Tutorial - Common Nightlight mistakes you should avoid

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Hi builders and custom assets users that are curious enough to lurk here (and you're right to do so, because the way builders make things will affect you).

We're now some time after AD. We take great pleasure looking at our cities at night, we see loads of amazing night screenshots... but sometimes we can't help wondering "What the hell is that thing?" when looking at certain buildings.

I might not be the best modeler around, but like you I've got eyes... and I've seen some things that I wish would have been made better.

 

First let me apologize if you're a CO builder and I use some screenshots of buildings you've made, maybe you were in a rush... sorry guys .

This tutorial (or maybe anti-tutorial) is not here to blame someone, it's here to show people things that they should avoid making.

 

Let's have a look at the bad things that can happen when you add nightlights to a building... and how to try to avoid them.

 

1 - The fully lit like a light brick "OMG my eyes"

Yes.. it's bad... what kind of building has only one switch button for all the lights ?? Not only is this completely unrealistic but it's also completely bad looking.

Some buildings are not 100% like that (they might go to the fully lit look only at some points during the night)... well they are not 100% bad looking at night then... but it's still bad.

 

How to avoid it :

Do not use a single value of grey for the whole windows ! Simple as that.

If the problem is that it is ok at some times but goes full lit at other times, well first maybe it would be a good idea to leave some windows unlit, after all there's no obligation for each and every one of them to light up at some point. And try to make a good portion of your windows be close to the 192 value so they'll light up less often.

 

2 - The checkerboard and its variations.

This is very low on the realistic scale.

How to avoid it ? Just do not do that, please. Really.

 

3 - The patterns. (an evolved version of the checkerboard actually)

*people in the building speaking*
"hey guys, it would be very nice if we people from the 1-5 floors lit our flats/offices the exact same way people from the 6-10 did... and I think the people from the 11-15 and 16-20 floors could join"

Ok this could actually happen... but will never. Never ever... ever ever ever.

 

Why does it happen ? It happens when you use repetitive floors when building. It's 100% ok to do so, but if you make your nightlight textures and keep the repetition... it will look bad.

Repetition of horizontal lines is acceptable. Whole floors can be lit at the same time (but less often for residential).

Vertical patterns looks a bit weird.

Diagonal patterns repeating are the worst, they're the most noticeable and the less realistic.

Oh and symmetry is bad too.

 

I know texture space is scarce, but it's much better looking if you lose some for the sake of good looking lights.

How to avoid it ? The ideal would  be to map the whole windows without any repetition, but for tall buildings it will be very texture inefficient. Even if you built using repetition, at least make several different light blocks that you'll switch and mirror around (you would be surprised at how few different blocks are enough to break almost every trace of visible repetition).

 

 

4 - The "discofloor" windows

(for the example pic just refer to the first screenshot of this post)

Ok I know, the temptation is great to just use the specular as a pattern and just light up the whole size of the reflective parts. But the internal workings of a building are different. There are floors, and there is "technical space" between the ceiling of one floor and the ground on the next one, and walls between appartments/offices.
Please think about it, and leave some space between the floors dark at night.

It can be ok sometimes... but it will make the overall feel of a building much better.

 

5 - The glasshouse

(I must really apologize for the example pic here, the guy who made it corrected it, so now it's a thing of the past... But others still can do this mistake and certainly have).

A big glass roof or big glass facade is likely to be lit as one big surface, it's an empty structure, not a building.

 

6 - The lit balconies

Guys... seriously...

Everything that's glass is not a window. (bonus, note on the second pic... light emitting solar panels)

 

7 - The unrealistic windows

Rooms are most of the time wider that one single window (at least for office and commercial buildings)

(example pic also shows lit balconies on the small building to the left)

 

8 - The "When you zoom out the building's lights abruptly change"

This is due to the lod not being mapped the same way as the main model. Here it goes from on to off but the pattern of light can also change.

If you make a lod by baking the textures you should be able to avoid this easily.

 

9 - The "I've got no idea what I'm doing"

...hmmm...okay...

 

10 - The shiny window frames

This mostly happens if you use variable windows but keep 0 as a neutral color. The mipmapping will average both and the pixels surrounding the windows will get values under the 120 range... and then they will get lit at all times.

 

 

 

I might have not used the best screenshots of the worst buildings... I migth replace some of them if I come across better (worse) examples.

At first I wanted to use pics from some workshop assets (and the CO devs might be reassured, there is much MUCH worse in the workshop)... But I thought that it wouldn't be very nice. (still i found no vanilla example for the glasshouse... yet. If you notice one, just let me know).

 

 

And now some general tips :

Think about your building about a collection of units. Not every window is a different unit. A flat or an office can be spread unto several windows. For big buildings it will almost always be the case (hey it's good news, less different windows).

Try to lit your buildings in zones. Do not try to spread your light groups too much, make your different greyscales level spread, but spread in a zone of the building. Then you'll avoid the checkerboard look and have your building really change the way it look at different hours of the night).

You don't have to make too many groups of different windows. 4 groups can be enough. 1 close to 128, one close to 255, and two more in the middle of the range.

 

If I come across other oddities, or other things that I notice and that should be avoided (and other ways of explaining how to avoid them), I might expand this tutorial.

 

Thanks for reading, have fun building

  Edited December 3, 2015 by Cool_Z  

[Turjan 1,048]

Oh, I can resubscribe to the Maisons? Good.

One pet peeve of mine is corner windows. Rooms are usually lit at once, so if it is lit on the edge of one face of the building, it should also be lit on the face around the corner. However, there are only very few buildings by CO that observe that, so I guess it's a lost proposition.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Oh, I can resubscribe to the Maisons? Good.

One pet peeve of mine is corner windows. Rooms are usually lit at once, so if it is lit on the edge of one face of the building, it should also be lit on the face around the corner. However, there are only very few buildings by CO that observe that, so I guess it's a lost proposition.

Well it's not such a big mistake... (and it makes mapping for tall buildings even more complex). I don't know if it should be included... I take it more like a bonus if it's done than a real problem if it's not

  Edited December 3, 2015 by Cool_Z  

[Turjan 1,048]

Oh, as I'm not making any buildings myself, I will never comment about things like that to a modder. So it's just an extra remark, a holdover from SC4 days.

[Feindbold 1,190]

Hehe nice thread, sadly I could only like it once Pretty much sums up why I dont use vanilla buildings from the international theme

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Hehe nice thread, sadly I could only like it once Pretty much sums up why I dont use vanilla buildings from the international theme

Lollll... well as I said, I used vanilla buildings here for the pics but lots of workshop assets are suffering from some of these problems too

I sometimes wonder how people can not notice very serious defaults before releasing... and how some others seem not to see them afterwards.

I'm picky... I know 

Oh, as I'm not making any buildings myself, I will never comment about things like that to a modder. So it's just an extra remark, a holdover from SC4 days.

No, no, you were right to point that out... and I think it would be right for everyone to point defaults in a building.

After all you can find that a movie was bad, or that you find some music terrible, you don't have to make it yourself to have an ability to judge things.

 

I wish people were more severe in the workshop, it would force builders to raise the level.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Oh, I can resubscribe to the Maisons? Good.

One pet peeve of mine is corner windows. Rooms are usually lit at once, so if it is lit on the edge of one face of the building, it should also be lit on the face around the corner. However, there are only very few buildings by CO that observe that, so I guess it's a lost proposition.

Actually, if we're given the ability to make light maps that stay on only at night at a specific value/s that issue would be solved. The problem is we are locked into either 120 and below on all day and night, or above 128 where we have no control at all and lights come on and off during the night at the moment. Maybe we will get more options one day.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Oh, I can resubscribe to the Maisons? Good.

 

Sadly... I have to say you can't...

 

 

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I didn't make that building BTW!!..

[Turjan 1,048]

Oh, I can resubscribe to the Maisons? Good.

 

Sadly... I have to say you can't...

 

 

Heh, it's a bit weird. At least better than before.

I didn't make that building BTW!!..

Oh, I know that. The author also made quite a few other French low density commercial buildings.

Regarding your name, I always had to think of Mr. House from Fallout, talking with a French accent.

[employee731 14]

What a surprise, I have to post for help. I cant find a simple guide anywhere, I would love to see a basic you tube video instead of learning all of photoshop.

Hopefully someone could help with my problem any-ways, which is number ten on this topic list (shiny window frames). The map can also be seen during the day.

It tells me what to do but I don't know how to change the neutral value from 0.

So far I have tried filling the boxes with white or a light color, then changed to greyscale. I have also used posterize to change the value to 250 which is the value I want.

As well as applying rgb color to 250 on the greyscaled map. Here a some images,

I would appreciate any kind of help or simple fix, Thanks.

 

 

[Koesj 659]

Try having the non-illuminated parts of your UV map as RGB192 on your _i map, 0 as neutral doesn't work very well IIRC. The same goes for windows btw, 128-256 is the range for dynamic nightlights (with 192 being the non-illuminated dynamic neutral) but using either extreme hasn't worked out for me. I just work between ~135 and 250 or so.

Also why is there so much noise in your second-to to top picture? Were you trying to do something fancy or is it just artifacting?

[employee731 14]

Ok I have this now the background is 192 and the windows are 250, hard to see but they are different colours. Was nice to see they don't appear during the day but they didn't light up at night at least in the asset editor.

As for the noise it was likely the fact I was zoomed in 500%

 

[employee731 14]

Ok never mind I think I got it. Thank you so much for your help. Look out for a new tower on the workshop soon, I will devote it to you