Any news on choreography: "Export: Light Maps" ?

[Elm]

Hi guys!

 

I searched the forum and all I got was ancient threads about this feature, which didn't provide any infos on its usability...

 

So I thought I ask again if anybody knows IF this Light map thing works, or maybe even HOW..

 

 

Or: does anybody know a (reasonable) workaround for 'baking' light and shadow into dacals / maps / whatever?

 

 

 

Greetz,

Elm.

[Fuchur]

I played with it a little and got it to export a lightmap or better to say several files...

But I am not sure how to use that afterwards...

 

The process is like that:

1.) Create a Chor, put some things into it and a light. For tests I would start with a simple object and one light.

2.) Right-Click on the Chor in the PWS and choose "Export > LightMaps".

3.) In the Export Lighting Maps-dialog you can choose a directory where to export to, if you want to export a polygon or a patch-model. (that is only necessary for polygones per patch-settings)

4.) Scale the Map... just use 100% for now and put a min- and max-size per patch/poly in which makes sense to you.

5.) Render-Method... I am not sure what that is... I think it is about that mapping style like for IBLs, but I am not sure.

6.) Map Intensity Scale is just how intense the lights should be, as far as I think.

7.) Choose if you want to have shadows in the map or not. (would only use that for static objects)

8.) And then choose the Fileformat you want and export it.

9.) Now for each object (in a folder with the name of the object) A:M will export for each patch/polygone a image file. That seems to work, since the files are reasonable looking. (you can easily test that, if you have a look at the ground-model-files...)

 

The problem is: I do not know what to do next with it... how to put it back on my models (without doing it by hand) or how to import that in another software or whatever...

I think it would need an Import-Lightmaps-Feature for the chor or the models and that would need to map the images to the different patches so that we could use for instance bakesurface to bake it and use it externally.

 

So what is needed there is an importer, which can assign the images as patch-images or something like that. I do not think, that is very hard to do, but I am just not sure about it...

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[detbear]

This is one of those features that has very little in terms of "How To..."

 

A few years ago, I was trying to figure out a way to cut down render times for a very large project. I tried to

utilize the lightmap feature, but there was no information as to how to use it, etc.

 

This has much potential to export lighting and adjust it in other compositors. But I don't know how well it works.

[robcat2075]

I believe this was a feature created for that studio that did "Tak" and other games.

 

I suspect that these files were meant for use in their game engine somehow and that getting them back into A:M was not a necessary part of the pipeline.

 

If it actually does record the lighting into a bitmap, perhaps not much further work is needed to complete the circle and a feature request to Steffen would get it done.

[Elm]

...and a feature request to Steffen would get it done.

 

 

Can someone point me to where I can place a feature request please?

[robcat2075]

 

 

Can someone point me to where I can place a feature request please?

 

 

 

go to hash.com/reports

 

You may need to get a password from Jason if you don't have one for AMReports already.

 

For "Project" choose V19.0

 

For "Severity" choose "feature"

 

Explain what you want, why you want it and point out what is already there in A:M

[Fuchur]

Hi Elm,

 

can be done here:

http://www.hash.com/reports

 

You may need to sign up for a new account, if you do not have one already.

It is not the same as on the forums.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[Rodney]

For "Project" choose V19.0

 

That option is not available to everyone. Only Alpha/Beta testers?

The latest reports section most of us have access to is v18.

[robcat2075]

 

For "Project" choose V19.0

 

That option is not available to everyone. Only Alpha/Beta testers?

The latest reports section most of us have access to is v18.

 

 

You're right about that.

 

If Elm wants to write the report now he could do it in v18 and I'll make a note to bring it to Steffen's attention, or... he can wait until v19 opens up since Steffen probably can't jump on it immediately anyway.

[robcat2075]

I tested a few simple scenes...

 

-It seems to create one image file per patch if you choose "Polygon", but two identical images per patch if you choose "Patch"

-The images do not include shadows or AO, even if "shadows" is checked.

-The images seem to be light information only and do not include surface colors or textures.

 

 

 

 

Here's a problem with "baking" lighting I think...

 

Each side of a patch can shade differently depending on which side the light hits, but an image on a patch appears on both sides. If that image is supposed to be the baked lighting which side does it represent?

 

I suppose there could be a rule that only the normal-positive side's lighting gets baked and you'd have to make sure you have no single thickness patches visible to your camera

[Elm]

I have submitted that feature request.

 

This would really be a cool feature.. but I doubt that it would be easy to code / implement... but what do I know

[detbear]

Something must have worked pretty "dog-on" good at one time because "TAK" was an awesome AAA game that appeared to be a springboard for them to be

aquired by Disney.

 

I'm sure they had a few tricks to get it to work correctly, but the nuts and bolts were obviously there.