[Gtkradiant] Realtime lighting approach issues.

[EvilTypeGuy]

On Mon, May 06, 2002 at 11:18:19AM -0700, ydnar wrote:
> This approach is similar to how UnrealEd works (the lighting preview just uses the Unreal renderer to draw the compiled
> BSP). The other nice thing about this approach is that if Radiant loaded the BSP every time it was written out by Q3Map,
> mappers could see the radiosity solution in-progress without having to launch the game.

Hrm. This is indeed something that people point to about UnrealED all the time.
What time I did spend mapping (zilch anymore :/) that was something I did
frequently once I got to the final texturing/lighting stage, being able to
preview it in the editor instead of having to launch the game up just so I can
look at lighting was always a pain.

> Simulating Q3Map's lighting in Radiant (or ZHLTRad's lighting for Half-Life) using pixel shaders and/or crude lightmap
> approximation doesn't do the mapper any favors, IMO.

I'm no lighting expert, but I'd have to agree with ydnar, providing the user
with a real preview of what the lighting will look like instead of an
'approximation' of sorts just seems a lot more useful.

-EvilTypeGuy