VERC: Preset Light Appearances Last edited 1 year ago2022-09-29 07:55:20 UTC

Custom Appearance Strings

If you want to use flickering light entities, but also want to use an appearance that is not listed in the Appearance key, you may make use of the Custom Appearance key. This will allow you to create your own light appearance through the use of alphabetic characters. a is completely black, z is completely white, and the rest of the letters create a smooth gradient.

Should you wish to map out your custom appearance with an image editor, enter your light's RGB value, and then adjust the colors luminescence to each letter's corresponding value (as follows).
a 0
b 9
c 19
d 28
e 38
f 48
g 57
h 67
i 76
j 86
k 96
l 105
m 115
n 124
o 134
p 144
q 153
r 163
s 172
t 182
u 192
v 201
w 211
x 220
y 230
z 240

Preset Appearances

The following preset appearances are in order of their SmartEdit appearance, and are prefixed by their corresponding keyvalue.

0 Normal
m

10 Fluorescent flicker
mmamammmmammamamaaamammma

2 Slow, strong pulse
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba

11 Slow pulse, noblack
abcdefghijklmnopqrrqponmlkjihgfedcba

5 Gentle pulse
jklmnopqrstuvwxyzyxwvutsrqponmlkj

1 Flicker A
mmnmmommommnonmmonqnmmo

6 Flicker B
nmonqnmomnmomomno

3 Candle A
mmmmmaaaaammmmmaaaaaabcdefgabcdefg

7 Candle B
mmmaaaabcdefgmmmmaaaammmaamm

8 Candle C
mmmaaammmaaammmabcdefaaaammmmabcdefmmmaaaa

4 Fast strobe
mamamamamama

9 Slow Strobe
aaaaaaaazzzzzzzz

Resources

A zip file of the above animations is available here.

This nifty palette file has the a - z shades, should you require them.

For animating custom light strings, download a copy of the light generator here.
This article was originally published on Valve Editing Resource Collective (VERC).
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