Okay, I have been working on this UO map and have it almost done. Just a little more details to add, and it should be done and released... That is, if I can get these damn lights to work properly!

First off, I watched Wyatt Earp's flash tutorial on how to make lights... He went WAY to fast. His other tutorials were awesome, but the lights tutorial was just way too fast. First off, he added a carona. That's where I was first lost. Then he was making a "spot light" but I didn't want a spot light. I just want a light that will shine down out of a light fixture and not hit the ceiling and over-bright it. Look at the pics below:









So there you have it. As you can see, the lights (especially in the warehouse) make the tin roof REALLY bright. However, the light fixture I used has one of those metal cone shields so that the light only cast downward... My question is, how do I do that?

Assume I have no formal training with CoD Rad and that I am a 4 year-old. Because when instructions are given like that, I usually nail it on first try :P.

Thanks and regards,
Jdawgg

I was just about to make a new thread to ask the same exact question. Ill just keep an eye on this one till somebody answers it.

Sry for going to fast.

Ok, to get your desired light effect for a large room such as the first pic.

1. Select all your lights in that room, then. Press N, this shows the entity viewer. If you read the comment section in the center of the viewer, it will have optional settings.

(This is the goal !! You want to lower the radius of the light, so it does not collide with the roof, and it is not very bright.)

You enter in the boxes
KEY = Light
Value = 75 (depends how far away the light is from the roof, think of this number as the watts, 100 watt bulb is brighter, the lower the number, the smaller the radius)

2. Once that is done, you want the light to fade into the roof, and not be to hard. So, you need to shift the light refraction.
We will add
KEY = Ovebrightshift
VALUE = 75 ( so, 75% of the light will be faded into a soft refraction) You can set it at 100, this will give a soft glow to everything inside of the radius of the light.

I know your next question will be, well the room is real big, and that lower light number will not loght the room. How to get the room to light?

3. Copy those lights, or add more of them at lower increments. example, You have 1 main lamp, below that you could add another light entity, this will aid in lighting more of the room.

So the room will have the actual lights by the models, then below those you should have another instance of those lights.
In reality, that large of a room would be a little darker the higher up, since the heigth of the ceiling, they would have wall lights around to aid also. Lighting is an art.

When you add your worldspawn values, DO NOT USE minlight.

Keep your ambient light around .10 to .18

Create a test room, and try different settings, by adding about 10 lights and different light values.

For the corona,
I use those when a player, can get next to a light, or an outside lightpole.

Its as simple as right click, corona. That adds the RING around a light you see on a dark night.

3rd picture.

Not everthing needs to be bright, think of walking into a room in the 1940's. They didnt have Flourecent, so, my suggection on this pic is.
Lower the light (NUMBER) not the actual light it self. Ok, next, about 50.
KEY = light
Value = 50
KEY = overbrightshift
VALUE = 80
KEY = color
VALUE = (yes, color, press ctrl+k, then select a candle yellow, the numbers will be entered automatically)

Its ok to have darker areas in a room like that, that gives it that "MAN I FEEL WIRED, LIKE IM ACTUALLY IN THE 1940's"
In addition, they really didnt light those candles that high up, so you could get away with just wall lamps. Then add a couple lights centered in the room 3/4 way up, and match the coolor with the candel color.

The hallway picture wall lamp.
KEY = light
VALUE = 30

KEY = overbrightshift
VALUE = 50

good luck


Opps,
Last picture..

Remove 50% of the lights, make some on, some off. Like the bulbs burnt out.

Lower the light number to 75, and, of cource overbright shift them to maybe 50 - 90. Make them not a real white, off white color. and right click coronoa on the lights.

Out of curiosity Wyatt, would it be okay to use scale of say .025 on lights?.......I have used this effect in the past to prevent getting that nasty bright ring on walls and ceilings.

DC

No, that is to low,

scale 1-500 or so.

Use
overbrightshift
and a value of 0.1 - 1 (.1 .55 .66 .75 .95)