Entity Attribute: Contents Last edited 1 year ago2022-10-16 20:32:05 UTC

The Contents (skin) attribute applies to all brush entities, and can be used to define its contents.

Definition

The following code block in const.h of the SDK lists accepted values:

// contents of a spot in the world
#define    CONTENTS_EMPTY        -1
#define    CONTENTS_SOLID        -2
#define    CONTENTS_WATER        -3
#define    CONTENTS_SLIME        -4
#define    CONTENTS_LAVA        -5
#define    CONTENTS_SKY        -6
/* These additional contents constants are defined in bspfile.h
#define    CONTENTS_ORIGIN        -7        // removed at csg time
#define    CONTENTS_CLIP        -8        // changed to contents_solid
#define    CONTENTS_CURRENT_0        -9
#define    CONTENTS_CURRENT_90        -10
#define    CONTENTS_CURRENT_180    -11
#define    CONTENTS_CURRENT_270    -12
#define    CONTENTS_CURRENT_UP        -13
#define    CONTENTS_CURRENT_DOWN    -14
#define CONTENTS_TRANSLUCENT    -15
*/
#define    CONTENTS_LADDER                -16

#define    CONTENT_FLYFIELD            -17
#define    CONTENT_GRAVITY_FLYFIELD    -18
#define    CONTENT_FOG                    -19

Usage

While this property may apply to all brushes, in most cases, you don't need to add this attribute to your brush entities, and the FGD gives only a subset to entities where it's relevant (e.g. func_water).

Depending on how a brush is textured, CSG also automatically coerces brushes (including world brushes) into non-solid content. E.g.:

• ! -prefixed textures → water
• CONTENTWATER → water
• @ -prefixed textures → translucent
• sky → sky

Brush content is really a relic of Half-Life's Quake ancestry, and its entity system has largely sidestepped it, so use the equivalent func_ entities instead:

• Empty → func_illusionary, and the general "Not solid" flag applicable to all brush entities
• Water/Slime/Lava → func_water with customizeable damage type/amount
• Current_X → trigger_push with customizeable push speed
• Translucent → "Render Mode" attribute
• Ladder → func_ladder