I have this green box in the map called a probe and I have no idea what it is doing. The only thing I know allegedly does is fix ghosting, does it do anything else?

I have this green box in the map called a probe and I have no idea what it is doing. The only thing I know allegedly does is fix ghosting, does it do anything else?

A reflection probe is absolutely required whether you have ghosting or not. This probe enables proper reflections and lighting, without it your map will probably look really bad because shadows will be messed up and there won't be any reflections(working ones at least).

It isn't just a green box floating either, make sure you have one in each room and that it is touching each of the walls so it covers and has a line of sight to everything.

A reflection probe is absolutely required

That's a bit of an overstatement. Yeah it will make your map look x100 better... but it's not a requirement for a functional map. You do not need to lecuture me on the importance of probes. I do not disagree that they are very important to making a good map and that mappers should definately learn to use them correctly.

reflection probes (or cubemaps in general), is used to generate prebaked reflections in levels. when a map is being compiled, the compiler takes low res pictures from all 6 sides of reflection probes and saves them. when you're in game, it chooses the closest reflection probe to you and uses those images as fake reflections on the surfaces around you. it is a very economic method compared to live reflections (haven't seen a game that uses live reflections anyways. except for duke nukem and quake 3 lol).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Zawe7e9BE

you can see how they work in this video (watch it until 1:55).