Atmosphere Setting Tutorial by DerangedFerret:Here is a tutorial for all you people wanting to screw with light settings. Figuring all of this out took hours, and I want to make the process easier for you. So here you are! (And apologies to the admins for the amount of pictures).
OverviewThis tutorial will help you choose the light settings that are right for
your map. Atmosphere settings can make or break a map. Bad atmosphere say, with too much bloom, will blind players, while others, with bad settings, can make your map look dead and uninteresting. However, if executed properly, good atmospheric settings can make a map look 10x better. To get the lighting you want, it may take a little bit of messing around with the settings. It's a time-consuming process if you want to make it fit your level.
Note: From here on out, I will assume you have made a map to use. I'll use 6p_Dawn, a map I created, as an example from here on out as well. It will be used in all pictures.
In the Beginning...
Boring, no? It lack warmth. Notice how bland this looks! It's completely uninviting, and
boring beyond belief. The level looks
dead.
As you can see, this needs work. Heavy work. By the end of this tutorial, you will appreciate the difference. Believe me.
Note: Light settings are especially important for people who use high graphic settings, as bad atmospheres will be more noticeable, but, conversely, good ones will be, too.
Your first steps...Open up worldbuilder, and then your map.
Then, go up to the
scenario tab at the top row, to the right of
edit.
From there, select
Atmospheric Properties from the pull down menu.
The atmospheric properties screen is shown in the picture. Good! You have opened the area in which you will change the atmosphere of your map! I will explain how to do so in the next chapter.
The Atmospheric Properties WindowThis window controls everything about you're map's settings, from the color of the sun, to the skybox, and even to the type of transitions you wish to incorporate in your map.
It is also important to note that unchecking a box will result in it's disablement. It is strongly encouraged that you leave
all boxes checked in.
I will now include a list of all of it's functions and their uses:
PresetsThis Box lets you save atmospheric settings, or, if you must, load some up that you downloaded. By default, it saves to Program Files/CompanyofHeroes/WW2/Data/Art/Scenarios/Presets/Atmosphere.
If you happen to get any settings from an external source, like, say you request some from me, for example, and I send them to you through the internet, you will want to put the .aps files in the same directory I showed above.
SunlightThis is perhaps the most important box in the entire window. It lets you control the color of the sun, it's intensity, the direction it is projecting from, the color of shadow it casts, and the intensity of said shadows.
The color of sun is very important. A white sun means that the map will appear colder, while a yellower sun will result in a warmer-looking map.
In addition to affected the temperature-look of the map, the color of the sun will also effect the color of any textures in the level. White sun generally makes grass look frozen, and it enables map makers to cheat the game engine's sand into looking like snow. The best way to experience the effect it has on the map is to mess around with it a little bit, and decide what looks best for your map.
Soldier LightThis box is very important as well. It controls how the sunlight appears on players' units. However, for the most consistency between the level and the troops on it, it is generally best just to hit the "duplicate sunlight" button. It copies all of the sunlight settings over to Soldier Light settings, it's easier than entering the settings manually.
SkyThis changes the skybox present in your map. It also lets you rotate it to whatever you may so desire.
For best results, I would suggest that you click the "lock to sunlight rotation" box, which, as it states, locks it to the direction the sun is coming from.
Ambient LightDon't screw with this. It disables one of the 3 colors used to get your sunlight, and just looks bad. You'd be best leaving this box alone.
Misc EnvironmentI wouldn't touch this if I were you. The only good use it has is to make a map look washed out, which is useful for desert maps, but only in moderation.
I can't properly explain what they all do. It's too complicated, and they are too seldom used to warrant any tips.
All I can say about the Misc. Environment is to play with the sliders, and if you don't like it, then don't worry, it's not very important.
FogFog is pretty important. It lets relic hide all of their graphical screw-ups.
Really, though, proper implementation of fog can make or break a map. Common sense is required for proper use. If you look in the direction of the sun, there will be
more fog. The opposite is also true.
In addition, night or early morning has much more fog than afternoon.
This window let's you edit the "fog colour/alpha gradient." Don't worry about it. The default fog looks like real fog, and you should really only change the color if you're looking for a smoke-effect or something.
Fog Start/End is measured in Meters, and is best observed looking at it, when the changes are more obvious.
If you
do want to change the fog color, though, it is important to note several thing:
1) The top horizontal bar controls the color of the fog.
2) The bottom horizontal bar controls the thickness of fog.
3) When you click on a slider, the left vertical bar and color selection changes the top horizontal bar.
4) When you click on a slider, the right vertical Alpha Channel bar controls the bottom horizontal bar.
As for the rest of the features of the fog box:
Base Fog Height seems to do nothing.
Ground Fog Factor determines the way your fog blends with the ground.
Sky Blend Height determines the way your fog blends with the skybox.
ExposureFinally, my favorite box! Put simply, this box controls the amount of bloom present in your map.
Note: It is VERY important to use moderation with these settings. It seems to effect people with higher gamma settings rather strongly, and overuse might result in complaints of "ow, I'm blind!" or the ever-sarcastic, "MOAR BLOOM PLZ!"
A lower blur threshold means that there seems to be a blur between lighter colors and the air, resulting in a washed-out, warm look.
FinalPass exposure is very important as well. It controls the intensity of colors. Higher FinalPass controls intensity of brighter colors, while lower FinalPass controls intensity of dark colors. These both have
extreme effect on brightness of the level. Be careful not to overdo it.
As a final note, it is interesting to notice that if you make lower FinalPass a greater value than higher FinalPass, the map get's inverted lighting. Yes, that inverted, you know, with only blue, black and white? Try it, it's quite funny to imagine a battle going on like this!
FXFrom what I can tell, this modifies the shade of the effects, like fire and smoke, to certain levels. It's really not that noticeable, and left best to it's default value.
WeatherIf you plan on having rain, snow, or even
falling ash, in your level, this is the most important settings, more so than sunlight. People will
immediately notice crappy weather effects. Example: Hurtgen Snow. The size of the snow flakes annoy most people. However, this was the first EIR map to incorporate the snow, and it has an excuse. You have none. I will explain how to do both snow AND rain here.
RainFirst, you MUST select a texture from the pull-down menu for the rain, or else you will get falling yellow tiles of wetness. Start with Rain_02. You can change later when the rain begins to fall.
Speed determines the rate at which the rain will fall. Slower Rate is good for snow, while faster rate is better rain. Faster rate = pouring rain.
Wind Strength determines the angle your rain is falling at. The direction is determined by the wind's direction in your map.
Density is, obviously, the density of rain fall.
Width and Length are self-explanatory. It is good to notice, however, that snowflakes, being more rounded, will be wider than rain will be.
Tile U and V messes with the rain texture. Leave these at 1.000...
Next, go all the way to the bottom of the Weather box. You will see a pull-down menu that states, "Weather Type." Go for the volume of rain. Light, Medium, or Heavy. Without one of the rain types enabled, the rain will not generate splashes.
Note: The Dry/Wet button below Weather Type seems to have no effect. Leave it be.
Next is Splash Density. This will control how great the density of splash effects are on the map. Set it high for Heavy Rain, and lower for Light Rain.
Splash Age determines how long the Splash effects appear on screen. You must find a balance yourself.
LightningLightning is good for storms. Really. They define storms.
Lightning Probability controls how often lightning will strike. 1 is the maximum.
Flash Count determines how many lightning flashes there will be for each lightning event. The amount is best kept fairly low to avoid ridiculous-looking machine gun-like lightning.
Duration is how long the lightning event will last.
Last Flash Fade-Out is interesting. What is does, is enable an effect, like human eyes adjusting after a lightning strike. The last flash should take longer than the preceding flashes, but not to a ridiculous amount, either.
Intensity controls the intensity of the lightning blast. Higher intensity means more color. Maxing out the randomization is always good, because it adds a random element to the lightning and keeps it from looking too similar from the last.
Lightning Color is self-explanatory. It controls color of the lightning.
Distance and Height controls where the lightning is coming from. Unless you want some seriously messed up lightning, I'd leave it alone.
The same thing goes for angle deviation.
TransitionsOooh! The exciting part of atmospheric properties, and, for many of you, the reason you're here! Transitions add a nice, real effect to maps and, though not necessary, can make your map look much more real.
This is very important, and somewhat confusing. You MUST generate the atmospheric settings you want to transition to, and save them. Yes, save them as presets on the top box. It doesn't matter what you call them, so long as you save them.
Have all of your final settings done? Good. Are all of the boxes in "settings to apply" checked? Good. It's time to start.
First, load your preset you wanted the map to begin on. It should say, under "Transition", 0, and under "Atmosphere," <current settings>.
Good. Click on "Add," and then add the next setting you want to transition to onto the chart.
The default "Transition" time should be 60, and the "hold" 120. Let me explain how this works. The "Transition" is how long the game will take to blend one atmosphere setting into another. The more radical the change, the longer this should take. "Hold" means that when the setting is reached, it is kept there for the number of seconds written in. Default is 120.
Try hitting "Preview" in the bottom right corner. You should see the atmosphere changing now. If you want to move it faster, click on the multiplier on the left.
Adjust the "Transition" and "Hold" timers, and, voila! Your transition is finished!
You can have more than 2 transitions if you want. All you have to do is go through the "add" process again and re-adjust the timers explained above. As far as I can tell, there is no limit to the amount of transitions you can incorporate.
Once you are satisfied with the Transitions, save the new atmosphere settings as, "(MAP)_full.aps"
The last step is rather simple. Press OK to exit the Atmospheric Properties Window. Then, click on
file at the top-left and the click "Export Light Settings" Near the bottom. It will give you a .lte file in case you lose your .aps files.
Note: The Preview multiplier only affects the preview's speed, not the actual setting speed.
ConclusionI really hope that this has been of use to you in your map making endeavors. Good Luck.
