Entity Attribute: Custom Appearance Last edited 4 months ago2023-12-22 11:38:36 UTC

Most lighting entities accept a Custom Appearance (pattern) value that describes a custom lighting animation pattern to be emitted by the entity. The values are expressed in the range of a to z, where a is total darkness, m is full brightness, and z is double brightness. In game, the texture lighting associated with the entity will modulate based on the given pattern at the rate of around 8Hz, and loop back after reaching the end.

The maximum pattern length is 63 characters. There's also a maximum limit of about 30 entities that can have custom appearances in a map [needs confirmation].

Appearance presets

The following are the presets for the associated Appearance (style) property expressed in custom appearance notation, taken from Half-Life's SDK. You can use this in the case that using the preset appearances aren't working to you.

// 0 normal
LIGHT_STYLE(0, "m");

// 1 FLICKER (first variety)
LIGHT_STYLE(1, "mmnmmommommnonmmonqnmmo");

// 2 SLOW STRONG PULSE
LIGHT_STYLE(2, "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba");

// 3 CANDLE (first variety)
LIGHT_STYLE(3, "mmmmmaaaaammmmmaaaaaabcdefgabcdefg");

// 4 FAST STROBE
LIGHT_STYLE(4, "mamamamamama");

// 5 GENTLE PULSE 1
LIGHT_STYLE(5,"jklmnopqrstuvwxyzyxwvutsrqponmlkj");

// 6 FLICKER (second variety)
LIGHT_STYLE(6, "nmonqnmomnmomomno");

// 7 CANDLE (second variety)
LIGHT_STYLE(7, "mmmaaaabcdefgmmmmaaaammmaamm");

// 8 CANDLE (third variety)
LIGHT_STYLE(8, "mmmaaammmaaammmabcdefaaaammmmabcdefmmmaaaa");

// 9 SLOW STROBE (fourth variety)
LIGHT_STYLE(9, "aaaaaaaazzzzzzzz");

// 10 FLUORESCENT FLICKER
LIGHT_STYLE(10, "mmamammmmammamamaaamammma");

// 11 SLOW PULSE NOT FADE TO BLACK
LIGHT_STYLE(11, "abcdefghijklmnopqrrqponmlkjihgfedcba");

// 12 UNDERWATER LIGHT MUTATION
// this light only distorts the lightmap - no contribution
// is made to the brightness of affected surfaces
LIGHT_STYLE(12, "mmnnmmnnnmmnn");

// styles 32-62 are assigned by the light program for switchable lights
// 63 testing
LIGHT_STYLE(63, "a");