Editing Light (map compiling)

'''Light''' is one of the stages of [[map compiling]].  It calculates lighting and shadows for a [[bsp file]] previously generated by [[QBSP]].

==What Light Does==  
Using the [[light (entity)|light entities]] from the [[entity lump]] of the bsp file, it precalculates the lighting on each [[surface]] in the level, and saves that data as [[lightmap|lightmaps]] in the bsp file.

Some modified Light tools can also calculate [[colored lighting]] for the level and save it seperately in a [[lit file]].

==Using Light==
Light is a command-line tool, generally named light.exe.  You can invoke it from a command prompt, via a shortcut or batch file, or from the "compile" or "build" menus of some [[level editor|level editors]].

===Command-line options===

This is for you if you're struggling finding out how to use the command line tools from tyrutils on linux due to lack of information and guides out there. The only ones I've even read about are focused on the windows GUI version with the three tools in one package. You can find QBSP, Light and Vis already compiled for you in the bin folder.

To find out any of their options, just execute them in the terminal.

"./qsbp"
"./vis"
"./light"

These will echo out a bunch of options for you to choose from. Works just like the windows version, you convert the .map with QSBP first and then light. You only need Vis for debugging and larger levels so if you're starting out, don't worry about it for now.

Sorry for lack of explanation, I covered it as briefly as I could and it's not at all that difficult.

[[File:.http://i.imgur.com/w0OKJ7F.png]]

===Error Messages and Warnings===
TODO

===Updated Versions===
In addition to [[id Software]]'s official Light, there have been various unofficial versions that improve on the original or add additional features.  For a list of Light variants, see [[Mapping tools]].