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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / Anyone know of a good lightmapping program?

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wattywatts
17
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Joined: 25th May 2009
Location: Michigan
Posted: 2nd Jun 2012 23:55
I've been using darklights, but enough is enough. I can't stand the crashing anymore, and I'm 50% finished with my graphics, so I really need a dependable light mapping program with results similar to dark lights. Preferably free, since I don't want to get burned like I did with this sloppy thing.

http://mattsmith.carbonmade.com/
Daniel wright 2311
User Banned
Posted: 2nd Jun 2012 23:59
darklights CRASHED EVERYTIME I TRY TO MAP A .DBO MAP FROM FPSC,With that being said,try the default cammands for lights in dark basic pro,they work great if used right.

I am now staying away from fpsc all together,its not a good thing,not that you are using it,Im just saying,But,I am creating a side scroller now.

my signature keeps being erased by a mod So this is my new signature.
wattywatts
17
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Joined: 25th May 2009
Location: Michigan
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 00:06
Can you actually get shadows with the light commands in dbpro?
I really like the results I get from darklights, but it's so ...sloppy , and won't work on high poly scenes.
If I've gone over a certain limit of poly's I get some "failed to load dbs" error, and having spent the last 2 days on a pretty large map, I definitely need a new program instead of a new map. Gile[s] looks nice, but it can't read dbo files, and from what I've read dbo files load faster in-game.

http://mattsmith.carbonmade.com/
Brendy boy
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Joined: 17th Jul 2005
Location: Croatia
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 00:40 Edited at: 3rd Jun 2012 00:40
Quote: "Gile[s] looks nice, but it can't read dbo files, and from what I've read dbo files load faster in-game."

it can't read but it can save and that's what you need, the final output, but giles is slow. If you have multiple cores dark lights is fast

Daniel wright 2311
User Banned
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 00:42
Yes,dbo files load super fast compaired to .x files, I had a map that loaded up in 3 min time,then I converted all my files to .dbo then my leval loaded in around in ten seconds.


Yes you can light map objects in dark basic pro with native commands.

Think about this,if I load in a .dbo file from fpsc, I still get all my shades to work with all my light mapping with just load static objects.

You can also light map your objects and covert them into .dbo with out dark lights.

I will look for a example,give me sone time today.

my signature keeps being erased by a mod So this is my new signature.
Daniel wright 2311
User Banned
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 00:45 Edited at: 3rd Jun 2012 00:46
Ok, never mind,no time at all,look into this command

create light maps texturesize,texturequality,lightmapsavepath$

And here is the full example given



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wattywatts
17
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Joined: 25th May 2009
Location: Michigan
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 01:02
Thanks, I'll have a look at this later. Won't I still have to place the lights with coordinates though? It's so much easier to move around in 3d and place them.

Dark lights is really fast on my machine, but I keep getting errors with my new map. I also think it's strange that I have to create a dummy file to save the output to in dark lights, as it won't create a new file within the program.

http://mattsmith.carbonmade.com/
Green Gandalf
VIP Member
21
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Joined: 3rd Jan 2005
Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 01:42
Quote: "I also think it's strange that I have to create a dummy file to save the output to in dark lights, as it won't create a new file within the program."


Works fine for me. Why do you need a dummy file?
wattywatts
17
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Joined: 25th May 2009
Location: Michigan
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 02:11
When I try to export without a dummy, it tells me the file does not exist and exits the program. When I try to save on top of the dbo file opened in darklights, it deletes the file and then tells me it doesn't exist.
But I digress, at least I can still use the program with that specific problem. The DDS texture error is a problem I can't seem to get past. I've found that if I lower the quality level to 0.1 I can render the lights, but then it looks quite bad.

http://mattsmith.carbonmade.com/
Seppuku Arts
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21
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Joined: 18th Aug 2004
Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 03:06
MapScape works great and it's free.

wattywatts
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Joined: 25th May 2009
Location: Michigan
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 03:29
Unfortunately mapscape gives me a 3d memory error when trying to import my level.

http://mattsmith.carbonmade.com/
WLGfx
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Joined: 1st Nov 2007
Location: NW United Kingdom
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 03:35
I've used DeleD which also has a plugin which exports to a DBO file. It's very easy to use too.

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wattywatts
17
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Joined: 25th May 2009
Location: Michigan
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 07:22
Thank you everyone for commenting, I figured it out. (Actually, I reduced the polygon count and used darklights successfully) I tried giles and deled as well as some other lightmappers but the shadows I was producing looked quite different from what darklights produced, and since half the game was already lightmapped I couldn't switch to a different look without even more work.

http://mattsmith.carbonmade.com/
Fallout
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 3rd Jun 2012 22:48
Out of interest, how many polys is your map?

wattywatts
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Location: Michigan
Posted: 6th Jun 2012 06:01
278,387 polys on that particular map after polygon reduction. Seems like a pretty average number to me.

http://mattsmith.carbonmade.com/
Green Gandalf
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Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 6th Jun 2012 12:23
For DBPro that would have to be separate objects or separate limbs within an object. You could try splitting the task into separate sections and use more than one set of light maps, i.e. a separate light map for each section. There's no need to use just one light map for the whole scene.
TheComet
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Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 6th Jun 2012 13:52
Just a side question, create light maps is still broken, right?

tHEcOMET

Seppuku Arts
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Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posted: 6th Jun 2012 16:03
How about [g]iles? It's free now. It's pretty much just a lightmapping tools, it's very good and exports to an array of file formats and you've got more control over how the effect is achieved. You can create a lightmap on a duplicate object with new UVs just for the lightmap (where you would load your objects and your lightmap object) and you can also use your objects current UV map to bake the lightmap.

Linky

mr Handy
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Location: out of TGC
Posted: 6th Jun 2012 17:26 Edited at: 26th Jun 2012 09:54
use 3ds max that compatible with Panda DirectX Exporter. Best lightmapper ever.

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