I'm new to opengl lighting, and when I finally made a light in an FPS environment, it flickered. I mean, whenever you changed position in the game (and thus, changed the translation/rotation of all objects in the scene), the light would turn on and off repeatedly. I have absolutely no clue what's happening. Please help!

Im guessing
A/ its a positional light
B/ after youve moved the 'camera' then u have to reposition the light again

Well, it is a positional light, and I already change the light position when I move the camera. Part of my drawing code is below, and surfaces[0].draw just draws a triangle. The normals are accurate.
<code>

glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
glLoadIdentity();
glDisable(GL_BLEND);

glRotatef(-camera.rotation.x,1,0,0);
glRotatef(-camera.rotation.y,0,1,0);
glRotatef(-camera.rotation.z,0,0,1);
glTranslatef(-camera.location.x,-camera.location.y-6,-camera.location.z);
glLightfv(GL_LIGHT1, GL_POSITION,LightPosition);
glNormal3f(surfaces[0].normal.x,surfaces[0].normal.y,surfaces[0].normal.z);
surfaces[0].draw();

</code>

In the beginning of the program, I say this:
<code>
glLightfv(GL_LIGHT1, GL_AMBIENT, LightAmbient);
glLightfv(GL_LIGHT1, GL_DIFFUSE, LightDiffuse);
glLightfv(GL_LIGHT1, GL_POSITION,LightPosition);
glEnable(GL_LIGHT1);
glEnable(GL_LIGHTING);
</code>

And the values for these lighting variables are:

<code>
GLfloat LightAmbient[]= { 0.9f, 0.9f, 0.9f, 1.0f };
GLfloat LightDiffuse[]= { 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f };
GLfloat LightPosition[]= { -100.0f, 0.0f, 100.0f, 1.0f };
</code>

But then if I don't set the location of the light after the translate and rotates, then it always seems as if the light is right under the player.

I'm not looking to make a light that is stationary in perspective to the user (e.g. a headlight, as opengl.org calls it). I'm trying to make a light that stays relative to the environment. Sort of like your house light, or a lamp in, let's say, Halo or Doom. You should be able to walk around the light. But the thing is that when I achieve this effect, the light repeatedly turns on and off when the camera is rotated/translated.

OK, I implemented the code, and now another thing happens: The light doesn't seem to be in the same world space. Now, it always is right under the camera.

OK, I got it, after a while of experimenting. The problem was that the light was right on the surface. As in, the surface and light were overlapping. But now I have another question. Why is it that when I position the light somewhere other than the corner of the triangle, the light doesn't seem as bright?

OpenGL does lighting by vertex and interpolates those values across the triangle or quad. Therefor when it is just outside the triangle corner it is adding the most light to that vertex. If you want to do per pixel light, ie the light circle of a flash light, you will have to write a shader.

Quote:Original post by Phynix
OK, I got it, after a while of experimenting. The problem was that the light was right on the surface. As in, the surface and light were overlapping. But now I have another question. Why is it that when I position the light somewhere other than the corner of the triangle, the light doesn't seem as bright?