light_spot Last edited 3 months ago2024-01-08 11:40:16 UTC

Point Entity

The light_spot entity allows you to create direct beams of light (like from a flashlight, spotlight, projector, and beacon) rather than spreading light in all directions.

Attributes

• Name (targetname) - Property used to identify entities.
• Pitch Yaw Roll (angles) - Sets the pitch (up / down), yaw (left / right) and roll (bank) respectively. The compass in WorldCraft / Hammer corresponds to Yaw. The light emitted by this entity will be directed this way.
• Target (target) - The light will point at this target during compile. Overrides angles. Using info_null as target is preferred.
• ZHLT Fade (_fade) - It darkens the light as the value increases.
• ZHLT Falloff (_falloff) - This option can change the normal inverse square falloff of lighting in the direct lighting layer with inverse falloff:
  • 0 = Default
  • 1 = Inverse Linear
  • 2 = inverse Square
• Inner Radius (_cone) - The angle of the cone formed around the directional axis. The area inside this cone will contain the brightest light.
• Outer Radius (_cone2) - As above, although the area inside this cone will fade increasingly towards the outer edges.
• Pitch (pitch) - The pitch of the light (-90 is straight down, 90 is straight up). Overrides pitch value in angles.
• Brightness (_light) - The first three 3-digit numbers are the color (RGB). The fourth is the brightness.
• Is Sky (_sky) - 0=No, 1=Yes. If Yes, the spot_light will affect the sky brushes, rather than project any light itself.
• Appearance (style) - Light appearance. Values:
  • 0 = Normal
  • 1 = Flicker A
  • 2 = Slow strong pulse
  • 3 = Candle A
  • 4 = Fast strobe
  • 5 = Gentle pulse
  • 6 = Flicker B
  • 7 = Candle B
  • 8 = Candle C
  • 9 = Slow strobe
  • 10 = Fluorescent flicker
  • 11 = Slow pulse, no black
  • 12 = Underwater mutation (i.e. constant light source, but placed underwater)

• Custom Appearance (pattern) - Use a string of letters to provide a custom light style (see note).

Flags

• Initially dark (1) - If this is enabled, the entity will need to be triggered to work.

Notes

• Multisource entities work as light_spot targets.
• The Custom Appearance (pattern) property allows you to enter a string of letters from A to Z, representing brightness. If you entered abcdefghihgfedcba then the light would go from bright to dim and back again and then repeat. Complicating things, to use this feature, you must name the light. However, if you then use a trigger to activate it, then it will behave as a normal light.
• Angles above 90 degrees for _cone and _cone2 have no effect. This means that no shadow can be formed beyond the range of 180 degrees (referred by angles/pitch) around this entity.
• The lighting from light_spot is fixed and baked into the map. It doesn't follow the target entity in game.
  • Using info_null as target is preferred as it removes itself on map start to free up edicts.
• Light from a light_environment entity overrides lighting on entity models if the entities have line of sight to the sky (i.e. sky faces) from the reverse direction of the angles/angle+pitch values of that light_environment entity.
  • To block line of sight and have entities take lighting from the ground, use brushes textured with black_HIDDEN on the bottom face, and SKIP on the other faces.
  • Use light_spot with "Is Sky" set to Yes instead of light_environment to bypass this effect altogether.