Flashlights?

[Downsider]

Okay; I've been looking around for how exactly flashlights are programmed. I'm not perfectly experienced in the subject matter, so I'm looking for some methods. So far, one that I've really liked would be Dementium: The Ward's flashlight. It's lightweight, looks good for a horror shooter, and would look great for what I'm trying to accomplish. On the other hand, you have something like Halo or Half-Life 2's flashlight. If somebody, at the least, could explain to me how Quake stores it's shadowing.. One thing I definitely do not want is a flashlight where it just spawns a light entity where the player is looking. Those look very undesirable for what I'm trying to accomplish. I believe I've seen a video of a Quake engine with a flashlight in the style of Doom 3, which would be acceptable. If somebody could share the knowledge with me? Thanks in advance.

[GiffE]

viewtopic.php?t=820&highlight=flashlight

[Downsider]

http://forums.inside3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=820&highlight=flashlight

Notice how this is in "Engine Programming". I'm not looking to write QC or CSQC here.

[MauveBib]

http://forums.inside3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=820&highlight=flashlight

Notice how this is in "Engine Programming". I'm not looking to write QC or CSQC here.

The Doom3 style flashlight yout are refering to was done in darkplaces by useing a realtime light with a cubemap. This requires some QC coding.

[Downsider]

http://forums.inside3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=820&highlight=flashlight

Notice how this is in "Engine Programming". I'm not looking to write QC or CSQC here.

The Doom3 style flashlight yout are refering to was done in darkplaces by useing a realtime light with a cubemap. This requires some QC coding.

Oh, I thought you were actually trying to help me.

[MauveBib]

Err... I was? You asked how the doom 3 style one worked, and I told you. How is that not helping?

[Downsider]

Err... I was? You asked how the doom 3 style one worked, and I told you. How is that not helping?

o_o I need to put it in the engine, that's why

Thanks anyway, I don't mean to come across as an ass

[MauveBib]

well first you'll need an engine with realtime lighting, and support for cubemaps. DP has both of these. You then create an entity whcih follows the player(most easily through QC, but possible to do through the engine if you're masocistic) to act as the light, to which the cubemap is applied. Five sides of the cube are fully black and the sixth has a white circle blending to black at the edges. This will give you a doom 3 style flashlight.

As to the details of coding the entity in the engine, I have no idea. It's a relatively easy QC job but if you insist on not doing it there I can be of no further assistance.

If you're talking about woring off the stock quake engine it's a huge task. You'd need to add realtime lighting for starters, which is a massive task.

Quake's standard lighting system is very basic, lightstyles are baked for each map at compile time, and blended over the textures. Getting a realistic flashlight from that lighting system is a very big job.

[Downsider]

I'm not looking for a realistic flashlight, really, I'm more looking for something in the style of Dementium: The Ward. I want to be able to.. "mask" over the shadows.

[Baker]

well first you'll need an engine with realtime lighting, and support for cubemaps. DP has both of these. You then create an entity whcih follows the player(most easily through QC, but possible to do through the engine if you're masocistic) to act as the light, to which the cubemap is applied. Five sides of the cube are fully black and the sixth has a white circle blending to black at the edges. This will give you a doom 3 style flashlight.

As to the details of coding the entity in the engine, I have no idea. It's a relatively easy QC job but if you insist on not doing it there I can be of no further assistance.

If you're talking about woring off the stock quake engine it's a huge task. You'd need to add realtime lighting for starters, which is a massive task.

Quake's standard lighting system is very basic, lightstyles are baked for each map at compile time, and blended over the textures. Getting a realistic flashlight from that lighting system is a very big job.

I don't know anything about this topic but wanted to say thanks for this information so as my OpenGL understanding increases I'll have this on my "to learn" list.

[Urre]

IIRC GLQuake didn't even support dynamic lights.

[metlslime]

IIRC GLQuake didn't even support dynamic lights.

It does, you just have to turn gl_flashblend off.

[GiffE]

http://forums.inside3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=820&highlight=flashlight

Notice how this is in "Engine Programming". I'm not looking to write QC or CSQC here.

I understand that this is engine programming, however the video's you saw did it in QC using that method.

[Downsider]

Thanks for the replies, I came up with something satisfactory last night.