UDK lighting help

ScottHoneycutt · Jul 2014

I have never been able to understand UDK lighting. Here are a few of my thoughts:

1) in the images above the first two shots of different lightings built. The third shows what happens when I grap one of the lights. All the sudden a strong shadow appears when I select it. When i build ... everything is undesirably washed out.

2) I followed tutorials about using emissives to light the scene. At first it didn't work at all. Now it is somewhat working (don't know what I did differently). I will continue to experiment. The image below has the emissive on the far right wall lighting up the room with yellow, with one spotlight added to one of the ceiling lights ... giving some lightmass. Again, the build destroys the shadows.

Any help is appreciated. Any explanation maybe of why the lights are working the way they are would be good as well. Thanks

ScottHoneycutt · Jul 2014

I figured out that it was the lightmaps (which explains why different objects were responding differently). Some were missing a second uv channel, some were too low res, some needed the second uv channel redone, while others were OK.

Should I always use a second uv channel no matter what?
What are typically lightmap resolution?

Thanks

Obscura · Jul 2014

"Should I always use a second uv channel no matter what?"
When you are using baked lighting, then yes.
"What are typically lightmap resolution?"
It depends on a lot of things. Mainly on the object's size if you want equalized texel ratio, but you need higher lightmap resolution if you want sharper shadows.

ScottHoneycutt · Jul 2014

Obscura wrote: »

"Should I always use a second uv channel no matter what?"
When you are using baked lighting, then yes.
"What are typically lightmap resolution?"
It depends on a lot of things. Mainly on the object's size if you want equalized texel ratio, but you need higher lightmap resolution if you want sharper shadows.

:thumbup: thanks

UDK lighting help

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