Original flashlight abrupt falloff about classic-rbdoom-3-bfg

[MadDeCoDeR]

To be honest I am as clueless as you are here. I don't know exactly how both flashlights show their lights, but by the look of it, it seems that the old flashlight has a limited illumination distance.

[mjsonofharry]

I'm wondering, were you able to replicate the problem? If not, then I was going to try installing everything from scratch on a completely different machine.

[MadDeCoDeR]

I did, but the illumination distance was further than this

[mjsonofharry]

Try using a weapon_flashlight.def with modified values for flashTarget, flashUp, and flashRight. For example:

	"flashTarget"				"0 0 60000"
	"flashUp"				"0 30000 0"
	"flashRight"				"-30000 0 0"

Increasing flashTarget has the effect of narrowing the beam while also increasing its range. This seems to either circumvent or control the distance limit we've been observing.

However, it also turns the light into a pinhole. Thus we want to increase flashUp and flashRight as well, so that we get a larger diameter for the light beam.

I am not sure what combination of values would result in a light beam similar to the unmodified one. Also, I don't know exactly how much we need to increase flashTarget in order to cover all plausible viewing distances in all of the game's environments.

[mjsonofharry]

Sadly, increasing flashTarget to such a huge value also has the effect of minimizing or even eliminating the flashlight's effect on nearby objects. I wonder if there is a good middle ground.

Edit: Setting flashTarget to a value of 4096 looks much better. I have to get my face very close to props or walls to block the light. You may even be able to go lower than 4096.

[mjsonofharry]

I have some more information for you. Unless I am mistaken, the original flashlight generates light using the muzzle flash logic, i.e. the flashlight beam is just an extended muzzle flash. I have observed that other muzzle flashes have the same problem. For example, if you pay attention to the light generated when firing the chaingun, you should see a hard edge where the light cuts off, usually visible on the floor. Weapon GUI lights also have hard edges. You can see the chaingun's GUI light cutoff on the view model itself. The plasma gun's GUI light cutoff is only really noticeable if you stand up against a wall because the view model is relatively narrow.

All of this leads me to believe that the problem is related to how the game handles light emitting materials. I don't know how the BFG flashlight works, but my best guess is that it's a different kind of dynamic light.

Update: I'm not able to to reproduce any of the problems we've talked about in the latest preview release of RBDOOM-3-BFG. I'm not sure what this means, though, since I don't know where or when the projects diverge.

[RinMaru]

looks like this is caused by View Model Field Of View. putting it at max causes cut off but putting it at lowest fixes it. unless this is just cause i use BFG Mix

[MadDeCoDeR]

looks like this is caused by field of view model. putting it at max causes cut off but putting it at lowest fixes it. unless this is just cause i use BFG Mix

Nah, BFG Mix only adds battery life to the original flashlight. Nothing too graphical.

[RinMaru]

yea then i got it fixed i guess. otherwise this can be closed unless you have some ideas for a fix with max FOV. it also causes issues with some weapons that cast light like the machine gun

[RinMaru]

ok also tried Original and it is indeed due to View Model Field Of View @mjsonofharry plz try going to Advanced options and setting the view model all the way to the left and try the flashlight again

Edit: I think this can be closed in favor of #25