Lighting terrain edges

[kentzeus]

Does anyone know why this happens and how to fix it?

 

[kentzeus]

Does this happen to you guys too? Maybe it's my graphic card or something?

 

[AbsolutePsycho]

This happens if there are too many light sources nearby (in one "cell"), like Torches.
Just delete some of them or move them apart.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Does anyone know why this happens

Because the legacy graphic pipelines that existed before programmable shaders became mainstream only supported drawing meshes with 8 light sources at a time. In order to support more than 8 light sources one would have to perform multiple draw calls and blend the results which was prohibitively slow.

The terrain mesh is drawn in 4x4 tile chunks. Warcraft III tries to select lights for each draw call based on proximity. Hence one can get lighting discontinuities along the borders of 4x4 chunks if too many light sources are nearby.

how to fix it?

Use less light sources. The day/night lights count as part of the 8 light limit. Avoid excessive use of lights with a huge illumination range. Keep light sources spread out.

The light selection algorithm does work base on proximity but is imperfect so might select inappropriate lights for some draw calls.

Does this happen to you guys too?

Yes because it is defined by the legacy graphics APIs that Warcraft III was made with back in the early 2000s.

Maybe it's my graphic card or something?

Unless your graphic card is from the early 2000s and somehow still works over 15 years later then this is not the problem. Even the cheapest integrated graphics from Intel do not have this limit thanks to programmable shaders. Modern game engines like StarCraft II seem to have no limit to how many light sources can be displayed at once, and some light sources will even cast dynamic shadows.

 

[kentzeus]

Because the legacy graphic pipelines that existed before programmable shaders became mainstream only supported drawing meshes with 8 light sources at a time. In order to support more than 8 light sources one would have to perform multiple draw calls and blend the results which was prohibitively slow.

The terrain mesh is drawn in 4x4 tile chunks. Warcraft III tries to select lights for each draw call based on proximity. Hence one can get lighting discontinuities along the borders of 4x4 chunks if too many light sources are nearby.

Use less light sources. The day/night lights count as part of the 8 light limit. Avoid excessive use of lights with a huge illumination range. Keep light sources spread out.

The light selection algorithm does work base on proximity but is imperfect so might select inappropriate lights for some draw calls.

Yes because it is defined by the legacy graphics APIs that Warcraft III was made with back in the early 2000s.

Unless your graphic card is from the early 2000s and somehow still works over 15 years later then this is not the problem. Even the cheapest integrated graphics from Intel do not have this limit thanks to programmable shaders. Modern game engines like StarCraft II seem to have no limit to how many light sources can be displayed at once, and some light sources will even cast dynamic shadows.

Wow thanks, this is a really good explanation