Env tonemap controller

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It has been suggested that this article or section be split into multiple articles: Split Black Mesa and Valve games to separate pages. (Discuss)

Class hierarchy
CEnvTonemapController ↳CPointEntity ↳CBaseEntity
env_tonemap_controller.cpp

env_tonemap_controller is a logical entity available in all Source games.

It controls the HDR tonemapping for the player. Think of it as a method of controlling the exposure of the player's eyes. Tonemapping affect all players in multiplayer. HDR settings should normally be changed through triggers, whenever transitioning between environments of different light levels (or for multiplayer, at the start of the map via logic_auto, and to control tonemapping for individual players, use trigger_tonemap).

Tip:The Left 4 Dead series has env_tonemap_controller_ghost (which affects yet-unspawned SI players) and env_tonemap_controller_infected (which affects ones that have spawned).

Non-Valve games

Note: Black Mesa uses upgraded tonemapping with bloom using a modified version of the Reinhard filter (in the game it is called next Next Generation Bloom, or Next Gen Bloom for short). Because of this, the results are very different from other Source Engine games. Old bloom and HDR still can be enabled with mat_bloom_nextgen 1. Important:If this entity is not in a map - Next Gen Bloom from Black Mesa will be broken if the map is launched on a dedicated server (just like in the picture). There is probably a mechanism in the game that makes normal HDR if there is no env_tonemap_controller on a map, because when you run a map locally, everything looks fine. Probably this mechanism worked before with dedicated servers, but in the final release, something is broken. This is why you must to put this entity if you are creating a map for Black Mesa multiplayer. Examples. This is how HDR looks like the game in a dedicated server if env_tonemap_controller is not in the map. This is how HDR looks like the game in a dedicated server if env_tonemap_controller is in the map.

Flags

Master (Has priority if multiple env_tonemap_controller entities exist) : [1] (in all games since )

Keyvalues

Name (targetname) <string>[ Edit ]

The name that other entities refer to this entity by, via Inputs/Outputs or other keyvalues (e.g. parentname or target).
Also displayed in Hammer's 2D views and Entity Report.

See also:  Generic Keyvalues, Inputs and Outputs available to all entities

Non-Valve games

bUseNextGenBloom (bUseNextGenBloom) <choices> 0: NO 1: YES bUseCusBloomNG_Threshold (bUseCusBloomNG_Threshold) <choices> 0: NO 1: YES Important:Most new Black Mesa keyvalues and I/O doesn't work if this keyvalue use choice NO. Examples NO (Bloom old) YES (Bloom new) fCusBloomNG_Threshold (fCusBloomNG_Threshold) <float> Threshold for bright pass filter. Determines the influence of tonemapping; with high values, only brightest parts of frame will be bloomed. Note:The default value from fgd is 1, which is incorrect. The default value is 0.1. Note:A value of 0 means all pixels contribute to bloom, and is considered the most physically accurate setting. bUseCusBloomNG_tintExponent (bUseCusBloomNG_tintExponent) <choices> 0: NO 1: YES m_fCustomBloomNextGen_r (m_fCustomBloomNextGen_r) <float> Determines the influence for reder tones in frame. Note:The default value from fgd is 1, which is incorrect. The default value is 0.25. m_fCustomBloomNextGen_g (m_fCustomBloomNextGen_g) <float> Determines the influence for greener tones in frame. Note:The default value from fgd is 1, which is incorrect. The default value is 0.25. m_fCustomBloomNextGen_b (m_fCustomBloomNextGen_b) <float> Determines the influence for bluer tones in frame. Note:The default value from fgd is 1, which is incorrect. The default value is 0.25. m_fCusBloomNG_exponent (m_fCusBloomNG_exponent) <float> Determines the tightness of the bloom. Note:The default value from fgd is 1, which is incorrect. The default value is 2.2.

Inputs

SetTonemapScale <floatRedirectInput/float> (not in )

Sets the player's tonemap scale. It should be a value between 0 and 2, where 0 is the eyes fully closed, 1 is use the unchanged autoexposure (default), and 2 is the eye fully wide open.

Bug:This input does nothing. It only changes mat_hdr_tonemapscale on the client, which is a value that's written but never read  [todo tested in ?]

BlendTonemapScale <stringRedirectInput/string> (not in )

Blends from the player's current tonemap scale to a new one. The parameter syntax is as follows: <target tonemap scale> <blend duration>. For example: 0.5 10 would blend from the current tonemap scale to 0.5 over a period of 10 seconds.

Bug:This input does nothing, same reason as above  [todo tested in ?]

UseDefaultAutoExposure

Reverts to using the default tonemap auto exposure.

UseDefaultBloomScale  !FGD

Reverts to using the default bloom scale.

SetAutoExposureMin <floatRedirectInput/float>

Sets a custom tonemap auto exposure minimum. Default is 0.5.

SetAutoExposureMax <floatRedirectInput/float>

Sets a custom tonemap auto exposure maximum. Default is 2.0.

SetBloomScale <floatRedirectInput/float>

Sets a custom bloom scale.

SetBloomScaleRange <vector2> !FGD

Sets a range for the bloom scale. First number is the maximum, second number is the minimum.

Note:Minimum value is unused, so effectively same as SetBloomScale

SetTonemapRate <floatRedirectInput/float>

Sets the rate for autoexposure adjustment (mat_hdr_manual_tonemap_rate).

Bug:The convar is not replicated so it only works in singleplayer. The changed value persists across map changes as a result. Both of these were fixed in .  [todo tested in ?]

SetBloomExponent <floatRedirectInput/float> (in all games since )

Sets a custom bloom exponent.

SetBloomSaturation <floatRedirectInput/float> (in all games since )

Sets a custom bloom saturation.

SetTonemapPercentBrightPixels <floatRedirectInput/float> (only in )

Sets a target percentage of pixels to maintain above a certain brightness. (default: 1)

SetTonemapPercentTarget <floatRedirectInput/float> (only in )

Sets the brightness that the percentage of pixels defined by SetTonemapPercentBrightPixels should be kept above. (default: 45)

SetTonemapMinAvgLum <floatRedirectInput/float> (only in )

Sets custom tonemapping param (default: 3).^[Clarify]

Non-Valve games

InputSetBloomNxtGen_Threshold <floatRedirectInput/float> Sets the influence of tonemapping; with high values, only brightest parts of frame will be bloomed. An example of what it does. 0 (Very high values are used here for RGB) 20 InputSetBloomNxtGen_TintR <floatRedirectInput/float> Sets the influence value for redder tones in frame. An example of what it does. Default. 20 (blue and green is 0 here) InputSetBloomNxtGen_TintG <floatRedirectInput/float> Sets the influence value for greener tones in frame. An example of what it does. Default values. 20 (blue and red is 0 here) InputSetBloomNxtGen_TintB <floatRedirectInput/float> Sets the influence value for bluer tones in frame. An example of what it does. Default values. 20 (red and green is 0 here) InputSetBloomNxtGen_Exponent <floatRedirectInput/float> Sets the brightness of the bloom. An example of what it does. 0 (Threshold very hight here) 0.5

See also

• trigger_tonemap
• HDR Lighting Settings
• BlackMesa XenEngine: Part2 – How a Frame is Rendered (Black Mesa developer describing how a frame is rendered, and discusses about the improvements for tone mapping.)