Lightmap maximum resolution

[lukesmith]

Sorry to keep posting topics on this subject!

I was just wondering if there is a maximum resolution you can make lightmaps?

I make func_groups of my brushes and set the lightmapscale parameter to .1 which seems to be the min value.

then if I set the size of the lightmap textures to 512 before compiling the lightmap everything is the same size but more lightmaps can fit into each texture.

So is that the limit or is there a way to get the lightmaps even bigger?

[DaEngineer]

You can further sharpen your lightmaps by adding "-samplesize X" to both the BSP and the LIGHT stage. The standard setting for X ist 16. Use smaller values like 8 to get the sharpening effect (and increased compile time).

For me the outcome looks like a lightmap with a resolution twice as big, but I'm not sure if that's technically correct.

[lukesmith]

oh yeah I set samplesize to 1 but that seemed to cause some artifacts so I set it a bit higher.

Is that as big as the individual lightmaps can be though after setting lightmapscale to .1 ?

thanks,

[DaEngineer]

Yes, values below 8 can cause artifacts and ultra-long compile times, so you should stop at 8.

I'm not sure about the final outcome compared to lightmapscale. But in general, lightmapscale should be used with care. Small values will not only look odd, game performance will drastically drop (that's at least what I've experienced years ago) and the BSP size will increase a lot.

You could set up a small test map and compare -samplesize 8 to -samplesize 16 with a lower lightmapscale value.

[lukesmith]

Thanks for the tip I'll stick to 8.

I'm still interested to know if the lightmaps are limited to the size they are when you set lightmap scale to 0.1. or if they can be made even bigger.

I'm not working with the quake engine but with a renderer that I've built so performance isnt an issue.

The lightmaps do look very good at this size so if theres no other way than to modify q3map2 then I'll just leave it.

[dghost77]

This might answer some of your questions regarding lightmap maximum resolution for Q3 :

http://sgq3-mapping.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... htmap.html

By default lightmap is limited to 128 X 128 with the Q3A engine, read the article on how to bypass that. Very good read btw!