SOLVED Lighting Up Materials

Discussion in 'Tracks' started by speedrcr, Jan 25, 2017.

  1. speedrcr

    speedrcr New Member

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    I wanted to make focused areas light up more than others. Is this possible?

    I'm thinking in the sense that a floodlight would light up certain areas more than others. Or perhaps a region of the track.

    So could you make a floating polygon behind an area to have more luminescence and light up that area or will it light up the whole scene?
     
  2. luchian

    luchian Administrator Staff Member

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    AC engine only supports one single light source, the sun (hence also the limitation regarding night racing).

    However, you can make materials that "glow". They will look as being lit up, but they will not cast any light/shadows.

    There is a setting in the shader (a double value iirc). Can't remember now the exact name, I'm on my phone.

    ..sent from my phone.
     
  3. luchian

    luchian Administrator Staff Member

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  4. Pixelchaser

    Pixelchaser Well-Known Member

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    just debating this myself as ive created light polesx2 and cats eyes with separated material for the eyes. and part of all this is debating how to do it. the setting I would be going for myself isn't night but dusk, just that time where the twilight takes over. and a finely balanced catseye can work at night and day without changing its shaders.

    lovely super dooper low poly cats eye. :lol: "meaooow !!", hope to add this to my physics layer too, with a thud type sound bite for it.
    [​IMG]

    raising the emmisive is one way to do it, but it leaves the dynamic aspect of moving lighting at fault. instead it can be done via over powering the multi figure. which leaves it dynamic. ,

    anyway night time tracks , the only convincing way I see to do it, is to build it into the design and textures from the get go, and literally fake it. using shaders subtly as the moonshine and also the light cones. so for example your road texture piece might look like this. with shaders also set to use it this way here is alternating light poles and lit region.
    [​IMG]

    there is another way which I'm not sure about until I test it. creating your own sky basically. but it will always need the magic touch. if the art work is made for nightime and not daytime then it will work relatively convincingly but only with a good artist imo. and its nearly always sacrificial in some areas, something will likely not work as you want.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2017
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  5. speedrcr

    speedrcr New Member

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    Exactly the idea I had Pixel!!

    Unfortunately I've been aware of the 1 light source (that's the pits).

    I have the flood lights twinkle a bit as well...then with some slight of hand with Waggum's Night I got some interesting results, (less the beam projections from alternate light sources of course).

    But yes what you described this would be the way to go and perhaps was what I was asking...if you had to preplan where textures would be placed, lighting etc.

    Another idea I had was if you could create a shadow dome almost like a light box. In theory, you could have rays of light come through where you wanted light to project on the track. Only draw back would be you cant change the time of day on the track. and the shadows would emulate darkness. It would be a tough one to calculate I'm guessing but I figure it "can" be done. Just depends on if someone thinks they can. I have my doubts with little I know at the moment.
     
  6. Pixelchaser

    Pixelchaser Well-Known Member

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    there is a seriously technical way, infact it breaks the game effectively. changing normal directions etc.
     
  7. Pixelchaser

    Pixelchaser Well-Known Member

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    so I think this is interesting. simply using a new weather setting. actually this weather setting has been badly made. but the way I have tuned my track shaders to work at present this becomes possible. and its interesting but not straying away to much from my daytime track environment, I could easily fudge a night version. actually more deeper dusk variant weather would allow lights to be more convincing without it being just too dark to need deep light cones on the road etc. atleast dark enough to see any lights on poles and cats eyes. and yet still set it to daytime and it works. I might pursue this more.
    [​IMG]
     
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  8. Pixelchaser

    Pixelchaser Well-Known Member

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    cats eyes test today, this is on heavy clouds and my dark terrain, whats cool is this can be balanced to act as a reflector and be "nearly" Off during the daytime \o/, also it is directional, but need to build the light into the recessed area of the cats eye more than at present. but it limits the angle for sure and the glow.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2017
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  9. speedrcr

    speedrcr New Member

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    Here's an example from the Editor I was able to produce... upload_2017-1-27_11-49-19.png

    Note: If you're familiar with this track I have many things to do with this track still but got it to the point for a release enlight of the race this weekend!
     
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  10. luchian

    luchian Administrator Staff Member

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    These look very nice guys !
    Love that cats eye shot @Pixelchaser :)
     
  11. speedrcr

    speedrcr New Member

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  12. speedrcr

    speedrcr New Member

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    This is what I could come up with in mean time...testing at moment. Pixel I liked your idea, I was thinking on the same lines!

    Note this was with a common "Night_8" option that I believe came with Wagnum/AT weather /PP mod. Interesting though Wanum's gives a "semi slight foggy effect...illusions wise looks good but dark compared to Default PP. Since VR is increasing in popularity I tried to conform to Default PP standards.

    Also with the Weather "Night_8" option it was critical to pick right time point and adjust shadre values (or sun angle). Currently between 12:00 and 13:30 (around 60 sun angle I believe...and depends on sun azimuth, etc) it gets good results. In Editor I adjusted to 60 sun angle for effect.
     
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  13. luchian

    luchian Administrator Staff Member

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    Looks very believable !

    Note that you can also set a sun pitch/angle for your track specifically, inside lightning.ini.
     
  14. speedrcr

    speedrcr New Member

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    Think I dictated this in the KsEditor as well. I was able to set the pitch etc. Took out the existing Lighting.ini that's in the daytime version of this.
     
  15. Pixelchaser

    Pixelchaser Well-Known Member

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    so if you remove the lighting.ini and save in the editor it saves a new lighting.ini ?
     
  16. speedrcr

    speedrcr New Member

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    no change..., I had a "work" folder and saw no change nor a file populated. Also the "night" layout I removed the Lighting.ini so it could take settings generated from KsEditor to KN5, I'm guessing. That's what I imagining is happening, or at least seeing the results of.
     
  17. Pixelchaser

    Pixelchaser Well-Known Member

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    so you reckon its saved in kn5 file and the lighting.ini (IF) present overrides the kn5 settings?
     
  18. speedrcr

    speedrcr New Member

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  19. Pixelchaser

    Pixelchaser Well-Known Member

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    just to clarify, that's a yes that's how light settings work ???? interesting. might dabble with that tomorrow then.
     
  20. speedrcr

    speedrcr New Member

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    Sorry for being vague. Yes that's what appears to happen when you leave the Lighting.ini out.
     
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