How to add light?

[Ladyofpayne]

I need to add light to my interior of the house. Please tell me how I can do that? I'd like to make one light for the whole house.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Ladyofpayne

[LadyHonor]

for starters, you're not going to get very even lighting with a single light. only the side of an object facing the light will receive light. adding a light is simple. you right click anywhere on the level area and "insert light". The overall effect you're trying to have determines the amount of lights you really need. the very least amount of lights you need (imo) are 7 if you want to ensure everything, level objects and characters receive even lighting.

 

Each level must contain one and only one ambient light. The ambient light determines the color of shadows and brightness of the level. It is determined by color and intensity settings/radius settings have no effect. So you simply need to add the light and choose your color. I usually raise it off the ground a little bit to like 25, but that's just me. It doesn't really matter where you put it just so you put one in there.

 

Every level needs static lights. Static lights can light both characters and level items. In order to cut down on the amount of lights you need, you can set three lights to light both. You will probably want to have three for the level and three for the character. To ensure uniformity, I use graph paper, a compass, and protractor to determine where I need to set them. For a house, I would probably give each light a radius of 1000 and set each of them 120 degrees apart (1/3 of a circle's circumference) on a 500 degree radius so that they sit midway between the light and the edge of the light circle.

 

Example setting:

 

First Character Light:

X = 0

Y = 280

Z = 100

 

Second Character Light:

X = 420

Y = -280

Z = 100

 

Third Character Light:

X = -420

Y = -280

Z = 100

 

I set them at a height of at least 100 because most light comes from overhead. I set the color intensity at 1 and usually use a starting color of 0.98, 0.82, 0.69 for the first light and for the second, I would copy and paste the same color as the first, then using the bars, slide it until it's a little darker than the first. For the third light, I would copy and paste the resulting color from the second one and make it a little darker. The reason I do that is to give it an appearance of shadowing on their faces. If you use the same color in all three lights, it's going to be uniform all around and not as natural looking.

 

For the level, I usually use candles, torches, etc to light the rooms, but you can use the same approach as I use for the character lights, but you will have to add baked lights as well. The easiest way to do that is copy and paste the static level lights and set the second set as baked instead of static.

 

Some things to remember: An object, whether level or charact, can only receive a total of three static lights. Any more than three lights and one light effect disappears. Generally this isn't that big of a deal to me. When the player passes, let's say a lantern, the main character light that is lighting the character disappears, but the the character receives the candle light and imo only improves the lighting effect.

 

You will want to make a separate room for your lights and in the room settings, set all rooms to be seen and receive light from this room.

 

You will also need to put a light probe in every room.

 

Since larger levels can sometimes take considerable time to generate lightmaps, I suggest you make a test room and using those light settings, run a test map. If you like the settings, colors, light intensities and such, then run it on the actual level you want to use it. If you don't, then you are going to have to delete the lightmap, which is a pain in the butt, but it causes all sorts of problems repeatedly running the lightmapper over an older one (such as odd shadows appearing in your level) and adjust the lights' attributes and run it again.

 

To completely delete the lightmap, wherever you saved your level, you must delete the level.erf file. Then you must go to the documents/bioware/dragonage/toolset folder and delete every single instance of your level. After you do all that, you must go to where your temporary files are located. On the pc I use to make mods, it still runs XP, so I have to set it to show hidden files and folders, then go to my computer, C: drive, my documents, my document folder (which on my pc is Magnolia Blossom), Local Settings, and delete everything in the temporary file folder. DO NOT DELETE YOUR ACTUAL LEVEL FILE.

 

Atmosphere settings also affect your lighting. My suggestion on that would be to download the level files from Bioware site and export the level settings from an interior room that you like. It's the easiest way to do it.

 

Anyway, hope this helps and best of luck.

[Ladyofpayne]

Thank you.

[Ladyofpayne]

I used this

Method 1

• Right-click on "New Room" in top-left list > Insert > New Light

• Move it up off the floor a little (e.g. Z = 2). In Object Inspector > Affects Characters TRUE > "Color Intensity" 2 or more > "Light Type" Point - Static (lc) > Choose any bright color (this light illuminates both the level and the characters).

• Copy and paste. In Object Inspector >"Light Type" Ambient - Baked (you must have an ambient light, and this approach stops your shadows being pitch black) > Choose a dark blue colour and keep the Color Intensity under 2/3.

 

For three levels this one worked but for the other I get error message: Make sure UVmap is correct.

Most items on location are the same as for sucessful one.

http://social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/Level_Editor_Tutorial#Adding_lights