RAD file
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A RAD file is a plain text file that can be used to manipulate the way QRAD, HLRAD, and VRAD handle given brush textures when compiling static lighting.
There are:
- lights.rad, the global file.
- An auto-loaded map light file, using the format <mapname>.rad. The file must be placed in the same folder as <mapname>.map (
) or <mapname>.vmf (
). - Any number of additional lights files that can be added with the -lights parameter.
Where these are placed depends upon the engine; see below.
Note:RAD files are removed in 
Source 2, in favor of emissive materials (only in 
) and light_rect.Contents
GoldSrc
Deprecated:Use info_texlights instead. Alternatively, light_surface can be used, providing more options.All RAD files must have the .rad file extension and must be in the same folder as the map compile tools, except for <mapname>.rad, which should be in the same folder as the uncompiled MAP.
Rules
- <texture> <red> <green> <blue> <intensity>
- Defines a texlight, makes the texture appear to emit the given light value when applied to a brush face. Texture scale has an effect on final intensity.
Important:In VHLT, RAD lights with color set to 255 255 255 will use the average color of the texture instead of white.- // <comment>
- Denotes an end-of-line comment. Anything after the two slashes will be ignored by HLRAD.
- (Added in ZHLT v2.1; not available in QRAD.)
Source 1
All RAD files must have the .rad file extension and must be in the same folder as gameinfo.txt, except for <mapname>.rad, which should be in the same folder as the uncompiled VMF.
An example Source 1 rad file can be found here (from 
).
Rules
Lights files perform these functions, one rule per line:
- <material> <red> <green> <blue> <intensity> <hdr_red> <hdr_green> <hdr_blue> <hdr_intensity>
- Defines a texlight, making the material appear to emit the given light value when applied to a brush face (hdr_ values are optional). Texture scale has an effect on final intensity.
- Note:The material does not truly emit light, but instead, a
lightentity is generated across the surface. More technically, lights are placed at the center of every subdivision on the surface. The brightness of each light is distributed uniformly, by taking the area of each subdivision. Lower lightmap scales will increase subdivision and therefore more lights will be created. This will not occur on textures that are unlit, as no subdivision occurs on these textures. Leaf splits will still incur subdivision however, which might make the light creation unpredictable (using a func_detail will avoid this). It may be smarter and cheaper to instead manually place light entities near the material.Note:Unlike lighthowever, texlights are directional, and only cast light in the 180 degrees in which the face faces. Unlike, a texlight will not directly illuminate the face which "casts" the light[citation needed] (although it can still receive indirect light). As such, materials intended to be used as texlights should be UnlitGenericor$selfillum. - Note:Materials that aren't in a folder must have a slash before their name.
Bug:A func_detail with an emissive material applied on a face may randomly cause VRAD to fail computing lighting for the face; tie to func_brush instead.- noshadow <material name>
- Prevents the named material from casting shadows.
- forcetextureshadow <model path>.mdl
- Enables translucency shadow testing for a model when VRAD is run with -TextureShadows, regardless of whether it was compiled with
$casttextureshadows. Path is relative to the models folder. - ldr: <rule>
- hdr: <rule>
- Prefixes to make any rule only apply to SDR or HDR lighting.
- hdr:ldr: <comment>
- Lines beginning with both tags (in that order) will always be ignored by VRAD. Can be used to add comments or quickly disable some entries.
- // <comment>
- Alternatively, standard C++-style single-line comments can be used.
