower level.

[IrocJeff]

Why don't you just try it? My tests suggest that it doesn't do anything.

 

Because this is a forum to ask questions in. That's why. 

[eezstreet]

-1 points down, -2 points up. Or maybe I have those mixed up. Alternatively, you can specify an "angles" keyword, which looks like this:

angles -pitch- -yaw- -roll-

[Pande]

Targeting a light at an info_null is easily misunderstood to have an affect on the 'distance' of the light. In actual fact, it doesn't, it only switches the light from 360 cone to a more focused cone. The distance is a combination of light strength, light scale, falloff type, and is focused by radius.

 

For e.g. if I want to have a light for a streetlamp, I would probably use a high light value but a lower scale (because these lights tend to cast very far but not actually very bright), and I would set the radius quite large since they use reflectors and such inside the lamp to cover a broad range.

 

light/8000

scale/0.25

radius/2000

 

Untested values, but I think that's probably pretty close. And of course, color. Now just target it at an info_null or use angles, but I find it's easier to just use the info_null - it gives you an obvious visual cue that the light is a spotlight, in the editor, and it's kind of impossible to mess up the angles that way. 

 

Note radius is only used for lights with a target/angles.

[mrwonko]

This is the code that handles lights in Q3Map2. There does not appear to be any code handling "angle", which confirms the results of my test of simply trying it out (which took less than 5 minutes): It does nothing.

[Szico VII]

I've never noticed angles nor radius to do much for me

[Asgarath83]

Me too. i use angles for func_door, but not for Light. if wanna make a oriented light, i simply link the light to an info null oriented in the direction i want. so i can make a spot light.