Why is there a huge difference between the lighting on fast compile and a high compile. It seems that my bog style map has better lighting with a fast compile. Any input would be appreciated!

I am asking this more because it seems when I compile and test a map it seems within my buildings I can see where I am going. THen when I go and put the map on the server these buildings are suddenly dark and you cant see anything. I checked and the server is not modded to make it darker. any idea's?

Nm seems to have found the solution.

Could you please post your solution.

I have the same question.

basically fast compile renders the map as though there was only one beam of light (per light), so you get harsh shadows.
High settings means more diffuse samples, meaning the game renders a number of beams within the vectors derived from diffusefraction.
The more diffuse samples, the more beams (in essense), and the more directions the light is cast within that fraction, which leads to smoother graduations in the diffusefraction

a diffusefraction of 0 and you shouldn't notice any real difference between low and high settings, because all the lighting samples will be following the same vector
diffusefraction of 1 (and I think that's the maximum - these settings tend to be values between 0 and 1) i believe equates to about a 45 degree range (appears that way on some tests i did a while back) With a low number of sundiffusesamples (say 2 - which is actually 12 as it's 3n^2) you'll see a dark shadow (because it's subtractive filtering) from 0 to 15 degrees, a lighter shadow from 15 to 30, and lightest from 30 to 45
The more samples the more shading (by shading, I just mean the apparent graduation between beams - i don't mean in the sense your map will have only black and white shadows with only point based lighting - ahhh this is a pain to explain!), so, you might end up with the darkest from 0 to 1 degrees, les dark from 1 to 2 degrees and so on


Sorry. I'm not perfectly sure this is all accurate, and i can't think of a way to make it read more clearly, but I hope if gives you an idea

I'll take pics of my tests if you want - it's from CoDUO but static shadows for CoD4 should be about the same.

BTW, turn dynamic shadows off when testing


edited on Apr. 10, 2008 07:12 am by |DA|DarkDilbert

Ok this is with sundiffusesamples at 0.45 - so 1 might equate to 90 degrees come to think of it

the left image was with "sundiffusesamples 2" set, I think, and the one on the right was 6

edited on Apr. 10, 2008 07:25 am by |DA|DarkDilbert

What happened to me was I changed the map name to release it for beta and did not create a new grid file. After I created the grid file and recompiled the map I thought I had fixed the problem. I had fixed it for some people but then what I had to do was go through and delete all mp_yourmapname ff files in my Activision folder and and re download it from the server and I fixed my problem. Moral of the story if you are beta testing a map on a server change the name when you load a different version.