UDK Lighting problem with modular roads

gannonroader

So I'm working on a level for my portfolio, and it's a down town area (my hometown) and I decided to go with tileable plains. Now the problem I'm having is that they aren't receiving lighting information correctly as you can see in this pic.

http://s647.photobucket.com/albums/uu192/gannonroader/?action=view&current=problem.jpg

Now, for some reason photobucket isn't displaying pictures right for me, so if the picture seems off in color or it's really dark, that's photobucket issues. The issue I'm talking about is how you can see the 3 seperate pieces of road for some reason, and only one of them recieves lighting. Theres a few objects in that scene as well, and it's only the road that's having this problem. Any idea why? The sidewalk i'm using is built the same way, only it's not made of a plane, I don't know if that would make a difference.

kernersvillan

May seem like a dumb question, but have you built your lighting yet, and are you using Lightmass?

gannonroader

Yes hahaha, i've built my lighting, and i've tried it with, and without lightmass. Now, the weird thing is, if I move my light to a new position, the seams dissapear, and everythings lit properly, but once it's built again, it all goes to hell. Maybe it's because i'm using a plane? And it's shadowing weird because it's an edge? I don't know.... I can only guess at this point.

cholden

Did you setup the 2nd UV channel for lighting?

You'd probably also get better results from a road shaped mesh that is nicely segmented.

Though sometimes you just get wacky errors. I did a modular sidewalk that would have odd lighting errors whenever it so desired.

DarthNater

+1 to the second UV channels for lighting

I also try and keep my lights in between 2 meshes. I notice lighting issues a lot more when I have a light directly over a mesh. It seems to steal all the light and then give the other meshes less :P

Jesse Moody

Lets try to keep these questions / issues in the UDK questions and answers thread...

gannonroader

I didn't know there was one....
But anyways, I must be an idiot, because i've never heard of a second uv channel for lighting. How is this achieved?

Mark Dygert

Normally you add a second channel in whatever modeling app you're using, before you export. If you want something a little more specific I need to know what app you're using... I think UDK can also auto generate the UV's for you but it might require the 2nd UV channel to already be there.

Grimm_Wrecking

the udk's generation will create the for the uv's and the uv channel you just have to specify what channel # it is. (really simple and self explanatory when you start playing with it)

However, I second vig's decree of normally you add the second channel in your native app before exporting. While the UDK can generate decent uv's they can't beat the hand laid or re-arranged approach.

gannonroader

I'm using max 2010. Do I just change the Map Channel to 2?


***Update***

So I tried that, and re-exported. I also adjusted the collision mesh slightly as there was a touch of overhang. When I re-imported and rebuilt the lighting, it seems to have fixed it. Was I supposed to do anything with this second UV channel in the editor? Should I be doing this with all of my meshes? I've never heard of this before.

***Update2***

It's still not perfect, and still somewhat of a seam. Is there any kindof tutorials for creating roads in UDK. I'm very close to what is more than likely a very popular method, but somethings just not turning out quite right.

cholden

http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsue3lightmap.htm

This

You HAVE to do this to ALL of your meshes.

gannonroader

Ok, I just have one quick question about this....
He says "In 3DsMax (similar in Maya and others) add a new Unwrap UVW modifier"

Does that mean, add one to what you already have there? Or just have one, with the channels set to 2?

Jesse Moody

map channel 2 is different then channel 1 so you will have to unwrap again. There is TONS of info on this out there. Even on that link Cholden gave ya. Read up.

Sorry to sound rude as this has been addressed a few times on this site and is very easy to find info on with just a little bit of reading and about 10 minutes of your time.

gannonroader

hahahaha well don't worry about being rude, it's not going to make me cry or anything, and if theres an answer hidden in that rudeness it'd be even better. And I read the link cholden gave me, in fact I just finished reading through it for about the 10th time, and it's another of those tutorials that just assumes you know what to do in that area by giving little information. You have to understand that when doing something for the first time saying "go do it" isn't very helpful, and how could I search the forums when I had no idea what I was searching for. If you went back and read my original problem, it was that I was having a problem with lighting in the UDK, and i'm sure there are 1000 reasons someone could have a problem with lighting in the UDK, so the best, and easiest way would be to take a picture of my problem, and see if anyone recognizes it as maybe something they've come across in the past, only to find out about this second UV channel as a result of my post. So as you can see, I could not have possibly searched the forums, and if it's something that has been posted so often, shouldn't one of the 13 posts in this thread be a link to one of those topics, because I still don't have an answer.

That sounded rude too, but wasn't my intention.

Popeye9

here is a pretty good tute for creating mutli uv channels in Max.

http://www.louismarcoux.com/Videos/UVWMapFromStack.wmv

gannonroader

actually, thanks because that was the one part I wasn't able to figure out with the help of Grimm_Wrecking. Problem solved guys, thanks a million, and sorry about making the thread in the wrong spot, I never noticed the UDK part before.