UDK Lightmass/map seams won't quit.
Hey all. I've got the beginning of a level that I'm trying to get going, and I'm having some trouble with seams which I'm certain are lightmass-created. I've tried various different troubleshooting methods, none of which have given me consistent results. Either the edges start to come out black, or they 'highlight' a brighter color. The brighter one is a bit less annoying, but still needs fixing.
I've seen suggestions to make the walls/floors BSP, but I don't think (or know how/if) I can do any type of vertex painting on those surfaces, and I do want chipped plaster, as you see I was playing with in a couple of shots here.
The advice that makes the most sense to me (I read it in passing so i may even be mucking up the idea of it) was to take all of my modular pieces in Max, set them up as they would be in the scene, then combine them into a single mesh, sealing holes, etc.
The other option I've seen is to use bigger/longer/wider geometry which would minimize the amount different meshes/visible shadows on flat plains.
It do very much like the toolkit 'lego' aspect of the modular building I've been working with, but these seams are killing me! Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Everything (for the most part) does tile well, unlit. I'm sure it's the shadow maps causing issues, but I'm stumped as to what to do.
ALBUM: http://imgur.com/a/awgi2
I've seen suggestions to make the walls/floors BSP, but I don't think (or know how/if) I can do any type of vertex painting on those surfaces, and I do want chipped plaster, as you see I was playing with in a couple of shots here.
The advice that makes the most sense to me (I read it in passing so i may even be mucking up the idea of it) was to take all of my modular pieces in Max, set them up as they would be in the scene, then combine them into a single mesh, sealing holes, etc.
The other option I've seen is to use bigger/longer/wider geometry which would minimize the amount different meshes/visible shadows on flat plains.
It do very much like the toolkit 'lego' aspect of the modular building I've been working with, but these seams are killing me! Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Everything (for the most part) does tile well, unlit. I'm sure it's the shadow maps causing issues, but I'm stumped as to what to do.
ALBUM: http://imgur.com/a/awgi2
Replies
Ok sorry for the troll post. I would make sure there are 0 gaps between the set pieces. Even try overlapping the peices to see what happens.
The problem looks like your mesh are closed on the ends, so the lightmap is basically 'leaking' around the side and bleeding in. It's easy to fix, just delete the adjacent internal wall sections so the mesh is open.
I actually did go ahead and do that-- The brighter walls are an example. I went a bit further to replace all of old geometry with it, and it got rid of the highlighting on the edge, but there are still visible lighting seams on the wall. Uploaded a new photo with those instanced around.
I've been hearing/seeing a lot of 'why not use BSP', but I'm not sure how to keep those details such as chipping plaster without vertex painting them in. Many, many hours of google searching have taught me a lot more about UDK, just none of it has helped me figure out this issue.
Result with lightmap res at 512.
Still a seam, but much less noticeable in high contrast.
Lit, however...
Definite seams. Considering breaking up my walls into bigger chunks, which'll change the sizes of things a little bit, but it would decrease the repetition of the pieces.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92440
Sorry for advertising myself lol
http://www.thiagoklafke.com/modularenvironments.html
+1 to whoever told you to combine the wall segments together as one mesh, other words you need a wall segment that is bigger than usual to cover large areas, same goes for floor roof etc. Think of it as having more variety pieces of LEGO to get out of tricky situations
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/
Here are a couple more shots, with the BSP version. I went back and worked up that plaster texture a bit more too. It was too white and not contrast-y enough for me.
I can still pull off that bare-brick effect with decals, it just took me a bit to figure out how to get them more or less working with the scene. I'll keep going in this thread for a bit on the topic of those seams though, I like to keep those files and try to troubleshoot them.