Strange colored lights

[Marisa]

I recently manually updated SFM and when I went into the Mannhattan map there where weird lights around windows and in the edges of things. Don't know what the issue is. It's probably worth noting that there are no such lights in other maps like mountain lab.

https://imgur.com/a/vXb4P

https://imgur.com/a/zHwHK

[Zappy]

Those "weird lights" are "broken" environment cube-maps (broken pre-calculated reflections), not being in the format that Source Filmmaker expects.

To remove the issue (which is not a proper fix; see below), load the map in Source Filmmaker, click "Windows" > "Console" at the top-left, type "BuildCubemaps" into the console, and press Enter to execute it. Then wait for the map to be reloaded. At this point, the viewport(s) should be frozen white, requiring you to reboot Source Filmmaker.
When you load the map from now on, the issue should be gone, although shiny things don't look "correct".
You might want to make a backup of the original map before doing this, just in case that something breaks from it.
It's not recommended to do the above.

To fix the issue, copy the map and all of the assets that it uses over to a place that either Portal 2 (which costs money) or Alien Swarm (which is free) can read from.
Then load the map in either of those games, execute "BuildCubemaps" in the game in question's console, let it build the environment cube-maps, and then copy the map file back over to Source Filmmaker afterwards.
When you load the map now, the issue should be fixed, and shiny things should look correct.
You should make a backup of the original map before doing this, in case that something breaks from it.
(You should not enter "BuildCubemaps" into Source Filmmaker's console after this.)

If you own Portal 2, "CubeMapper - Easily build cubemaps" from SFMLab[sfmlab.com] can help, but it doesn't work with Alien Swarm.

[Marisa]

That worked thanks, though I am curious to know what is the difference between getting rid of it and fixing it.

[Marco Skoll]

Originally posted by Golden:

That worked thanks, though I am curious to know what is the difference between getting rid of it and fixing it.

Getting rid of it basically removes all environment mapping - it's better than it looking like demented Christmas lights, but it will mean that models that are supposed to use environment maps* won't be able to.

* An effect used to fake specular reflection, giving the model the impression of reflecting a reasonably detailed version of its environment. (In contrast, "Phong" provides diffuse reflections that only reflect light sources).
It has its limitations, but it's good enough to make it look like the side of a car is reflecting the trees it's passing, for example.

The problem is that SFM's cubemapping tool crashes SFM, leading to it only building one face of one cubemap, so you essentially get no environment map effects at all in the map.

Alien Swarm or Portal 2 on the other hand have properly functioning cubemapping, so rebuilding the cubemaps in these engines instead will give you the effect as it's supposed to look.

[wtfmzf]

Originally posted by Zappy:

This is caused by broken environment maps. To get rid of it, click "Windows" > "Console" in Source FilmMaker, type "Mat_Specular 0;BuildCubeMaps" in the console, hit Enter, and wait for Source FilmMaker to do stuff and then reload the map (after which the viewport will be frozen white until you reboot Source FilmMaker).

To fix it, you apparently have to copy the map file (and also models, materials, textures, et cetera) to Alien Swarm (which is free) or Portal 2, then use the console in one of those games to load the map, then type and execute "BuildCubeMaps" there, and then after that is done, copy the map file back to Source FilmMaker.

Thanks man

[oopsboom24]

Originally posted by Zappy:

Those "weird lights" are "broken" environment cube-maps (broken pre-calculated reflections), not being in the format that Source Filmmaker expects.

To remove the issue (which is not a proper fix; see below), load the map in Source Filmmaker, click "Windows" > "Console" at the top-left, type "BuildCubemaps" into the console, and press Enter to execute it. Then wait for the map to be reloaded. At this point, the viewport(s) should be frozen white, requiring you to reboot Source Filmmaker.
When you load the map from now on, the issue should be gone, although shiny things don't look "correct".
You might want to make a backup of the original map before doing this, just in case that something breaks from it.
It's not recommended to do the above.

To fix the issue, copy the map and all of the assets that it uses over to a place that either Portal 2 (which costs money) or Alien Swarm (which is free) can read from.
Then load the map in either of those games, execute "BuildCubemaps" in the game in question's console, let it build the environment cube-maps, and then copy the map file back over to Source Filmmaker afterwards.
When you load the map now, the issue should be fixed, and shiny things should look correct.
You should make a backup of the original map before doing this, in case that something breaks from it.
(You should not enter "BuildCubemaps" into Source Filmmaker's console after this.)

If you own Portal 2, "CubeMapper - Easily build cubemaps" from SFMLab[sfmlab.com] can help, but it doesn't work with Alien Swarm.

I tried the "Build Cubemaps"...
Every session I try to do now has the lights flickering like crazy :(
Anyone got a fix?