in-house lighting problems (apologies if this is in the wrong place) PROBLEM SORTED, THANK YOU

[Jazleen Raynier]

So, I have finally furnished my house and everything is dandy, except a recurring problem.

I have put in a kitchen that has no additional lighting that I can see yet behind one part of it is a bright white light. I put in a dark wood dresser yesterday and noticed that behind that there is a bright white light and I'm completely stuck as to why its there. The house came with lights but I didn't hang them and the only other light is from the fireplace which is a dull firey light. It's not happened in any other room except the living room/kitchen. If I put the sun position onto midnight it's still as bright. I've tried taking the furniture down and putting it back up but nothing changes.

I'm completely befuddled and hoping someone can help.

Thankyou in advance 

Jaz xx

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Jaz,

If the light is present even when there's no furniture in the room, then the kitchen itself contains a light source. When I'm trying to hunt down a light source, I rez I set midnight, rez a sphere, then drag it around the area and watch how its illuminated. I'm usually able to find the source fairly quickly. Without knowing how your house is constructed (prim, mesh, sculptie, etc.) it's hard know where the actual light might be with respect to the visible part of any prim that contains it, so even if you find the light, you many not yet have found the source prim. "Highlight Transparent" (Ctrl-Alt-T) to make sure there isn't an invisible light prim linked into the structure.

If the light source is in the house itself, and if the house is "mod", edit the prim that contains the light source and turn it off.  Remember to check "Edit linked" at the top pf the edit window so you select only the prim containing the light. You'll find the "Light" checkbox in the "Features" tab of the edit window. 

Good luck!

[Ren Toxx]

First use the menu option 'Develop' > 'Render Metadata' > 'Lights' to highlight all the actual light sources in the area - there will appear boxes around them.

If you see one in your kitchen the next step, providing it's at least modifiable (ideally copiable too, so you have a backup copy in case you mess something), is to edit it, activate the 'Edit Linked' checkbox, choose below the 'Features' tab and start left-clicking on whichever part of the kitcken you think might be the source; if, for one of them, the 'Light' checkbox below in the Build / Edit panel is selected and has parameters, that's the one: simply unckeck that box and it will stop acting as a lightsource (and, as long as you have the viewer highlighting all the light sources, the box surrounding it should disappear).

 

A different kind of 'light', more apparent than actual but which may do as you describe (looking still bright in dark settings such as night) is 'full bright'. This is not an actual light source, it's just that the viewer will ignore the sun settings (and in fact the entire windlight properties) and still show a given texture with a consistent, day-like brightness. It's a different property, but you can deactivate it pretty much the same as before, just checking under the 'Texture' tab in the Build / Edit panel, instead of the 'Features' one.

[So Whimsy]

Wow you two! I just learned something new!

I don't know why prefab builders do this, I've found several amazing homes, but the light sources wash my avatar out as if there's twenty people with facelights around me. It's great that there's such easy ways to find those light sources, you don't even want to know how I searched for them in the past!

Might go house shopping today after all.

But whyyyyyy do people do this in the first place? I don't understand!

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Sending my Nefarious Leader a upgrade to her old skool Bowling Pin Squisher C-Clamp so she can handle egos of many sizes quickly...

 

[Ren Toxx]

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Syn Anatine wrote: [...] 

But whyyyyyy do people do this in the first place? I don't understand!

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Aesthetic choices... so often risky. Even baked lights, gorgeous as they often look, may be problematic by, for example, featuring a sun angle not consistent with that of the area's windlight.

Ideally buildings should come with as many options and controls as possible... but of course, that comes at the expense of more complexity (which the creator may not want, or know, to tackle)... plus less tech-savvy customers freaking out in 'how the hell does this work?' fashion.

[Jazleen Raynier]

Thank you all ever so much for your help. I've written all your advice down and when I can get back into SL on something other than this crappy laptop I'm using atm, I will hunt these damn lights down and squish them...hopefully.