Sloped light fx
This has got to be one of the coolest effects in level design. If you know how to slope sectors then you will likely have little to no problems sloping sectors to achieve this effect. You should consider what you have planned for the area before you decide to implement the sloped lighting effects. You will have to split the wall/texture attributes to achieve this effect and once you do that, one half won't take on any other lighting effects like lotags 3 and 4. Keep this limitation in mind before deciding to use this effect. Sloped light fx: sloped lighting using sloped sectors
You cannot slope these sectors in one shot the way you can with normal sloped sectors. You have to manually tap the [ key several times until you have it close to where you want it and then hold the shift key plus [ key to get it exact. Download this tutorial map: slp-lite.zip Example:
On the side of the wall that the player can see, one point is at the opening of the doorway, another at the width of the doorway and the last one where lighted floor sector joins the wall. However, behind the wall there are only two points. This way the sloped sector can be sloped for the whole extension, from the front of the door, the width of the door jam, and to the last point where the floor sector meets the wall. Start drawing this sector from the point where you want the light to start sloping from. In this instance the sector was drawn from the door opening in to the wall (behind the existing wall) to the point where the lighted floor sector meets the wall and then to the door frame and then to the very first point. From start to finish you would have hit the space bar six times. 2D of the above example: Below is a cleaned up version of the 2D for the above 3D example. The sector acting as the sloped light effect is outlined in green. You should be able to see what was mentioned previously by examining this screen capture. Once that sector was extended into the wall, the top half was lowered to meet the top of the doorway (being that the top of the doorway is lower than the ceiling). Then the arrow shows which wall of that sector was made the "the first wall". The sector was then sloped to meet the point where the lighted sector on the floor meets the wall. With that done, the bottom half of this sector was pulled all the way up to meet the ceiling. notes 1- The bottom half does not have to match the slope of the top half. Just leave it flat and pull it straight up. 2- If the sectors you are working around are already sloped, then you may find the sloped light sector to be already sloped in one way or another. If that happens, then just hold the cursor on the ceiling of the top half and/or on the floor of the bottom half and press the / key and begin the process of getting the sloped light sector as you want it. ![]() Once you have done all of the above, there is still more to do. You may already have thought, at least once, "this is a lot of work", and it is probably why a lot of people just do not bother with it. However, when you take the time to do this effect, it makes a big difference to the area and you will be glad you did. It looks so cool and makes a big difference to the player's submersion. Anyway, once all of the above is done, in 3D mode, align the textures by placing the cursor on the wall to left of the sloped light sector and press the period key. Hopefully this won't mess things up. Remember to save your map all along and especially before doing something like using the period key to align the textures. The engine sometimes freezes up when using that function. (To play it safe, always edit in DOS mode, as well). Once you have done this preliminary alignment, (still in 3D mode), between the sloped light sector, hold the cursor on the top half of the wall and press the 2 key. This will split the top half texture attribute from the bottom half. If the bottom half's texture changes, that is, to a different one from the top half, just reapply the same texture to the bottom half and align it manually. Usually, all you have to do is move the texture down or up to align it with the texture on the top half and on either side of the sloped light sector. If you have done this in the sequence mentioned, you should only have to align the bottom half's texture by moving it down or up. However, there are times when it turns in to more work than anticipated. It depends on the other effects and textures you have used in the same area. Again, if you have been saving the map under different file names, you can always go back to a previous version of the map before you tried implementing the sloped light and either start again or leave it out. Sloped light fx: another example of a sloped light sector
2D of the above sloped light sector: ![]() The bit we are going to look at is enclosed by a blue square. From this distance it looks like the sloped light sector is one with the front wall. You can see in the next picture (close-up) that the first wall of the sloped light sector is not joined; it is pulled very close but does not touch the front wall sector line. ![]() When you have to build a sloped light sector in this type of situation, you can initially draw the first wall to a point further away (grid locking on). When you are done making the sector for the sloped light effect, you can then turn off the grid locking and pull the first wall close to the front sector. Sloped light fx: a sloped light sector in an outdoor area
![]() There is really only one thing to remember when making sloped light sectors in an out of doors area: that is to remove the parallax sky texture from the ceiling of the sloped light sector. Other wise, you will just slope the sky down to the floor. However, this effect is yet another cool trick for making mountainous areas look like mountains. You can make the area look like it has some contour and shape instead of a continuous straight line of rock. You probably wouldn't want to slope the sky down to the floor but a bit of slope does add dimension to the area in your map. Sloped light fx: sloping the skyline
![]() Here is an example of a sloping skyline in an out of doors area. It is not easy to see it in this screen capture but in the game it is noticeable. This has little to do with sloped light sectors but since we are talking about sloped sectors, why not mention this trick? It's easy to implement and especially since there are already sloped sectors in this area. Work with whatever first walls you want but if, for instance, the sloped rocks on the floor are more important, then work with the first walls already in use. Sloped light fx: closing notes on sloped light sector effects
As someone must have thought about by now, the sloped light sectors in the original maps are pulled really close to the inside wall (the side that you see). I do not know the reason for this but here are some thoughts about it: 1- perhaps the originals were made this way to keep us guessing as to how this cool effect is accomplished and to marvel at the original level designer's knowledge and revere them as gods. 2- to cut down on the number of sectors, although, the sector is still there no matter what the size, I'm not sure if this would be the reason, and 3- to prevent the player from (somehow) going into this (theoretically) valid player space and instantly being killed. This last reason seems the most likely because this has actually happened in one of my maps where I first implemented the sloped light sector. If you would like to make the sloped light sectors real narrow, go ahead. I sometimes do but not as of late. I keep them the depth of the smallest grid size and block the sector using the b key in 3D mode. If you want, select the outer points (the two points furthest away from the side of the sector that the player sees) of the sloped light sector and pull them real close to the inner wall. Sometimes this puts the slope out of its intended incline. When that happens, pull the point that is at the bottom of the slope far enough from the inner wall so that you can get in there and lower the floor of the sector. Then adjust the slope again and pull that single point back in close to the inner wall. Pull up the now super thin floor of that sector to meet the ceiling. Done. note: You may or may not have to realign the textures.
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