Need help with Point Light Effect

Old Guy · June 2010

I've read everything I can find and played around with settings but I just can't seem to figure out how to setup this effect. I must be missing something essential. Here's what I'm doing:

Create a new map (annual battle tiles dungeon)
Draw a floor (layer: background (floor 1), sheet: floor)
Draw a wall around the floor (layer: walls, sheet: walls)
Place a wall sconce (layer: walls, sheet: walls)
ADDLIGHT (at sconce)
Add effect: Wall Shadow, Point Light Setup (sheet: background)
Add effect: Wall Shadow, Point Light Finalize (sheet: walls)
SUNINFO (activate lighting checked)

What I then see is a black map with a 5' wide white box around (outside) the map area. The walls and floor are gone but the sconce is visible.

Can anyone see what I did wrong? I'm really at a loss as to what to try next.

Eugee · June 2010

You've specified that the background sheet (floor) should block all light that hits it.

Remove that effect and add Wall Shadow, Point Light Setup (0) to Sheet: WALLS

Point Light Finalize means that no sheet lower (on top of) this layer should be affected by light.

I tend to put all light sources (and corresponding symbols) on a LIGHTS sheet & layer. I place it lower than the WALLS sheet, and put the finalize there. Also, you can set the maximum darkness of the shadow in Global Sun. (I prefer 25-50% for my maps. Also Blur 1 makes the shadows look better. I use 100 intensity lights by default, and then up or down if I want another light to over power it.

Old Guy · June 2010

Thanks for the response! That helps a lot but I still have a problem. I made a new drawing and did what you suggested. Viola! I have a point light. Hurray!

Then I made another one, same sheet, same layer. It didn't work. I made another one. It did work. I was using different colors but I doubt that's it. Nothing else changed between creating light sources though. Some worked some didn't. I saved the drawing, restarted cc3 and had the same result.

I'm using cc3 w/ patch 8 under vista (not in a uac controlled directory) and having no other problems at all. Any suggestions?

Also, is there a way to edit a light source? I can change the layer, etc as with any object and list shows some basic info but I was wondering if there is some more advanced inspection tool. There must be something different between the lights that work and those that don't that may point towards what I am doing wrong.

Also, I can't edit the settings for finalize. There are eight settings listed but they are grayed out and I can't change them.

Edit: The culprit appears to be the color of the light source. Yellow, red, green, purple work every time. black (the default) and blue fail every time. It still may be because of something I've done although I can't seem to find anything odd.

Eugee · June 2010

Blue should work, but you may have to pump up the intensity. To edit the lights, go to the Dungeon menu and Lights > Edit All Lights. (That might not be exactly what it's called, going from memory.) Finalize only serves one purpose; all sheets after that effect will not be affected by light sources. It keeps your compass, scale and text from getting dimmed out by lights source shadows.

Some things I've learned: Filled polygons don't stop light at their edge; you need to add a hollow polygon around them to stop light at the edge. (Easiest method is to create a STOPLIGHT/STOPLIGHT sheet/layer and then right click the Copy button and choose Copy To Layer. Copy your filled polygon (like a large cave column) to the STOPLIGHT layer, hide everything else, and then edit the attributes, putting it on the STOPLIGHT sheet(with the 0 shadow length PoL effect), and making it hollow.

Note that I'm a big fan of creating extra sheets/layers to keep stuff clear to me. I use LIGHT, STOPLIGHT, and LEDGE as sheets/layers in pretty much all my maps.
This usually isn't an issue unless dealing with cutout style walls (like my Kobold Hall map).

There's a lighting test map I'd recommend trying to duplicate in that post; it gives a good idea of how lights work (and shows off their power).

HINTS: The pillars have a non-zero shadow length, and the Global Sun isn't an opaque shadow. Good luck!

Old Guy · June 2010

I think I finally have my head around it now. Thanks for the tips and for your patience.

Blue does work. The best I could manage was still very faint but it is definitely there. Fortunately, I can't envision needing a blue light source. I can't believe I didn't see the lights option on the dungeon menu. That's exactly what I was looking for.

JimP · June 2010

blue lights... maybe someone set them up, and the 'guardian insects' can see very good in the blue light.

A game idea though, not a map idea.

Eugee · June 2010

I think the light in my Kobold Hall map (in the cavern) is a light blue... it's supposed to be sunlight reflecting off the ice from a hole in the ceiling (described in-game).

Anoril · June 2010

Hello all,

I add an issue I got with light here as it is a good start. (^_^)

I've done all as said before in this thread and I choose a specific color for each sheet (shadow color)... But shadows are always black! And very dark black

I would like "soft" shadows then I selected a light grey for the "Wall shadow, Point Light Setup" effect but shadows are still deep black.

Am I missing something?

Best regards,

Paul

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Need help with Point Light Effect

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