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Lighting in MaxEd

Tutorial Info

Author: SpazWad	Type: MaxEd
Date Published: 7/31/2001	Keywords: lighting, spotlights, pointlights, polylights

Tutorial

1 – Introduction
Well, if you’ve read my previous tutorial on lighting, you DO know how to place them correctly, but your understanding of the different types of lights is wrong. I was misinformed with how spotlights work, but owl informed us in the #maxedit irc chat the correct use for all 5 different types of lights.

2 – Polylights
Polylights are really the easiest to understand in MaxEd. They are polys (mesh faces) that emit light. Wherever you have a polylight, radiosity will create appropriate lightmaps for your room judging by the amount of light coming from the polylight. To place a polylight, go into texture mode, F6, and then middle-click on the face. Now choose ‘set light color’ and change it to whatever you want. If you want a darker light, just make the light color darker. Polylights, however, do NOT effect dynamic objects (the in-game Max, enemies, weapons, moving meshes).

3 – Pointlights
Pointlights are a bit more difficult to understand than polylights. Pointlights have no effect on the level geometry, but instead, they light the dynamic objects (like Max, enemies, weapons and etc). Instead of being a surface light, pointlights are entities that emit emit in all directions around themselves. To add a pointlight, in model mode, F3, middle-click and choose ‘new entity’ (or just press ‘n’). Choose ‘pointlight’ from the dropdown menu and choose ‘ok’. Pointlights are the preferred method of lighting dynamic objects.

4 – Spotlights
Spotlights are really a combination of polylights and pointlights. They ONLY light dynamic objects, like pointlights, but they are emitted from a face, like polylights. MaxEd automatically adds spotlights into your level whenever you add a polylight, but in order to activate your spotlight, you must go into transform mode, F5, and then edit your light’s properties. Choose ‘export lights’ and now you have a spotlight. Spotlights are less efficient than placing your own pointlights, but they seem to be more customizable using the spotlight properties option under the ‘mode commands’ menu in texture mode, F6.

5 – Particle Lights
Particle lights affect both dynamic objects and level geometry, but they are just temporary, and are a special case. Particle lights are just the lighting that occurs from the particle effects of MaxEd. If you create a barrel, and then have it emit a fire particle, the your barrel will be lit, and also have a flickering around it due to the fire particle effect. This is useful for eyecandy, as well as making needed strobe/pulsing lights like police lights and etc.

6 – Ambient Light
This is the default color of your level, and all lightmaps will be ‘added’ on top of that. To change the ambient light, edit the levels.txt and switch around the ‘ambient color’ variable in your room’s section.

7 – Radiosity
Now in order for your level to appear lit (or darkened) as you want, you need to run the radiosity renderer. I suggest editing your preferences first, though, since many aspects of radiosity are set in there. I suggest leaving everything as is, except make the passes 2 or 3, and increase boost to around 200 or 250. Passes are pretty much the number of ‘reflections’ that the light does so to speak. If you only have one pass, light will only appear to go from the source to the wall. If you have 2 or 3, then the light that the wall reflects will also be taken into account, and make a much more realistic looking lighting effect. If you’re level is too bright with these settings, go into your polylights and lower the brightness of the color. To run radiosity, go into Move mode, ‘space’, and press ‘r’. Choose ‘no’ to the preview option, and if you’re prompted about running radiosity without exits, choose ‘yes’.

8 – Conclusion
Well, now that you know how to use lighting, and what each different type of light does, try making cool lighting effects in your level. Good luck with your future mapping.