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Real Light or Lightmap?
Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 5:50 pm
by Gladius_Coldhead
Hi.
Its better use in outdoor(city) scene one Real Light(sun) or Lightmap?
why?
Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:04 am
by sgt_pinky
Most games with immersive levels use a lightmap for static objects, real light for shadows of dynamic objects and highlighting key areas of the level.
Why - because a lightmap is a pre-calculated texture map. Dynamic lighting requires a lot of calculations in your cpu or graphics hardware. Also, the number of dynamic lights with current hardware is limited - to 8 lights on a typical new graphics card.
If your city scene buildings don't sway in the breeze, I would use a lightmap.
Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 4:48 am
by Gladius_Coldhead
and how big games, like GTA Vice City(or San Adreas), make a good day/night system?
with lightmaps?
Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:09 am
by Frobozz
sgt_pinky wrote:Also, the number of dynamic lights with current hardware is limited - to 8 lights on a typical new graphics card.
I was under the impression you could bypass the limit by coding a shader that looks for more.
But as for the outdoor scene, you could try having a series of lightmaps for different times of the day. Maybe one for every hour or so.