Blocking Light

ssjyoda

<div class="IPBDescription">with invisible blocks</div> Is there any way to block light with an invisible brush. I wana take more control over the way my lights turn out.

Soylent_green

A world brush with NULL blocks VIS, maybe it blocks light to?

NerdIII

func_illusionary with null texture and light flag 'opaque' set!

WarpZone

Woah... interesting... you could make all kinds of... yeah... <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->

Thanks for asking this question! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->

Confused

actually it can be worldbrush too but you will be able ot walk on it then

NerdIII

Don't forget to delete the entity from your final compile though. Effects like these don't need their entities afetr HLRAD is done.

Ollj

Use any entity with NULL or BLACK texture with zhlt lightflags to block light, painting with lights.
Delete thoose entities with ripent afterwards.

chubbysteve

You don't want to use that kind of thing prolifically.
It REALLY drains maps resources and adds majorly to compile times.

Ollj

It does not make the final map bigger

NerdIII

Ollj, wake up! <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Of course it makes the maps bigger. When you delete the entities you don't delete the brush it uses. So several of those entities cause a lot of extra planes and faces in your map. Or is there a new version of ripent that deletes unnessecary brush models as well?

moultano

I was under the impression that the null texture cause the unnecessary planes and faces to be removed.

NerdIII

Wake up NerdIII! <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
You are right, shame on me... don't know about the planes though. But that might be what OptPlanes is for.

Obliterater

What is this ripent program some one mentioned?

NerdIII

If i remember correctly when you edit the bsp directly you get errors because the offsets of certain entries are stored in it and when you change the size the bsp becomes invalid. So some nice guy made a tool called ripent to get the entities in plain text from a bsp and importing them back in after you edited them. The tool sets the data offsets right so half-life wont crash. In the text file you can delete, edit and add any entities. You can also reuse another entities brush model that way to save on extra faces and lightdata. But of course you can't create new geometry. I guess most people use it to take a look at some entity setups from other maps.