At what stage do you guys light your tracks? | Forums

[rlmergeuser]

I try to make each part look just the way I want it before I move on to the next section, but with so much background detail I usually have to go back and replace most of the lamps with pointlights to get rid of lighting glitches.

What i thought pointlights made light glitching!
obiuvsly all lights make light glitching but i find it easier using lamps, and i thonk it looks beter

[Euphoric Fusion]

Yes using the fluorescent, spot and roof lamps will look better, but they are very heavy on the processor as the have to caluculate all the shadows created by the light.
Having a crossover of two of these lights will result in double shadows for each object in one area and depending on how many shadows are cast you will more than likely end up with a ton of slowdown.

Pointlights cast no shadows but still illuminate the area in which they are used. Depending on it's position it will still feel like the rider moving past a light because it will still reflect off him as it would a normal light.
This is much less intense on the processor aswell.
In my "Jorma Highway" remake I have used wall lamps and pointlights all the way through with at least 2 on screen at once and it has no bad effect on framerate. This is a little extreme though and it just turned out that way due to the way I wanted my track to look and had to trade off somewhere.

A good practice to follow in my opinion is to use alternative light sources.
eg, roof lamp - wall light - spotlight - wall lamp - fluorescent - point light etc.
This way you don't have two shadow casting lights crossing over and casting double shadows and messing up the framerate.

[lespritdelescal]

I've only really run into this on the track I've currently been working on. Only some sections ended up dark (mostly because the wall/ceiling blocks aren't all the same. I had to light as I went along to make sure that I could see the obstacle when I was riding it.

If the track I am working on is darker, I usually end up having to switch between the darkness and light fairly often, because it's almost impossible to see some of the pieces you're picking out in the dark.

Decorative lights are usually added last, as they are memory intensive, and I'd rather muddle with squeezing things like that in at the end rather than compromise other parts of the track (unless the lighting is one of the primary elements).

[Ajuvix]

I think lighting should be roughly mixed from the get go. The atmosphere will be set and its a jumping point for creating obstacles that are part of a theme. I will tweak it at the end to make sure everything is just right. If the lighting is a little dim, I'll bust out a fluorescent light on it and delete when I'm done building. I don't think Atomica or Venus would exist as they do if I hadn't started with the color palette. For example, on Atomica the ventilation ducts look awesome and reflect light very effectively and I placed them at the atom in such a way that it refracts the light into almost a prism. Wouldn't have come across that by adding it at the end. In Venus, a rustic reddish orange was my palette and each obstacle was built to exploit that scheme. I go out of my way to make sure the dust levels and color will complement or contrast the ambient and track lighting accordingly. Of course, 3 years in design at a top 5 art school in the U.S. helps a lot. I'm not bragging either, this is the only thing its helped me with that I've cared about, good to see I got something out of it I guess.