FIXED some overlays show up white/shiny

[Zander273]

tl;dr version:
Valve repackaged some assets a while back so the material that the overlays were placed on no longer had all of it's data to work with. Fixed it by simply changing the material to a similar looking one.

original post:

I have cubemaps placed 64 units above the floors but my map has a number of hallways and a large outdoor area so I'm not entirely certain if all of my cubemaps are placed correctly. Anyone know what I'm dealing with here? Only relevant thing I can see in my log is a too many lightstyles on a face warning.

Idk if this helps diagnose whats going on but when I walk up to them and wait a few seconds they begin to adjust and appear normal, then you move away and its the same thing again. Doesn't happen to decals, only overlays (and not all of them, mostly things like ceda posters)

[Rectus]

That doesn't really sound like a cubemap issue since most of the overlays aren't supposed to have them (dunno if it's even supported).

The too many light styles error might be what's causing it. It's caused by having too many differently named lights. Having a lot of switchable lights isn't supported very well by the engine, so I'd recommend having as few as possible (if any at all), and giving lights that are turned on simutaneously the same name.

[Zander273]

Rectus původně napsal:

That doesn't really sound like a cubemap issue since most of the overlays aren't supposed to have them (dunno if it's even supported).

The too many light styles error might be what's causing it. It's caused by having too many differently named lights. Having a lot of switchable lights isn't supported very well by the engine, so I'd recommend having as few as possible (if any at all), and giving lights that are turned on simutaneously the same name.

I have 2 sets of lights (both named to avoid this error, only one is active at a time as well) and a couple special flickering lights and such. When I looked at which brush face was affected, it told me it was a large section of floor, if I split the brush will it change anything? Or do I need to remove some of the special lights?

[Rectus]

The flickering lights count as named lights as well.

Splitting the brush can help, if you can split it so that only one or two switchable light sets can shine on each segment. The lightmaps also automatically get split depending on their scale. You can also adjust the Hard falloff of the lights so that the sets don't shine on the same brush.

[Zander273]

Rectus původně napsal:

The flickering lights count as named lights as well.

Splitting the brush can help, if you can split it so that only one or two switchable light sets can shine on each segment. The lightmaps also automatically get split depending on their scale. You can also adjust the Hard falloff of the lights so that the sets don't shine on the same brush.

yea I'm sure that it's the flickering lights, thanks man I'll try splitting the brush and see if that helps. This was the only remaining bug in my otherwise finished map so thanks a bunch man I should be able to get it working soon

[Zander273]

Welllllll I got rid of the lightstyles error but the same overlays are still showing up weird...

too many switchable lights? even if there's only 2 sets and they're all named the same? (eg light1, light2)

[Rectus]

If you got rid of the warnings, it's probably somehting else that's causing it. Can you post picures of the issue?

[Zander273]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=178825714

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=178825668

ignore the gnome, he's my testing buddy.

oh and that arrow pointing at the door next to the restroom sign will show up through some walls. No idea why or if that's related

[Rectus]

Are the lights in the screenshots the switchable ones? I'm not sue how lighting for overlays are handled, but it might be that they can't handle multiple lightmaps.

The wall behind the overlays are also darker than the others, you could try putting some weak omnidirectional lights at the lamps to properly light them.

[Zander273]

Rectus původně napsal:

Are the lights in the screenshots the switchable ones? I'm not sue how lighting for overlays are handled, but it might be that they can't handle multiple lightmaps.

The wall behind the overlays are also darker than the others, you could try putting some weak omnidirectional lights at the lamps to properly light them.

that wouldn't make sense unless it was only some of the overlays that can't handle multiple lightmaps. Those blood stains and the grafitti are overlays too, but they show up just fine

[Rectus]

Only the broken decals use the lightmapped shader. The blood and graffiti uses a shader that only modulates the color of the surface it's applied on. This definitely looks like lthe lightmaps are screwed up.

[Zander273]

Rectus původně napsal:

Only the broken decals use the lightmapped shader. The blood and graffiti uses a shader that only modulates the color of the surface it's applied on. This definitely looks like lthe lightmaps are screwed up.

hmm well it wont be difficult to test this, I'll try it this afternoon and see how it goes

I just realized I made a rather amateur mistake by making 2 sets of these lights anyway when I could've just had one set start disabled, named them both as the same set and used the toggle input instead of turn on/off

if that doesnt fix it I'll just delete one of the sets and see if it has any effect.

[Zander273]

It's been a long♥♥♥♥♥time since I gave up trying to fix this issue. So long in fact, that my hard drive broke and for a while I thought I'd never be able to work on it again. Thanks to a bsp converter I'm back to hunting my white whale. And I'm going to get that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if it kills me.

[Zander273]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S02BHmWPZNs

Will post full details later of what it was and how I fixed it.