Tool Textures Last edited 5 months ago2024-07-16 11:46:34 UTC

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Tool textures are special textures which control how the map is compiled. These are the tool textures used by Vluzacn's ZHLT v34. They are found in halflife.wad and zhlt.wad. For detailed usage of each texture, refer to its individual wiki page.

In general, tool textures can be divided into two types:

Those that can be mixed with normal textures on a brush. For example, a NULL or SOLIDHINT texture applied to one or more sides of a brush.
Those where the brush must contain only a single tool texture, or a related texture in its family. This can be further divided into:
- Tool textures that produce clipnodes, namely CLIP and co.
- Tool textures that define brush entity properties like ORIGIN and BOUNDINGBOX.
- Tool textures that generate a specific leaf content like the SKY and !cur_* textures.

The tool textures in zhlt.wad helps you differentiate between these types by an inset of the related texture type in the top left corner e.g.:

, , has CLIP texture inset
, has NULL texture inset

Legend

Z - Compiler & wad availability

–	Usually available in standard WADs for a given GoldSrc game e.g. `halflife.wad`
Z	Used by ZHLT but only available in `zhlt.wad`
Z*	Used by ZHLT but not included in `zhlt.wad`

Properties

🏢	Allowed as World
🚪	Allowed as Entity
⛅	Casts Shadow as world brush
🌓	Has LightMap
✂️	Cuts VisLeafs

Visibility

👀	Texture is Visible in game
🫥	Textured face is inVisible, but the rest of the brush is
❌	Brush becomes inVisible

Clipnode generation

0️⃣	Point hull (bullets, weapons, projectiles)
1️⃣	Player hull
2️⃣	Large monsters hull
3️⃣	Crouching hull

Tool Textures

Image	Name	Z	W	E	S	LM	VL	V	H0	H1	H2	H3	Description
N/A	!cur_0	Z*	🏢	❌	⛅	❌	✂️	👀	❌	❌	❌	❌	Acts like `CONTENTWATER` and `trigger_push` with a speed of 2048 units/s in +X. [note1]
N/A	!cur_180	Z*	🏢	❌	⛅	❌	✂️	👀	❌	❌	❌	❌	Acts like `CONTENTWATER` and `trigger_push` with a speed of 2048 units/s in -X. [note1]
N/A	!cur_270	Z*	🏢	❌	⛅	❌	✂️	👀	❌	❌	❌	❌	Acts like `CONTENTWATER` and `trigger_push` with a speed of 2048 units/s in -Y. [note1]
N/A	!cur_90	Z*	🏢	❌	⛅	❌	✂️	👀	❌	❌	❌	❌	Acts like `CONTENTWATER` and `trigger_push` with a speed of 2048 units/s in +Y. [note1]
N/A	!cur_dwn	Z*	🏢	❌	⛅	❌	✂️	👀	❌	❌	❌	❌	Acts like `CONTENTWATER` and `trigger_push` with a speed of 2048 units/s in -Z. [note1]
N/A	!cur_up	Z*	🏢	❌	⛅	❌	✂️	👀	❌	❌	❌	❌	Acts like `CONTENTWATER` and `trigger_push` with a speed of 2048 units/s in +Z. [note1]
	AAATRIGGER	–	🏢	🚪	⛅	❌	✂️	🫥	0️⃣	1️⃣	2️⃣	3️⃣	Used for differentiating entities in the editor, and shouldn't be used on world brushes as it may cause bugs. VHLT strips faces with this texture, making it visually identical to `NULL`.
	BEVEL	Z	🏢	🚪	⛅	❌	❌	❌	0️⃣	❌	2️⃣	❌	Acts like `NULL`, but changes the clipnode of a brush in a way that any player approaching the brush will not be collide with the brush until their origin reaches the plane that the `BEVEL` face lies on. It can be used to eliminate exterior corner clipping bugs, and any remaining clipping bugs that the `-cliptype precise` CSG parameter may miss.
	black_HIDDEN	Z	🏢	🚪	⛅	🌓	✂️	🫥	0️⃣	1️⃣	2️⃣	3️⃣	Acts like `NULL`, but has a lightmap. Brushes with this texture can cast shadows.
	BOUNDINGBOX	Z	❌	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	Similar to `ORIGIN`, but used to define a bounding box for an entity. Useful if you have a lot of complex, off-grid geometry and need a bounding box which is snapped to the grid.
	CLIP	–	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	1️⃣	2️⃣	3️⃣	Creates clipnodes on all three cliphulls.
	CLIPBEVEL	Z	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	0️⃣	❌	❌	❌	Acts like `BEVEL` but for clipnodes.
	CLIPBEVELBRUSH	Z	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	0️⃣	❌	❌	❌	Acts like `CLIPBEVEL`, but affects every single face.
	CLIPHULL1	Z	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	1️⃣	❌	❌	Creates clipnodes on hull 1, used by standing players.
	CLIPHULL2	Z	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	2️⃣	❌	Creates clipnodes on hull 2, used by large monsters (apache, gargantua, gonarch, etc).
	CLIPHULL3	Z	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	3️⃣	Creates clipnodes on hull 3, used by crouching players.
	CONTENTEMPTY	Z	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	❌	🫥	❌	❌	❌	❌	Removes collision from a brush and marks it as an empty volume.
	CONTENTWATER	Z	🏢	🚪	⛅	❌	✂️	🫥	0️⃣	❌	❌	❌	Marks the brush as a water volume that will not render anything outside of it. It also removes collision from a brush and mirrors the faces inside out.
	HINT	Z	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	✂️	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	Faces with this texture will split visleafs, allowing you to optimize what parts of the map are visible. Other faces of the brush should be textured with `SKIP`.
	NOCLIP	Z	🏢	🚪	⛅	❌	✂️	❌	0️⃣	❌	❌	❌	Acts like `NULL`, but no cliphulls are generated. Similar to the `zhlt_noclip` keyvalue in entities.
	NULL	Z	🏢	🚪	⛅	❌	✂️	🫥	0️⃣	1️⃣	2️⃣	3️⃣	Removes the face of a brush it's applied to, however clipnodes are still generated.
	ORIGIN	–	❌	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	The center of brushes with this texture defines the origin point for entities.
	SKIP	Z	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	Ignores the face of a brush it's applied to. Should not be used on world geometry except with `HINT`, as it may cause bugs.
	SKY	–	🏢	❌	❌	❌	✂️	❌	0️⃣	1️⃣	2️⃣	3️⃣	Renders the skybox on faces with this texture, and emits light if all faces of a brush are textured with `SKY` and you have a `light_environment` or `light_spot` entity. Clipnode generation is optional with VHLT and can be turned off with CSG parameter `-noskyclip`.
	SOLIDHINT	Z	🏢	🚪	⛅	❌	✂️	🫥	0️⃣	1️⃣	2️⃣	3️⃣	Used to eliminate unnecessary face subdivision, especially on complex shapes such as triangular terrain.
N/A	SPLITFACE	Z*	🏢	🚪	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	Brushes with this texture will subdivide faces they touch. It can be used to eliminate bad lighting caused by opaque entities.
	translucent	-	🏢	❌	⛅	🌓	✂️	👀	❌	❌	❌	❌	Removes clipnodes and mirrors the brush faces inside out. All `@` prefixed textures exhibit this property.
Image	Name	Z	W	E	S	LM	VL	V	H0	H1	H2	H3	Description

Notes:

Rendered as water, and completely fullbright

Legend

Z - Compiler & wad availability

–	Usually available in standard WADs for a given GoldSrc game e.g. `halflife.wad`
Z	Used by ZHLT but only available in `zhlt.wad`
Z*	Used by ZHLT but not included in `zhlt.wad`

Properties

🏢	Allowed as World
🚪	Allowed as Entity
⛅	Casts Shadow as world brush
🌓	Has LightMap
✂️	Cuts VisLeafs

Visibility

👀	Texture is Visible in game
🫥	Textured face is inVisible, but the rest of the brush is
❌	Brush becomes inVisible

Clipnode generation

0️⃣	Point hull (bullets, weapons, projectiles)
1️⃣	Player hull
2️⃣	Large monsters hull
3️⃣	Crouching hull

1 Comment

kimilil

Commented 1 year ago2023-12-16 09:30:25 UTC Comment #105738

I made a version with legends and emojis. The aim is threefold:

trim the wasted space the table headers are using, and give more space for the description column
Immediately infer the properties with emojis without constantly having to look up the yes/no columns back to the header way up the page
hopefully get this to display better on mobile

For now it's in this comment for my personal use. If feedback is favourable then we can merge this version into the main page.

merged to main page 2024-05-03

2024-06-09

for the !cur textures, you can make them invisible by using the _HIDDEN suffix, so !cur_0 becomes !cur_0_HIDDEN

2024-08-29

_HIDDEN suffixes doesn't work in entities for some reason. since models don't take lighting from brush entities anyway there's no use case for it, so probably just use NULL instead.
Found a way to use tool textures in a way which imparts its properties, but without having it be part of any resulting face of the brush, but it only works on MAP files. You just insert an additional line defining a plane of the brush using the tool texture of interest, but the plane is way, way out towards the extremities of the map that it never intersects with any other planes of the brush:

{
( 80 144 96 ) ( 80 144 32 ) ( 80 208 96 ) NULL [ 0 -1 0 0 ] [ 0 0 -1 16 ] 0 1 1
( 144 144 96 ) ( 144 144 32 ) ( 80 144 96 ) NULL [ 1 0 0 0 ] [ 0 0 -1 16 ] 0 1 1
( 80 208 32 ) ( 80 144 32 ) ( 144 208 32 ) NULL [ -1 0 0 -0 ] [ 0 -1 0 0 ] 0 1 1
( 144 144 96 ) ( 80 144 96 ) ( 80 208 96 ) NULL [ 1 0 -0 0 ] [ 0 -1 0 0 ] 0 1 1
( 144 144 96 ) ( 144 208 32 ) ( 144 144 32 ) NULL [ 0 1 0 -0 ] [ 0 0 -1 16 ] 0 1 1
( 144 208 32 ) ( 144 144 96 ) ( 80 208 96 ) NULL [ 1 0 -0 0 ] [ 0 -1 0 0 ] 0 1 1
( 80 208 96 ) ( 80 208 32 ) ( 144 208 32 ) NULL [ -1 0 0 -0 ] [ 0 0 -1 16 ] 0 1 1
( 32767 32768 32768 ) ( 32768 32768 32767 ) ( 32768 32767 32768 ) !CUR_0 [ -0.707107 0.707107 0 0 ] [ 0.408248 0.408248 -0.816497 0 ] 0 1 1
}

The above spawns a NULL brush but with cur_0 contents. I figure a map pre-processor like MESS could implement this featur, inserting tool texture faces into the resulting brush defs in the output .map.

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