Quake III Arena ~ Lights

This tutorial is prepared with Q3Radiant - a freely available Q3A editor as used by id Software. For further help on Q3A editing, go to Quake3world or Claudec's Lair of Q3A to name but a few. The tutorial deals with the mechanics of lighting in Q3Arena - further information on lighting and using Q3Radiant can be found in the Q3Radiant manual at Quake3world. If you wish for advice on aesthetics of lighting then have a look at the lights tutorial at gamedesign.net. Although it deals with Quake2, the points it makes are equally valid for Quake3 although you should bear in mind that some things are no longer possible or standard in Quake3 (such as flickering lights).

This lighting tutorial assumes you know how to create a basic room and are familiar with selecting and moving objects and different x, y and z views in the 2D window; if not, refer to the web sites and manual above. I'll also assume that you have a basic room ready to light. Clicking on the thumbnail images in this tutorial will open an enlarged version of the image in a new brower window.

Table of contents ~

1. Basic light entity options.
   • Inserting a light entity
   • Light entity properties
   • Light entity colour
2. Using the basic light entity options.
   • Using the intensity property and light colour
   • The effect of textures
   • Different points of view
3. Spotlight effects.
4. Light entities and shadows.
5. Shaders.
6. Light leaks.
7. Miscellany.

Please email comments and suggestions to Mark Grimshaw (Sir Fragalot).

BSc(Hons) Computer & Video Games.