I have been working on a big open sandbox map and I've recently been getting a lot of lighting/shadow glitches. I've tried different things to try and fix it such as compiling with -final. Its only recently started to happen and the main parts they are happening in are not a new feature to the map and have been working fine. I have been using compile pal to compile the map so its quicker but I doubt that will have an effect on it. I have tried compiling with VVIS and VRAD in normal but it takes me a really long time, I have left it for around 4 hours and hadn't progressed. I have tried to optimise my map the best I know how. Thanks in advance.
Here's the glitches:
https://imgur.com/a/4pUV7
Compile Log:
Starting a 'Fast' compile.
Starting compilation of mapcubed26
Valve Software - vbsp.exe (Dec 12 2017)
4 threads
materialPath: E:\Steam Games 2\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\materials
Loading E:\Steam Games 2\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\maps\graphs\mapcubed26.vmf
Could not locate 'GameData' key in e:\steam games 2\steamapps\common\garrysmod\garrysmod\gameinfo.txt
fixing up env_cubemap materials on brush sides...
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
ProcessBlock_Thread: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (1)
Processing areas...done (0)
Building Faces...done (1)
Chop Details...done (0)
Find Visible Detail Sides...
Merged 1530 detail faces...done (0)
Merging details...done (0)
FixTjuncs...
PruneNodes...
WriteBSP...
done (0)
writing E:\Steam Games 2\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\maps\graphs\mapcubed26.prt...Building visibility clusters...
done (1)
Creating default LDR cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials:
skybox/sky_day02_01*.vmt
! Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps.
Creating default HDR cubemaps for env_cubemap using skybox materials:
skybox/sky_day02_01*.vmt
! Run buildcubemaps in the engine to get the correct cube maps.
Finding displacement neighbors...
Finding lightmap sample positions...
Displacement Alpha : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Building Physics collision data...
done (1) (1173367 bytes)
Placing detail props : 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Water found with no water_lod_control entity, creating a default one.
Compacting texture/material tables...
Reduced 7698 texinfos to 3837
Reduced 70 texdatas to 62 (1814 bytes to 1509)
Writing E:\Steam Games 2\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\maps\graphs\mapcubed26.bsp
7 seconds elapsed
Valve Software - vvis.exe (Dec 12 2017)
fastvis = true
nosort = true
4 threads
reading e:\steam games 2\steamapps\common\garrysmod\garrysmod\maps\graphs\mapcubed26.bsp
reading e:\steam games 2\steamapps\common\garrysmod\garrysmod\maps\graphs\mapcubed26.prt
6323 portalclusters
15710 numportals
BasePortalVis: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (21)
Optimized: 371001 visible clusters (2.56%)
Total clusters visible: 14488800
Average clusters visible: 2291
Building PAS...
Average clusters audible: 2683
visdatasize:8905872 compressed from 10015632
writing e:\steam games 2\steamapps\common\garrysmod\garrysmod\maps\graphs\mapcubed26.bsp
27 seconds elapsed
Valve Software - vrad.exe SSE (Dec 12 2017)
Valve Radiosity Simulator
4 threads
[Reading texlights from 'lights.rad']
[45 texlights parsed from 'lights.rad']
Loading e:\steam games 2\steamapps\common\garrysmod\garrysmod\maps\graphs\mapcubed26.bsp
Setting up ray-trace acceleration structure... Done (2.36 seconds)
26151 faces
14 degenerate faces
58872736 square feet [8477673984.00 square inches]
0 Displacements
0 Square Feet [0.00 Square Inches]
26137 patches before subdivision
26137 patches after subdivision
sun extent from map=0.000000
207 direct lights
BuildFacelights: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (69)
BuildVisLeafs: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (75)
transfers 28123923, max 7395
transfer lists: 214.6 megs
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #1 added RGB(132460, 132074, 105963)
GatherLight: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (0)
Bounce #2 added RGB(29611, 28805, 22301)
Build Patch/Sample Hash Table(s).....Done<0.6715 sec>
FinalLightFace: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (23)
FinalLightFace Done
0 of 0 (0% of) surface lights went in leaf ambient cubes.
ThreadComputeLeafAmbient: 0...1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10 (117)
Writing leaf ambient...done
Ready to Finish
Object names Objects/Maxobjs Memory / Maxmem Fullness
------------ --------------- --------------- --------
models 174/1024 8352/49152 (17.0%)
brushes 3354/8192 40248/98304 (40.9%)
brushsides 22427/65536 179416/524288 (34.2%)
planes 8890/65536 177800/1310720 (13.6%)
vertexes 40918/65536 491016/786432 (62.4%)
nodes 14924/65536 477568/2097152 (22.8%)
texinfos 3837/12288 276264/884736 (31.2%)
texdata 62/2048 1984/65536 ( 3.0%)
dispinfos 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_verts 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_tris 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
disp_lmsamples 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
faces 26151/65536 1464456/3670016 (39.9%)
hdr faces 0/65536 0/3670016 ( 0.0%)
origfaces 8162/65536 457072/3670016 (12.5%)
leaves 15099/65536 483168/2097152 (23.0%)
leaffaces 32564/65536 65128/131072 (49.7%)
leafbrushes 12658/65536 25316/131072 (19.3%)
areas 2/256 16/2048 ( 0.8%)
surfedges 151151/512000 604604/2048000 (29.5%)
edges 86870/256000 347480/1024000 (33.9%)
LDR worldlights 207/8192 18216/720896 ( 2.5%)
HDR worldlights 0/8192 0/720896 ( 0.0%)
leafwaterdata 1/32768 12/393216 ( 0.0%)
waterstrips 1793/32768 17930/327680 ( 5.5%)
waterverts 0/65536 0/786432 ( 0.0%)
waterindices 28737/65536 57474/131072 (43.8%)
cubemapsamples 0/1024 0/16384 ( 0.0%)
overlays 0/512 0/180224 ( 0.0%)
LDR lightdata [variable] 73747120/0 ( 0.0%)
HDR lightdata [variable] 0/0 ( 0.0%)
visdata [variable] 8905872/16777216 (53.1%)
entdata [variable] 225966/393216 (57.5%)
LDR ambient table 15099/65536 60396/262144 (23.0%)
HDR ambient table 15099/65536 60396/262144 (23.0%)
LDR leaf ambient 73975/65536 2071300/1835008 (112.9%) VERY FULL!
HDR leaf ambient 15099/65536 422772/1835008 (23.0%)
occluders 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder polygons 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
occluder vert ind 0/0 0/0 ( 0.0%)
detail props [variable] 1/12 ( 8.3%)
static props [variable] 1/20690 ( 0.0%)
pakfile [variable] 212867/0 ( 0.0%)
physics [variable] 1173367/4194304 (28.0%)
physics terrain [variable] 2/1048576 ( 0.0%)
Level flags = 0
Total triangle count: 66549
Writing e:\steam games 2\steamapps\common\garrysmod\garrysmod\maps\graphs\mapcubed26.bsp
4 minutes, 48 seconds elapsed
E:\Steam Games 2\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\maps\graphs\mapcubed26.bsp -> E:\Steam Games 2\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\maps\mapcubed26.bsp
1 File(s) copied
'Fast' compile finished in 00:05:26
1 errors/warnings logged:
1 errors/warnings logged for mapcubed26:
● 1x: Info: fastvis = true
You shouldn't be doing a fast compile, if its taking really long then the map is unoptimised or your PC is not strong enough to compile in an acceptable time
The issues are that there is light somehow getting into rooms where it shouldn't be able to, the building goes completely black when I get too far and some weird looking patches of dark in the large open room (top left)
I'm 90% sure thats because of a fast compile. You need to test a normal compile and see the results
And now you will hear "normal compile takes too long".
How many threads are you going to post with the same problem before actually listening to advices?
I have left normal on for 4 hours and nothing, I have been listening to the advice and that's what has helped me solve the other glitches, I have made another thread because it has other glitches that are happening and also because most of the other ones have been fixed
Wow, no, fast compile wont screw everything up, itll be almost like normal, but with less optimisation,
Things to check for - lightmap, is it too big?
are the walls displacements?
are the walls brushes that are teleported?
i have no idea then, if its not anything from the listed above.
Fast compile skips some important calculations for lightings, which ia certainly one of the issues
Fast lighting wont mess stuff up, but fas vis will. Lighting greatly depends on visual optimisation to do its job properly.
I have made lots of maps, with different lighting conditions, and compiled them with fast and normal. The visual difference is minimal.
How can I fix/reduce that?
Its not about making maps and speaking from experience, its just the way the compile process works. Just because you never noticed a difference doesn't mean there isn't any.
Basically: OP, either learn how to optimise your map and compile it with normal vis (which you should do anyway if you plan to release it) or any further attempt to help you is meaningless
The point of my choice of structure and certain words for my statement was not to show experience or similar. I said that I actually tested alot of maps specially for this occasion, with a lot of different lighting settings and possible problem brushes and scenarios, yet i found nothing. I also had real maps before and look properly in fast compile.
Maybe I should have written it in a different way to be more clear.
About the map:
Some final suggestions:
Ordered from more likely to help, to less likely, from up to down:
Try to keep the visleafs low and not too complicated as this can cause problems. For this make complex brushwork into func_detail or simplify world brushes.
You said your map is huge. You must not have anything that is nearer than 512 units along the edges of the map. Otherwise the map bugs.
Sometimes hammer will corrupt maps. Try making your whole map into a prefab, making a new map and loading the prefab. This has fixed issues to me, but it depends on what is corrupted.
Verify the integrity of your game files, your tools (VVIS, VRAD etc) might be bugged and doing this can fix them.
Spaces in any of the directories hammer uses can rarely, but possibly, cause errors with the tools it uses to compile the map. Oddly, this problem didnt persist, but caused problems at the moment.
About the LDR leaf ambient, i did more research and it turned out to be a recommendation from how much is the standard percent of this value for every HL2 map. Not a limit. So you can ignore this.
Question: Do you have console errors? I forgot about those. They are very often very useful.
If nothing works and/or if you wish to, you can lend me the .VMF and I could try to figure out whats wrong. I will not claim it as my own, do not worry. Plus, you will have this whole thread post as a evidence.
Could I send you the file, I haven't tried some of the things listed but I have tried to reduce as many portals as I can think off. I also haven't had the time to try running in normal compile as it takes me over 4 hours. If you have discord add me (Sloth#8249) and ill send the vmf via dropbox. Also a lot of the map will be quite bad by the way its built mainly because when I started the map I was very new to hammer and sort of learned as I progressed the map but I have tried to fix/rebuild a lot of stuff I did wrong. Thanks if u can
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