| Lightmap calculation |
Lightmap is actually a texture that is applied to a model. This texture is calculated from direction, intensity and course of light rays in the scene.
The lightmap data are stored in *.ldt files.
Here, you can see an example of a lightmap (the helicopter shadow) applied to the terrain.
 (Disc 1).ISO/Addons/Vietcong Map editor/PteroEngineII.chm/pics/lms_stin_heli.png)
An example of a scene with lightmaps.
 (Disc 1).ISO/Addons/Vietcong Map editor/PteroEngineII.chm/pics/lms_scene_with.png)
An example of a scene without lightmaps.
 (Disc 1).ISO/Addons/Vietcong Map editor/PteroEngineII.chm/pics/lms_scene_without.png)
The path to the *.ldt files is as follows:
\[game directory]\levels\[map dir]\data\[sub-level dir]\ldt
Lightmaps can be also used to decrease the number of lights litghting an object. This is because all static lights that influence the lighting of an object are not applied to it anymore when it has a lightmap assigned. Thus only dynamic lighting is calculated during the game (for that object).
| Settings dialog for lightmap calculation |
| panel | : lms / compute selected |
| panel | : lms / compute all |
 (Disc 1).ISO/Addons/Vietcong Map editor/PteroEngineII.chm/pics/lms_setup.png)
| Load Obstacles |
loads the *.obs data file containing info regarding shadow casting objects, if there is no such file, the calculation takes into account all objects in the scene |
| Global size multiplier |
map level of detail multiplier the recommended value is between 0.5-1 |
| Vertex |
distance tolerance which determines whether two adjacent triangles' border points share the same location if the lightmap calculation on an edge between two triangles seems incorrect, it is recommended to increase this value, say to 0.05 |
| Normal |
tolerance (of difference) between two normals of adjacent triangles used to determine whether the two triangles are in the same plane if the lightmap calculation on two adjacent triangles seems incorrect, it is reccommended to increase this value, say to 0.1 |
| Don't divide groups | this switch determines whether adjacent triangles that are in the same plane should be taken into calculation as a single polygon or separately |
| Reverse casting | this switch determines whether triangles should be treated as one-sided or two-sided in the calculation |
| Minimal side size |
minimal size of the rectangle side on the light map in pixels if the lightmaps seem blurred on large triangles, it is recommended to increase this value |
|
Sub-entity LMs (Lightmaps) tab |