Date Posted: 23rd Jun 2014 at 7:56 PM

Lighting notes 2: Master/Slave Lighting

The CRES resource controls everything related to Ambient lighting. In necessity every custom light generating object creates its own LGHT resource, which in itself is useless and in all essence can be removed and re-linked to the light resource of the item it was cloned from. This may be good for object makers as repository linked lights can further reduce size of packages. Now a negative is that unless you correctly make a Custom NLO definition for your new light which would require the user to have the Scriptorium or append it into their files (which can leave room for major errors), it may not be Base compatible unless you use a Base game light source, problem with that is that base game lights do not include all varieties of lights and intensities.

On this note, it's possible to Slave multiple lights to just one Light source as the LGHT resource only controls ambient lighting and not the other required light resource for custom lamps.

Lighting Notes 3: Windows and doors, oh my!

Windows seem to have their own world of lighting in which essence actually is the same as Lights, minus colour.



I believe I have basis to say that The top line "create WFive(windowMedieval_0_0_0_N_light)" controls how much light the window should be allowing in (intensity of light). and the bottom lines "create NS(windowMedieval_0_0_0_N_light)" control the direction of the light entering the room. There's up to 4 entries per Window or Door, Two for Straight, Two for Diagonals. Now I am not sure though. I am curious to know that more possibly goes into controlling light for windows than for objects. I am on assumption that the Wallmask might have more to do with it than we know. For expirement purposes I want to see if I can slave a set of windows to just one LGHT and see how they behave. If my assumptions that Wallmasks control the lighting of a room are correct, it will be possible to repository link all windows/doors in a set to just one lighting source.

Date Posted: 18th Jun 2014 at 11:29 PM

From looking at CC lighting and the files I have not found anything new. I do note that every CC light generates a unique LGHT resource and the CRES points to this unique resource, but in all the unique resource only refrences the NLO of the light it was cloned from, making it odd when a candle takes up Soft amber rather than fire because it was cloned form the Base game table light. I'm not placing this in tutorials because this is more to me a note on how Custom lights can work and I am waay too opininated to make a tutorial.

Now for Those wanting to fix their custom lights to their tastes, it will take a bit of modding around.

There's two ways. One way to me is a bit lazy and just leaves the extraneous LGHT file in the package, which isn't bad but it eats space, and in the name of space saving, any space that can be saved should be saved. The Second method involves exporting the LGHT resource of the desired light from the Objects01.Package file of the game it's from, importing it into the custom light in question and relinking the CRES to the LGHT resource imported in.

The First Method
- Open the NLO of the game the light you want to link your CC light to is in.
- Copy the name in parentheses ( Example: lightingFloorGardenPagoda_light )
- Open your CC light and pop the LGHT file open
- Change the Text in there to the one you copied

Problems with this method
It leaves the not really needed LGHT resource in. This isn't a real problem but in all seriousness every resource you can cut out to save filespace is a good thing. Much like the repository method, which cuts unneeded resources by linking all "child" objects to the "parents" in way of textures. Linking straight to existing resources is the best way possible. Also notable if the light you point the LGHT resource is an EP/SP light and you ever plan to upload said light, by proxy your light will need the EP to function correctly otherwise it will suffer an issue much akin to not having an entry in the game's NLO files, where it will only cast light on the object but not diffuse around the room.


Method Two
- Open up the Objects01.package file of the game that has the light you want to link your CC light to.
- Find the desired light resource, You will have to figure out what's what. Using Testing cheats and looking at one of the recolours of the EA lights will probably give you a good idea of what the light's actual name in the game files are.
- Extract the resource.
- Open up your custom light.
- (Incomplete up to now, I ran out of steam and need a rest)
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