Urban Terror Support

Help & Documentation

Here is a short guide to working with the features in FS_q3map_Radbump_4a

VIS

-hint and -merge should be used in the VIS stage when doing a full vis not fast.
-hint replaces hint brushes
-merge merges similar surfaces making things more optimized improving fps

Lighting

-radbump should be used in the Lighting stage. This will do 4 passes. If you do not add this switch, the compiler will do one pass. If you don't use the .rad file generated or forget to use the new .rad file upon a recompile you will get some very strange effects in game.

-exposure This allows you to change the brightness of a map without changing the lights or sun in it. The scale is an inverse with 255 being neutral so if you want the map darker you would set the value above 255 and if you want it brighter you would set the value below 255. You should set this on 255 normally.

-gamma do not set this on anything other than 1.0

-compensate leave this on 0

Worldspawn Keys for Lighting

_floodlight RGB Distance Intensity
is added to the world spawn for radiosity. (not all maps suit this eg: Casa's little bits of dirt get a shadow around each piece when I use floodlight on it so I use bounce 9 instead whereas Thingley looks really good with floodlight)
eg:
Key: _floodlight
value: .8 .3 .2 512 96

globalfog RGB density
Adds a soft global haze. Not to be used for convential fog. This can be tested in game by starting a devmap and using r_fogdensity "0.0001" r_fog_r ".25" r_fog_g ".25" r_fog_b ".25"
eg:
Key: globalfog
Value: .25 .25 .25 0.0001

lightdensity : new key that allows the mapper to brighten the textures more than is possible normally. I find a value of 1.3 is usually just right. You can add this key to the worldspawn and then do a ents only compile. You can test this in game by starting a devmap and using /r_lightdensity 1.3 (or whatever value you like)
eg:
Key: lightdensity
Value: 1.3

New Entities

Cube Map Probe - cameras for specular lighting. Add the following to your urbanterror.def Use lots of these. Also, these are required for Fancy Water when cheap water is used. Without them sometimes the water will be black.

Quote:

//====================
// Cube Map Probe
//====================

/*QUAKED cubemap_probe (1.0 0.5 0.8)(-8 -8 -8) (8 8 8)
Location of camera for cube map for specular mapping. Place at head height in the centre of an area. There are no keys.
*/

Lighting Discussion

The use of targetted lights improves the normal/bump/specular maps. Frankie_V came up with a really effective way to light a map when I was working on Tombs. He calls it painting with light. The idea is to use very little light from the sun (skybox or entity sun) and no ambient, minlight or mingridlight should be used. Create low value entity lights with fade .1 and linear in different colours that make sense for the map. Keep the colours subtle but use something different to mark a route. For example: use deep orange entity lights in a tunnel to catch people's attention. Add some torches to explain the light in the tunnel. Neon signs are effective in explaining why an area might be an unusual colour. I usually start with strong colour and then tone it down once I like the colours by either making the colour lighter or adding some white lights. If you find an area is too dark add a light in the same colour as your sun with a value of about 20 (with fade .1 and linear). This method takes a lot more work but it also allows you to really control your shadows.