Tips for making atmospheric lightning areas

[HumiliatioN]

Yeah, I'm working on my mod and I still not good making decent lightning on all room areas.. So if anyone can give me some good tips to make decent atmospheric room areas and realistic lightning.

First I tried only making pointlights and couple spotlights here and there.. Now I changed it and have only spotlights in one map like only making shadow lightning coming from the lamps.. is this sounding weird only using spotlights to make light areas? I think I need something add from these areas too.

Secondly how to make really good billboards as well step by step, I watched couple tutorials, but still can't get completely understanding there.

Thanks. - Humi

[Artyom]

Just go browse the screenshot critisicm thread and the wiki and you'll get tons of tips

Ps: I think this belongs in the development thread

[FlawlessHappiness]

For lighting:
Try it in real life.

Try darkening a room completely. Then have 1 light source. Ex. a window. Notice that nothing in the room is pitch black. This is a mistake i've seen lots of places. Nothing in a room is pitch black if there is a window.

Depending on how big the light source is, the light will just fade out more and more, further into the room.

If you have 2 colors in the room: Blue light from window, and yellow light from candle - Try mixing those two in a pointlight.

Don't ever only place a lamp, and don't do anything to it. The lamp isn't enough. You are the one to place pointlights and spotlights, to make the light move across the room.

It's mostly always important to have a boxlight covering your whole map. Tweak all the colors so it looks realist, but keep all numbers below 0.1. This will make it dark, but not completely black. Remeber: If there is a light source, nothing is pitch black.

For billboards: Look at FG's maps. They did it well, and if you cannot recreate it, then you can copy it.

[hunchbackproduction]

Also, if you want to add a different overall feel to a map, a good way to do it is with lighting and changing it's colours.

You could place a boxlight covering the whole map and making it dark blue so it gives a night time effect., or in turn make the boxlight greenish/brownish to give a feeling of nostalgia or mystery.
A thing to remember is that a room with boxlight will not drain sanity.

[The chaser]

A good way to learn too is taking a look at FG maps or simply going to CS's maps that are done very well (Like Rain, Followed By Death, Abduction) and some others. But mainly FG. FG rocks.