2010-10-13, 01:29 AM
You can have basically an unlimited number of lights (there probably is a limit around 128 per map tops) but it might slow things down if you check the box that says "affect objects".
Som only uses at most 3 or 4 (can't recall) object lights at a time, which really isn't much at all for hardware these days. The bigger problem is if you designate all your lights to affect objects it's kind of a crap shoot in terms of which lights will actually be used to light objects, and most likely they won't be the ones you want.
I'm working on an extension that will increase the number of object lights to at least 12, and more if people want it.
Anyway, non-object lights are baked into the map when you build it in the editor. The more lights the slower the build will be, but it won't affect performance in game.
You can speed up the build if you uncheck the "calculate lights" box. Your map won't have lights, but you probably don't need them for testing stuff while working on the map.
Now there could potentially be a lighting based bug you discovered. If you can repeat it, it's really important that you share the project with us so we can have a look at it (especially so I can fix it if possible)
NOTE: The three map lights also apply to objects. So you can have a total of about 6 or 7 "point" light inputs for the objects/npcs/etc (the standard limit at the time was 8, but these days drivers report support for an infinite number of such lights -- ie. the largest possible 32bit number)
Som only uses at most 3 or 4 (can't recall) object lights at a time, which really isn't much at all for hardware these days. The bigger problem is if you designate all your lights to affect objects it's kind of a crap shoot in terms of which lights will actually be used to light objects, and most likely they won't be the ones you want.
I'm working on an extension that will increase the number of object lights to at least 12, and more if people want it.
Anyway, non-object lights are baked into the map when you build it in the editor. The more lights the slower the build will be, but it won't affect performance in game.
You can speed up the build if you uncheck the "calculate lights" box. Your map won't have lights, but you probably don't need them for testing stuff while working on the map.
Now there could potentially be a lighting based bug you discovered. If you can repeat it, it's really important that you share the project with us so we can have a look at it (especially so I can fix it if possible)
NOTE: The three map lights also apply to objects. So you can have a total of about 6 or 7 "point" light inputs for the objects/npcs/etc (the standard limit at the time was 8, but these days drivers report support for an infinite number of such lights -- ie. the largest possible 32bit number)