computing shadows

[hawkeye2012]

Hi all, why is it that when you make a new map and play to validate it the picture quality is great, but once you have done the shadows the picture quality is crap no matter how you do them, fast ,very fast, default, or high. The picture quality goe's downhill and in some cases the map is un-playable, to dark. Why, anybody got any answers, did a winter mod map the other day, turned out really well and good map, good clear picture, computed the shadows in high res took 8 hrs and could not play it afterwards, all turned to night time black as the ace of spades. Again Why,
Hawkeye

[TMarc]

The quality of the map does not change at all, at least the details and the textures remain the same.
Only the lighting and the shadows is calculated, and there, due to the restriction of the lightmap size (default is 1024x1024, ultra is 4096x4096) there might be some visible steps or artefacts in the lightmap.

If it is not what you are talking of, please be more precise and show screenshots.

[hawkeye2012]

Hi T Marc thanks for your reply, after your comments it would seem that the default setting would be best as in high quality it shows the shadows more pronounced, ie making the map look darker. I will try this, I only remember the maps I used to do on TMO and had no problem with any of them, Canyon is more complex. thanks.

[TMarc]

According to the explanations given by Nadeo crew in the lightmap thread, a lightmap calculated in Ultra (which gets resized to be saved with the map) is still better than normal quality.
What you consider as being too dark is just a better lighmap and shadow calculation.

If the map still seems much too dark to you then you should put some blocks with lights, like ad signs.

[hawkeye2012]

Hi T Marc
Thanks again will try adding extra lighting, let you know the outcome.