[WiP] First Custom Lightmap Attempt

So i finaly rebuild the uv map in blender of a map of mine.
Which means since we can ex and import the lightmap bitmap out of lm files, we can now use advanced 3d tools for generating the lightmap.
I didnt mess too much with blender and baking/lights yet so there are a few things i have to figure out and stuff ...
Well, heres a Screen:
http://i514.photobucket.com/albums/t...ap_Attempt.jpg
Before you ask, those Trees are MODELS.
(The Tall Gras Rows and the Bushes are also Models, i think about removing the Tall Gras Rows ...)
I Raytraced the Trees Shadow onto the Maps Lightmap and baked a fake shadow onto the Tree texture so it atleast looks a bit like it has some shadows.

So ya, i think since i showed how to manipulate a lightmap no one ever cared to use it / mess with it ...

Which makes me like the only one using advanced mapping technique which is kinda said actualy :/


Btw, took me like 2 Days - not strait - to recreate the uv map.
Woho ...
I highly suggest to custom lightmap smaller maps or rather simple map structure ones.
Because you can end up with a billion of faces because fsrad has a bit weird way to create its uv layout.
Tough following some Rules while Mapping reduces the single faces and groups them into bigger and easy recognizable uv islands.



I highly doubt that anyone's gona read till the end, lol.
If so, thanks for reading and i hope that i can motivate the mappers to use their brain.
So they can also use the stuff i used.

Looks nice
Posted via Mobile Device

I actually read it all lolz, but nice.
I always seem to learn from you :P

i read this to the end,
but why dont you make a tutorial about it?
i think many people like me will appreciate it !

Because Tutorials have a Downside.
Ppl will stop using their brain and just look for Tutorials.
They wont discover things anymore which leads to a stop of development in the corresponding scene/part/section.
And what i did was nothing anybody from here couldnt do.

Or do ppl think that those who write Tutorials are Born with their knowledge so they can write the Tutorial as soon as they are old enough and have a computer with internet connection?

Map -> Exported using a DEFAULT PLUGIN that comes with Radiant ...
Importing the Exported Map so you can Recreate the uv layout.
Extracted the Lightmap Bitmap, colored the pieces and recompiled everything.
Looked where the Piece is and set the uv face for that part of the map to the colored piece.
(Thats eating alot of time and i dont know how to use the raw uv data thats stored in the lm file.)
When having every Face Located and completed the uv layout simply place lamps and hit Bake while shadows next to it is enabled.

MAGICK HAPPENS

Now you have your custom Lightmap that you can import into the LM file.

Thats simply put of what i did.

Did you figure out which piece of the lightmap belongs to which piece in the map or did you make your own lightmap-uv?

Wowwww,great achievment bro.

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Originally Posted by exercitus

Did you figure out which piece of the lightmap belongs to which piece in the map or did you make your own lightmap-uv?

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First.
I would prefer the second one however, i dont know how to use the raw data in the lm file.
Which is why it took me about 2 Days in total (time, ive spent around 35-40 hours).
Because it is also important to have it correctly "uv'ed".
Otherwise you get fliped parts which dont look nice.

Also, I need to add that they came out very high quality.

ohhh myyyy hunnnnn.

Now that you know the process, like how to do it, will it become faster to make custom LM compared to using FSRAD?

Also, is it more resource friendly? :3

Cheers!

nope, you have to build with fsrad before you can start your 'custom' lightmap. there is no way to create your own lightmap from scratch (unwrapping the map) yet

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ToonLike

Also, I need to add that they came out very high quality.

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Thanks, well, just a simple tree using ripped textures from ragnarok online xD
Or did you mean the Shadow in general?
Well, some parts are junky and a bit cut off even thought i turned margin on and did some stuff like setting the smoothness and stuff ...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by portbobcat

Now that you know the process, like how to do it, will it become faster to make custom LM compared to using FSRAD?

Also, is it more resource friendly? :3

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Currently its done completly manually, well, expect the light baking, thats what blender does, lol.
But other than rendering the shadows its a realy long and tedious work to do.
However, Blender has alot more Light Options to mess with than Radiant / GZMap.
For example, GZMap doesnt support Point Lights for some reason (or any other quake 3 light type besides a sphere light).
Its also faster at rendering it, not to mention that it is not restricted to Blender, any other 3d modeling tool can be used.
For example max or maya.
The only thing is that you need Blender for exporting Gunz Models.
Other than that, like i said, not too restricted.

lol, first when i saw this i think'd about MINECRAFT xD

Awesome work (:

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Originally Posted by z1ls

lol, first when i saw this i think'd about MINECRAFT xD

Awesome work (:

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i had to think about minecraft too.
maybe u were inspired by it.

all those blocky mauntains etc..

but nice work anyways and maybe i will search it out too..
but i left the mapping part a bit >.<