Cool lighting effects tutorial!

[sesalpinogamer]

Something that really catches my attention in doom is it's lighting,it is very simple,yet super cool and manage to give and incredible ambiance to the level you are playing,however,begginers to engines like SLADE 3 and Doom builder (1,2,GZ...) often don't know how to do those,so here is a tutorial on it!

1st step:Create your sector:
No need to explain here.
2nd step:Choose where the lighting will be:
Also no explanation needed.
3rd step:Create a mini sector comming from your light source:
Basically,this will be the place where the awesome lighting starts,so make it realistic,or try.

http://imgur.com/w1fgG0s

4th step:Create the lighting:
Very easy step indeed,open the sector menu and turn up the brightness.
(Note that the effect will be better on darker rooms.)

http://imgur.com/aDVw6sL

5th step (Optional):Add some detail:
Let's all say it,a simple one sector bright area doesn't look nice,you must avoid it at all costs,but if you really can't,like in a part of my map because of linedefs confusion,it is tolerable.Get a new layer of lighting,a bit darker than the center,make it blink,do cool stuff!I don't want my light here in the example to blink because it is a goddamn candelabra but on things that make more sense,feel free to do it!

http://imgur.com/E0YiWTp

6th step:Enjoy!!!
You did it!Now you can make your own lighting effects on doom and doom 2!!!Here is an example:

http://imgur.com/trl81Hh

(Note that i am using freedoom to make my wad.)

[glenzinho]

Amazing

[sesalpinogamer]

glenzinho said:

Amazing

Thank you!I took my effort.

[Ribbiks]

what is this even.

yes, you can change the brightness of a sector. anyone who spends 5 seconds with the editor can figure this out -.-



how about some *actually* cool lighting effects? Here's some boom nonsense:

1. light sequence

target sectors set to low brightness, set to glowing. change brightness to 255 tags will cause them to glow once. repeat cyclically for fun times:



2. advanced glow control

light brightness values are stored in a uint16 iirc. that means you can go as high as 65536.. or whatever. the game doesn't render values past 255, but this extended range can be used for coordinating glow timings:



3. light transfers

these are your boom-mapping bread and butter. use actions 213 (floor) and 261 (ceiling) liberally:



4. stepped lighting

you can adjust lighting in sequential increments over time using "change to darkest/brightest adjacent" and voodoo closets:



5. fake midtex structures

with a combination of midtex and lighting transfers you can create the illusion of 3d objects. yay:




here's a demo wad with the above effects: https://www.mediafire.com/?uw9xaul2hrw3wkt

remember, software graphics quantizes light values to multiples of 16, fancy things outside that range will only look as "intended" in gl.

cheers m8.

[sesalpinogamer]

Ribbiks said:

what is this even.

yes, you can change the brightness of a sector. anyone who spends 5 seconds with the editor can figure this out -.-



how about some *actually* cool lighting effects? Here's some boom nonsense:

1. light sequence

target sectors set to low brightness, set to glowing. change brightness to 255 tags will cause them to glow once. repeat cyclically for fun times:

http://giant.gfycat.com/GroundedFreeGuineapig.gif

2. advanced glow control

light brightness values are stored in a uint16 iirc. that means you can go as high as 65536.. or whatever. the game doesn't render values past 255, but this extended range can be used for coordinating glow timings:

http://giant.gfycat.com/SphericalBestArmednylonshrimp.gif

3. light transfers

these are your boom-mapping bread and butter. use actions 213 (floor) and 261 (ceiling) liberally:

http://i.imgur.com/yo2h67el.png

4. stepped lighting

you can adjust lighting in sequential increments over time using "change to darkest/brightest adjacent" and voodoo closets:

http://giant.gfycat.com/SingleLightChanticleer.gif

5. fake midtex structures

with a combination of midtex and lighting transfers you can create the illusion of 3d objects. yay:

http://i.imgur.com/ct4hT2sl.png


here's a demo wad with the above effects: https://www.mediafire.com/?uw9xaul2hrw3wkt

remember, software graphics quantizes light values to multiples of 16, fancy things outside that range will only look as "intended" in gl.

cheers m8.

Very nice complement,but my goal is making a very simple guide for STARTERS,think about it before showing yourself.

[glenzinho]

Dude, you're showing us how to buy milk and Ribbiks is giving away the whole cow. You need to stop showing yourself. Read up and get some perspective.

[tomatoKetchup]

Ribbiks said:

4. stepped lighting

you can adjust lighting in sequential increments over time using "change to darkest/brightest adjacent" and voodoo closets

What a nice bunch of cool tricks! But this particular one calls to mind. What is a voodoo closet and does it work?

[gaspe]

Many thanks for the cool tricks and the demo wad Ribbiks!

[gemini09]

I'm also more in Ribbiks' audience, as I'm already familiar with the basics of mapping and lighting.

[Obsidian]

tomatoKetchup said:

What a nice bunch of cool tricks! But this particular one calls to mind. What is a voodoo closet and does it work?

A voodoo closet is a separate sector outside the map with a scrolling floor and containing a voodoo doll. The doll crosses activating linedefs as it gets moved along the floor and then is teleported(Teleport to Line is usually the best option) back to the start to repeat. Needless to say you can't do this in vanilla Doom.

[Enjay]

A voodoo closet is basically a Rube Goldberg machine* built in hidden sectors for when people don't want to use a port that can achieve the same effect much more simply with a few lines of scripting code.

*or as we'd more likely say in the UK, a Heath Robinson device.

[tomatoKetchup]

Alright ok, I did hear of that trick before, but had never seen it under this name.
Cheers!