3 weird properties Created 18 years ago2006-02-19 04:02:38 UTC by JudgeDeadd

1. ZHLT Lightflags (zhlt_lightflags)
2. Light Origin Target (light_origin)
3. Minimum light level (_minlight)

What do they do?

ZHLT Lightflags are used to set lighting proporties for brush based entitys. I've never used the second one, but I think you might type in the name of another brush based entity and it'll light it the same way that it's lighted (I could be wrong though).

As for he 3rd one, I too have wondered about it.
This is just a guess, but maybe if you set the min light level to any number, say 50, it won't be lit any darker than that.

Minimum light level is what it says. It sets the minimum light that will be on the entity. Although this usually just ends up making the entity realy bright.

I think that the second one mean that you can choose a specific light entity thar will light the object... but I'm not sure.

Using the Lightflag "opaque" on brush-based entities can be useful for func_doors--a bright room won't bleed into a dark area--, and allowing a brush based entity to cast a shadow.

Captain P has recently told me one major downfall of using these is substantially increased compile times.

Although this usually just ends up making the entity realy bright

Yes ... until you realise that it is expecting a value from 0.0 to 1.0! Back when I was trying to have my switch lit just bright enough to be visible in a dark room, I tried 10, 5, even as low as 2. Finally I did some research and discovered that anything above 1.0 is fullbright, 100% brightness. To achieve the kind of effect I was after I needed to set this to 0.05, or 5% of maximum brightness.



Edit:

As for light_origin, the following comes from the ZHLT documentation:

"light_origin can be used to place a brush based entity to a new location for the purposes of lighting. Typical use requires placing an info_target at the relevant location, and then setting the light_origin to point the info_target's name. If the entity is opaque, it will also cast shadows from that location in addition to being lit as if it were there."

So it places the brush-based entity centred around the info_target while calculating lighting. Note that it will cast a shadow if set to "opaque"...

Oh, almost like what I thought...

But what do all those other ZHLT lightflags do? Also, turning a brush based entity opaque doesn't exactly come out the same way a normal (non entity) brush would. The shadows seems to be sharper and darker.

@srry: take a look at the ZHLT documentation (it's either in your zhlt directory or on their site) if you want to know more.