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FPSC Classic Product Chat / Full lightmapping

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Nosce
19
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Location: Deep Underground
Posted: 20th Feb 2005 03:48
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With basic lightmapping my game loads up in about 40 seconds, not bad. With full lightmapping I havent yet seen it load up even after waiting minutes. I understand it takes more calculations, but is that how long it would be if I built the game?

temet nosce
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Cellbloc Studios
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Location: Atlanta, GA
Posted: 20th Feb 2005 03:53
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Loads? Or Build?

If you have full lightmapping on, depending on your computer, could take hours.....

-This...is my boomstick!
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Nosce
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Posted: 20th Feb 2005 03:58
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My PC can run Half Life 2 on full spec at 28 FPS, yet it takes bloody ages to load full lightmapping on game preview. My question is: if it takes that long to load on preview, will it take that long once I've built the game?

temet nosce
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Cellbloc Studios
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Posted: 20th Feb 2005 04:06
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Ah! That's the magical question!

Someone was actually talking about this before, wondering if they could just "apply the lightmap" to a section so they entire lightmap doesn't have be created.

The really good news is that once you do this for a build, there is virtually no time when it loads (loads real quick). It is when you build that it takes the time.

Hence why I asked you Loads or Builds.

Do you fully understand what happens when creating a lightmap? It's really hard on a computer to make (which is why it takes so long)

-This...is my boomstick!
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JerBil
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Location: Somewhere along the Z axis...
Posted: 20th Feb 2005 04:18
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If you set your game in a really small area, like a service corridor, and use only a few lights, you can do full light mapping in a few minutes, usually. Looks really great, too.

In the attached picture, the left side is no mapping, and the right is 512kb full mapping with three lights. Took about 5 minutes on
my 1.8Ghz machine.

-JerBil

Ad Astra Per Asper

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Music Man
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Posted: 20th Feb 2005 07:13
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First of all, lightmapping is a form of raytracing that "burns" the shadows and other light properties into the level texture.

If you have ever used a 3D modelling and animation program (ie. Maya, 3D Studio, Imagine, Animation Master, Lightwave, etc) the final "render" (which is a mathematical process that can cause millions or billions of light rays - mathematic computations - to "bounce" off of surrounding objects, walls, etc and the returned values are then "drawn" onto the screen) can take from a few minutes (if the requirements are low-end or your computer is an SGI supercomputer) to weeks or months (if rendering your animations or pictures on a slow Pentium 1 or something).

It is the give and take of quality versus time that we 3D people face on a daily basis. The advent of real-time 3D engines have spoiled most people because most properties of 3D Raytracing are present - in realtime - and many of you may not have had to endure the long wait times we "old timers" - pre-realtime engines - have had to. Engines today are so amazing, you can walk through and play a game in near raytrace quality - just amazing, but I digress . . .

So, if you wish to test your games quuickly, refrain from the high end lightmapping. The highend lightmapping should be done for the final ready-to-release game and can and most likely will take FOR FREAKIN EVER to finish!!! However, it is a one time process and the faster your computer (having a processor with a math-coprocessor makes all the difference in the world) is, the less you will have to wait.

The final game simply loads these "burned-in" textures as just that, textures, which load nearly instantaneously because they are no longer a mathematical formula or set of computations - but artwork "wrapped" around or inside the level.

Hope that helps

Mike.
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Swhale aka The FPS Creator
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Joined: 22nd Oct 2004
Location: My computer chair, no zip code sorry
Posted: 20th Feb 2005 13:55
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yea, it takes a long time for me to do full lightmapping and high quality, and sometimes my exe wont run either, i just delete my game i created, and try re compiling it. this usually works

Visit my computer tips and tricks web site here, www.angelfire.com/falcon/miles_web
Current Projects There: Nintendo DS
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Nosce
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Posted: 20th Feb 2005 17:25
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Fair point, maybe they could try and find a better lightmapper at some point, because when I modded for UT03 it lightmpped my whole level in about 30 seconds. Maybe they could try and find an engine which did it something like that.

temet nosce
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SoulMan
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Posted: 21st Feb 2005 03:49
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Well, considering that Lee wrote the light mapper, I think that's going to be a bit hard to do. What it really seems like to me is that DBPro is CPU intensive. I was kinda curious if he were to look at re-writing it to be more GPU intensive and take the load off the CPU. When you have the AI and Graphics going through the CPU it doesn't help much for calculating. It bogs the processor down. My Geforce 6800GT OC should be able to chew through this stuff and spit it out in a second.
SoulMan

This is as backwards as is This
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JerBil
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Posted: 21st Feb 2005 14:03
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Except that if raytracing is used, it is probably done by the cpu, so your 6800GT is just loafing...


-JerBil

Ad Astra Per Asper
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Eric T
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Posted: 21st Feb 2005 19:25 Edited at: 21st Feb 2005 19:26
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For full lightmapping, it once took me 12 hours to get it to load. Worst part of all was I was so happy, i forgot to take screenshots (that was a back around RC17).

So heres a hint, remember to take screenshots when ya do the Full Lightmap

If you love someone, set them free; If they come home, set them on fire.
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Cellbloc Studios
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Location: Atlanta, GA
Posted: 21st Feb 2005 22:26
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I recall Lee talking about working on a new formula for the Lightmapping to make it a little faster..... let me see if I can find the link somewhere...

-This...is my boomstick!
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