Light Glow

[Tutorial]

category
General Half-Life 2/Lighting

description
Using the lightglow to create a bright effect at the end of a tunnel or just a hazy sunlight, very useful.

keywords
light, glow, light_glow, env_lightglow, lights.

Ever wanted to create a tunnel of light like in Half Life 2? How about a sunset that will make players squint just looking at their screen? Well then this tutorial is for you. The env_lightglow entity is not only a very easy to learn entity but it can be used for many different things.

Let's start off with giving a simple light bulb a halo glow around it. Set up the prop and add in a light entity. Then add in an env_lightglow in the same position as the light bulb and light.

Now go into the env_lightglow's properties and set it up as follows. Set the "Vertical Size" and "Horizontal Size" values to 30 for both. Both these values determine the glow's shape and size.

Then change the "Minimum Distance" to 1 and the "Maximum Distance" to 50.
The Minimum Distance determines how close the player must be before the glow fades out. The Maximum Distance determines how far away the player must be before the glow reaches its maximum intensity.

That is all the needs to be done for a glowing halo effect around a light.
Your light bulb should look similar to this one.



Now it's time for a tunnel of light. Place another env_lightglow at the end of the tunnel where you want the effect to take place.

Now set the Vertical Size to 100 and the Horizontal Size to 200.

Set the Minimum Distance to 50 and the Maximum Distance to 1000 or higher.

Now change the "Yaw" so that the entity is facing inwards toward the tunnel.

Then go to the flags and checkmark "Visible only from front".

If done correctly your tunnel will now look like this.

The first pic is inside the tunnel looking out. The second pic is outside looking in.




Now for a sunset. Place another env_lightglow where you want the sunset. Change the RGB value to a any colour you like. I recommend a light orange or even a violet colour.

Set the Vertical Size to 400 and the Horizontal Size to 500.

Set Minimum Distance to 1 and Maximum distance 2. Make sure that this entity is not in a place that the player can walk right up to it.

Your sunset should now look something like this.



Spartan

[Guessmyname]

Excellent!

[Sammakins]

cool, very helpful

[mike-o]

what about env_sun

[Sammakins]

Thats already been covered, just implement that with this and it should look really cool.

http://forum.interlopers.net/viewtopic.php?t=1830

[-|Dizmas|-]

umm they aren't the same thing. env_lightglow is for sunsets, env_sun is just for the sun. may not seem like a difference, but it is.

[TheMiede]

Does this work well in a 3d Skybox, not inside the map but in the 3d skybox area(outside the map)? That way the person cant walk up to it.

[Spas12]

Cant this entity give off light, as well as a glow. What im talking about is putting one near a cagelight, and i see the glow, but no light. Am I doing somethign wrong, or env_lightglow just deosnt give off any lighting?

[Spartan]

This entity does not give off light. You'll have to add a light at the same position as the lightglow.

[YokaI]

Thank you for this tutorial spartan!!!! this is ganna help alot.

Though does this work if i want it to have a black fade all the way down?

[Spartan]

Though does this work if i want it to have a black fade all the way down?

What do you mean by that?

[nickmade]

Ooooh, pretty.

[YokaI]

Though does this work if i want it to have a black fade all the way down?

What do you mean by that?

like if i make the glow black, does that work and not create any sort of light?

[Spartan]

like if i make the glow black, does that work and not create any sort of light?

I'm not sure I haven't tried pitch black. I'm sure it still does, but it wouldn't show up well unless it is inside a white room.

[Sauce]

Hi thanks for the tut - it's really good! One problem though. If I am looking at the env_lightglow entity then I get a perfect glow, but when I turn around, the glow dissapears completely when the entity goes off screen. Is there any way to make it fade away rather than just dissapear?

EDIT: PLEASE!!! PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!