In the past months since the X11 bomb was dropped on us, I have heard a lot of commentary about the lightmapper. I have seen some people say it works, I have seen other say it does not. What I really haven't seen is anyone actually using it
SO! I've decided to do a small stress test of GG x11's lightmapping capabilities in comparison to X9's to see if it is on the right track, or if it has actually been ruined
like my last test several months ago led me to conclude.
in order to make things simple, ive used a fresh install of GG x11 with no custom media used. I've created PBR materials for the light, and used the pbr materials that come with the ground slab. I have done a test before, but as that did not use stock media, I dont think its results will be considered at all
THE GOOD: as evidenced by this image:
the gameguru X11 lightmapper isnt totally broken! this image uses 8 static lights, and 6 dynamic lights. each light has a static light, plus a dynamic light on every wall light for specular reflections on the ground. as you can see, the lighting bake (kind of) worked! I also like how we can use PNG textures now! hooray for small victories.
I will now note some things that had me a little worried
1. it took noticably longer than X9 to do/load anything
2. the lightmapper didn't show the level grid being lightmapped as it used to, rather just grey background now
3. the lights render slightly differently now, but still look generally ok when settings are played with.
4. the test game loadscreen takes like a whole minute to load now. it just maximized my map editor and i was getting worried for a minute till it finally started loading the testgame. might just be a first-install thing.
here's another pic
as u can see here, the transparent objects cast nice "transparent object shadows" which is excellent! I also like how you can see static lights in the editor now, not to mention how the HDR effect which tries to always have a more complete colour range onscreen works great! however there are some issues you can see, which brings me to
The BAD
1. look close at the pic here and you'll notice that the glass object culls another of the same objects when viewed at an angle behind the glass. this is not a lighting problem but it is a bug with stock media. Lee pls fix.
2. custom cubemaps don't seem to work at all. I replaced the lack of existing cubemap here with a custom one I created. It did not show up. this maybe because I made it a PNG because the glass thing uses png textures, but i'm not sure. someone please confirm this? either way, lee pls fix
3. exposure is by default completely destroyed and all objects are lit to VERY different extremes. the sun seems to shine through surfaces, artificially brightening the floor quite a lot and casting shadows from the overhead lights. I had to strongly adjust the settings in this room to make everything not white.
4. I don't know what surface sun factor does anymore, but im pretty sure it's not what it's supposed to do...
and lastly, THE UGLY:
specular reflections from dynamic lights, which worked in x9, is completely absent here, and it shows. dynamic lights basically work like static ones without shadows now. they used to be much less bright, and cause specular emission which could be used to "fake" reflections. if custom cubemaps worked that wouldn't be SUCH a big deal, but as i cannot seem to make them work, it remains a problem that this cool functionality has been removed.
In conclusion, while the x11 lightmapper is not totally broken, it's only working about 2/3 as well as it used to in, you guessed it, X9 5/12 gameguru. I hope this changes.
if anyone has something else they'd like me to test, let me know. if anyone knows why my cubemap might not be working, please let me know! if cubemaps are required to be .dds then that should be evidenced.
