[Feature Request] Lightmaps

[Nash]

Okay, I don't know what's the right word for it, I doubt "lightmap" is the right word, but, basically, it would be a great addition for GZDoom if the map architecture generates shadows like the Quake engine.

If I'm not mistaken, JDoom has this feature too I think. I remember seeing shadows from the walls and stuff... I could be wrong though, I don't know.

You probably won't want to do this immediately, but maybe something to consider in future releases... ?

[Graf Zahl]

Vavoom has it. But I really don't have the time to implement this.

[Nash]

Fair enough.

Do you think you'll implement it, in the future, when you have more free time?

Or are you not going to even bother?

[Graf Zahl]

when you have more free time?

I wish I was that lucky! Right now the only progress I am making is to fix the bugs that get reported. I haven't even started yet with the model definition parser! If you program the entire day there's often no motivation left to do complex things with Doom.

Anyway, lighting methods like this one are quite complex and require the generation of PVS data to handle in real time. That alone limits their usefulness because unlike other GL ports I really don't want to bother the user with large amounts of internal data on their HD - and even less with the time it takes to create such data. I once tried to build PVS for a map in P:AR and it took over a day!

[Nuxius]

Ouch... and to think I thought that taking 3-5 minutes to build VIS data for E1M6 of P:AR was a long time.

[Graf Zahl]

Ouch... and to think I thought that taking 3-5 minutes to build VIS data for E1M6 of P:AR was a long time.

In 3-5 minutes you can't do a full vis for that map, only a rough approximation. And these can cause severe performance degradation in some situations.

[Nuxius]

Yeah, it was a "fast" (ha!) build.