Light directional

Class hierarchy
CLight ↳CPointEntity ↳CBaseEntity
lights.cpp

light_directional is a semi-internal logical entity available in all Source games since Left 4 Dead.(also in ) It is a directional light with no falloff, similar to the direct lighting of light_environment. The main difference between this and light_environment is that multiple of these can be used in a single map and all of them will cause light to be emitted from sky brushes based on each of their settings.

Three light_directional entities in one map.
Note how the shadow colors are being changed by the additive behavior of the two other light entities.

Note:As with a light_environment, a light_directional is only emitted from geometry covered with %CompileSkybox and %CompileSkybox2D textures.

Bug: In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, after the Wildfire update, this entity does not seem to be working properly or has to be set differently. It can create excessively dark shadows tinged with the color of the light_environment ambient color plus the setting of the light_directional. It appears to boost these colors tremendously now.  [todo tested in ?]

AltNames:light, light_spot, light_glspot, and (in all games since )(also in )light_directional are all tied to the same C++ class in game, and only differ in VRAD.

Code:See the Alien Swarm Reactive Drop source code for reference implementation of light_directional in VRAD.

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

Important:Naming a static light radically changes its behavior. See Naming Lights for details.

Pitch (pitch) <integer>

The downward pitch of the light from the sun. 0 is horizontal, -90 is straight down.

Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X) (angles) <QAngle>

This entity's orientation in the world. Pitch is rotation around the Y axis, yaw is the rotation around the Z axis, roll is the rotation around the X axis.

Internal keyvalues used only by VRAD:

Brightness (_light) <color255 + int>

The RGB color and brightness of the light. Colors must be between 0 and 255; brightness can be anything.

BrightnessHDR (_lightHDR) <color255 + int>

Brightness override used in HDR mode. Default is -1 -1 -1 1, which means no change.

Warning:The fourth digit must be positive. Otherwise all light will be sucked out of your map!

BrightnessScaleHDR (_lightHDRscale) <float>

Amount to scale the light by when compiling for HDR.

SpreadAngle (SunSpreadAngle) <float>

The angular extent of the light for casting soft shadows. Higher numbers are more diffuse. 5 is a good starting value.

See also

• Lighting
• Light entities