NewLight Point

newLight_Point is a point entity available in Black Mesa. It creates an invisible deferred light source that shines in all directions, includes godrays and lightcookies.

Class hierarchy
CNewLightPoint ↳CBaseEntity

NewLight_Point in End Game chapter (used for the portal).

Note:You can have only 512 point light entities placed in the map editor.

Todo: Rework this page.

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

Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X) (angles) <angle> !FGD

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.

Note:There is almost no differences if you're using point light with no texture. Things changes if you're using textures.

Use old Falloff ? (bUseOldFallOff) <choices> !FGD 

Deprecated.
Sets old falloff state, disabled or enabled. This feature is disabled in the code, so you can't use old falloff (although it is still used for the flashlight).

• 0: Disabled
• 1: Enabled

Light Color (LightColor) <color255>

The RGB color of the light. Colors must be between 0 and 255.

Light Intensity (Intensity) <float>

Intensity/brightness of the light. It's RGB * intensity.

Note:With 0 it will make the light disabled, including the effects. Doesn't affect shadows.

Range (Range) <float>

Range of the light, or how far the light source can illuminate. Measured in Hammer Units.

Warning:This is one of the parameters that affects performance in the game. Smaller values ​​allow you to process less geometry and save performance.

Important:Range is limited, the limit depends on intensity value. Do not use values ​​bigger than the intensity value allows.

Examples

Range - 50 Range - 1000 Range - 15000

Enabled (Enabled) <choices>

Sets light state on spawn, enabled or disabled.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

Appearance (style) <integer choices>

Appearance presets.

Lightstyle presets (epilepsy warning)

Literal Value	Description	Sequence	Preview
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
12	Underwater light mutation	mmnnmmnnnmmnn

Tip:Use new lights instead for lights with custom appearance, because static lightmapped lights reduces performance with this feature (especially near displacements).

Note:Custom light styles are not possible.

Light Ambient Color (LightColorAmbient) <color255>

The RGB color of the shadows. Colors must be between 0 and 255.

Examples

0 0 0 0 0 255 255 168 168

SpecularMultiplier (SpecMultiplier) <float>

Specular multiplier. Sets intensity of new specular shader from this light source. It's RGB * Intensity * SpecularMultiplier. 0 means disabled.

Examples

0.5 1 2

falloffConstant (falloffConstant) <integer> !FGD 

Deprecated.
Constant value (can work only if old falloff is enabled).

falloffLinear (falloffLinear) <integer> !FGD 

Deprecated.
Linear value (can work only if old falloff is enabled).

falloffQuadratic (falloffQuadratic) <integer> !FGD 

Deprecated.
Quadratic value (can work only if old falloff is enabled).

Light Type (LightType) <choices>

Type of the light. This affects the behavior of the light source with parent, enable/disable dynamic models in shadowmaps, enable/disable static shadowmaps.

• 0: Static - used only static shadowmaps, this means that shadows are cast only by static objects (prop_static, geometry, etc). Cannot move with parent.

Important:Brush entities and bmodels are also included in static shadowmaps and they never update (including func_physbox).

Note:Static shadowmaps will update after save reload (only once).

• 1: Stationary - the same as Static, but with dynamic shadows for dynamic models.
• 2: Dynamic - lighting don't use static shadowmaps at all. It uses dynamic shadows for static objects and dynamic models. This type also can move with parent. This type is expensive, usually used for moving lights, but also can be used if you're getting issues due to static shadowmaps.

Examples

Note:Note that shadow from metal box and grate box are flying on first and second pictures, that's because both was placed in air on map spawn. Doesn't happen on third picture, because the light updated shadow for both. Static Stationary Dynamic

HasShadow (HasShadow) <choices>

Sets shadows state for the light, enabled or disabled. Remember that the default choices is No.

• 0: No
• 1: Yes

Examples

Has Shadow - NO Has Shadow - YES

ShadowMapLOD (ShadowLod) <choices>

Resolution of shadowmap used by this light. This affects the quality of the shadows.

• 0: 256
• 1: 512
• 2: 1024

Examples

256 512 1024

Important:You cannot use any value from here an unlimited number of times. More information below.

ShadowRadius (ShadowRadius) <float>

Radius of shadow edges for soft shadows. If its value is negative, code will auto assign a value depending on ShadowLod. These code based values can be adjusted via convars nr_shadow_rad_High, nr_shadow_rad_Med and nr_shadow_rad_Low.

Examples

ShadowRadius - 0.0001 ShadowRadius - 1 ShadowRadius - 5

Tip:Don't use very low values, because the shadows will look like stairs. Also don't use very high values, because the noise will spoil them a lot, or you'll see only noise.

NearZ (NearZ) <float>

NearZ used by shadowmap camera for this light. This is the distance at which the light source will start cast shadows.

ShadowFaceX (ShadowFaceX) <choices>

Sets shadow state (enabled or disabled) for X face.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceX_Minus (ShadowFaceX_Minus) <choices>

Sets shadow state (enabled or disabled) for -X face.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceY (ShadowFaceY) <choices>

Sets shadow state (enabled or disabled) for Y face.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceY_Minus (ShadowFaceY_Minus) <choices>

Sets shadow state (enabled or disabled) for -Y face.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceZ (ShadowFaceZ) <choices>

Sets shadow state (enabled or disabled) for Z face.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceZ_Minus (ShadowFaceZ_Minus) <choices>

Sets shadow state (enabled or disabled) for -Z face.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

DepthBias (DepthBias) <float>

DepthBias is offset added to depth values in shadowmaps.

Examples

DepthBias - 0.0002 DepthBias - 0.002 DepthBias - 0.0000000002

SlopeDepthBias (SlopeDepthBias) <float>

Slope Depth Bias used for surfaces having aliasing due to steep angles with light.

Examples

SlopeDepthBias - 0.2 SlopeDepthBias - 8 SlopeDepthBias - 20

NormalBias (NormalBias) <float>

While rendering objects into shadowmaps, each vertex will be moved along -ve Normal direction, giving it an appearance of shrinking while rendering to shadowmaps. This property determines the amount of Units to be moved. Helps with shadow aliasing.

Examples

Note:You will not see any changes if your material doesn't not provide bumpmap. NormalBias - 1 NormalBias - 5 NormalBias - 20

Important:Increasing this value will make shadows between different surfaces less accurate, greate example is third picture in examples, there you can see "two" shadows from railing.

Bug:Numbers lower than 0.8 can cause huge graphics issues. Example.

Tip:Increase this value if you are getting aliasing issues like this.

Enable Texture Light (bTexLight) <choices>

Sets lightcookie (texture lights) state, enabled or disabled.

• 0: Disabled
• 1: Enabled

Examples

Disabled Enabled

Warning:This is one of the most expensive features, use wisely.

Texture name for TexLight (texName) <string>

Determines which texture will use the light source. Lightcookies are using .vtf (not .vmt) texture from files (just like env_projectedtexture).

.Enable Prop Only Mode (bNegLight) <choices> 

Deprecated.
Sets prop only mode, which supposed to disable shadows for world geometry. Doesn't work. The same effect can be achieved with shadow pass settings.

• 0: Disabled
• 1: Enabled

LightnGodRayMode (LightnGodRayMode) <choices>

This determines what effects will be available to use for the light source. Keep in mind that the default choice is Light.

• 0: Light - light only.
• 1: Godrays - godrays only.
• 2: Both Light and GodRays - both light and godrays.

Bug:Even if godrays is turned off, the game will still think that the godrays is used if choice is Godrays or Both Light and GodRays.

EnableGodRays (EnableGodRays) <choices>

Sets godrays state on spawn, enabled or disabled.

• 0: Disabled
• 1: Enabled

Warning:You can have only 40 point lights with godrays enabled simultaneously, otherwise the game will crash with this error message.

The error

If you'll try to enable forty-first light point with enabled Godrays.

Density (Density) <float>

Density controls the length of rays/volumetric shadows. 1.0 should work in 99% cases. Good values are 0.5-1.5.

Examples

1.0 0.5 2.0

Weight (Weight) <float>

Weight controls the intensity of volumetric shadow. Blocking of rays by geometry. Good values are 0.1-10.

Examples

1.0 2.0 5.0

Decay (Decay) <float> 

Deprecated.
Decay controls luminance fall off per sample. Value here doesn't work.

Exposure (Exposure) <float>

Exposure controls the intensity of rays during blending pass with main scene. 2.0 is a good start. Good values are 1.0-10.0.

Examples

00.5 01.0 10.0

DistFactor (DistFactor) <float>

DistFactor controls the falloff of rays/length. 1.0 is a good starting value increase or decrease in the increments of 0.1. 0.0 will make the rays dissappear only disk will be rendererd.

Examples

1.0 2.0 5.0

Note:Godrays doesn't look smooth if used big value here. The same for Exposure.

Example

9999

ColorInner (ColorInner) <color255 + int>

The RGB color and brightness of the inner circle. Colors and brightness must be between 0 and 255.

Bug:This color value doesn't work properly with newLight_Point if you are using Normal godrays type. This entity takes only red value. Works fine with Fancy type.

Examples

Note:Rays is disabled on this picture (the colors are partially blending). 0 255 0 255 255 255 255 255 255 0 255 155

ColorRays (ColorRays) <color255 + int>

The RGB color and brightness of the rays. Colors and brightness must be between 0 and 255.

Examples

0 255 0 255 0 0 255 255 255 0 0 55

ColorOuter (ColorOuter) <color255 + int>

The RGB color and brightness of the outer circle. Colors and brightness must be between 0 and 255.

Bug:This color value doesn't work properly with newLight_Point if you are using Normal godrays type. This entity takes only red value. Works fine with Fancy type.

Examples

Note:Rays is disabled on this picture (the colors are partially blending). 255 255 255 255 255 0 0 255 0 0 255 55

Note:You can't use black colors for ColorOuter, ColorInner and ColorRays.

DiskRadius (DiskRadius) <float>

Radius of disk/circle of sun/point light in texturespace. 1.0 will be full screen, 0.5 is half screen, etc. 0 means don't render.

Examples

0.01 0.1 0.7

DiskInnerSizePercent (DiskInnerSizePercent) <float>

Disk inner circle radius is DiskRadius * DiskInnerSizePercent. 0 means don't render.

Examples

Note:Rays is disabled on this picture (for clarity). 0.1 0.7 0.9

GodRaysType (GodRaysType) <choices>

Sets godrays type, normal or fancy.

• 0: Normal
• 1: Fancy

Examples

Normal Fancy

RenderInWorldSpace (m_bEnableWorldSpace) <choices>

Disables disks if this enabled.

• 0: Disabled
• 1: Enabled

Confirm:Does it affect anything else ?

Ell_FR_ConstA (Ell_FR_ConstA) <float>

This is fancy godrays disk size.

Examples

0.9 5 10

Ell_FR_ConstB (Ell_FR_ConstB) <float>

This is fancy godrays disk distortion.

Examples

0.1 1 20

EEll_SR_ConstA (EEll_SR_ConstA) <float>

This is fancy godrays disk hole size.

Examples

0.9 5 20

EEll_SR_ConstB (EEll_SR_ConstB) <float>

This is fancy godrays disk hole distortion.

Examples

0.1 5 20

Ell_RRF_ConstA (Ell_RRF_ConstA) <float>

This is fancy godrays inner size.

Examples

0.9 1.5 2

Ell_RRF_ConstB (Ell_RRF_ConstB) <float>

This is fancy godrays inner distortion.

Examples

0.1 0.7 5.0

RotSpeed (RotSpeed) <float>

Rotating speed of fancy godrays, 0 means don't rotate, with negative number it will rotate to left. Examples (link to a video that showcase different values).

RotPatternFreq (RotPatternFreq) <integer>

Count of fancy godrays, with negative number will deny RotSpeed +/- effect. Examples (link to a video that showcase different values).

m_fAlphaDiskInner (m_fAlphaDiskInner) <float> 

Deprecated.
Alpha inner value for disk. Doesn't work.

m_fAlphaDiskOuter (m_fAlphaDiskOuter) <float> 

Deprecated.
Alpha outer value for disk. Doesn't work.

UseToneMapRays (m_bUseToneMapRays) <choices> 

Deprecated.
Sets tonemap state for rays, enabled or disabled. Doesn't work.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

UseToneMapDisk (m_bUseToneMapDisk) <choices> 

Deprecated.
Sets tonemap state for disk, enabled or disabled. Doesn't work.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowPass_Brush (m_bSRO_Brush) <choices>

Do we want to render world geometry in shadow passes for this light ? Doesn't affect bmodels.

• 0: YES
• 1: NO

ShadowPass_StaticProp (m_bSRO_StaticProp) <choices>

Do we want to render prop_static in shadow passes for this light ? This also affect bmodels.

• 0: YES
• 1: NO

ShadowPass_DynProp (m_bSRO_DynProp) <choices>

Do we want to render dynamic models in shadow passes for this light ?

• 0: YES
• 1: NO

ShadowPass_AlphaTest (m_bSRO__Trans) <choices>

Do we want to render models with transparency materials in shadow passes for this light ? Objects with transparency can cast shadows if your model includes a material without transparency.

• 0: YES
• 1: NO

Inputs

SetColorLight <color255RedirectInput/color32>

Change light's color value. Doesn't affect the godrays.

SetIntensityForLight <floatRedirectInput/float>

Change light's intensity value. Doesn't affect the godrays.

TurnOnGodRays <void>

Turn the godrays on.

TurnOffGodRays <void>

Turn the godrays off.

TurnOn <void>

Turn the light on.

TurnOff <void>

Turn the light off.

Toggle <void>

Toggle the light's current state.

Lightcookies

What is a lightcookie texture ?

Lightcookie (a. k. a. "Texture Light") a texture or mask applied to a light source. It is usually used to shape the light's output or fake shadows with specific patterns (which, unlike shadowmaps, can be translucent and look more accurate). It also can be used for stuff like projectors, cautists, disco spheres, etc.

In Black Mesa, it can be used via "Texture name for TexLight (texName)" property (to specify the texture) and "Enable Texture Light (bTexLight)" (to enable the feature).

This game used lightcookies mainly for fake shadowmaps and cautists. They are used for some entities by default (batteries and grunt pods for example).

• 

  Lightcookie is disabled.

• 

  Lightcookie is enabled.

Lightcookies are disabled with 2 (Low) value for nr_shadow_quality (Dynamic Shadow Quality).

Texture mask

The texture mask defines which pixels will display the lighting and also affects their color. Black pixel color will not render the light at all, white will render the light and its color value, other colors (red, blue, yellow, etc.) will be mixed with the light color value, depending on their intensity and how close they are to white. Alpha channel doesn't affect anything, so make sure you don't use it in your texture.

Point lights requires "Environment Map" texture to work with lightcookies, because point lights are using 6 separate faces, so each face requires separate texture. Follow these steps to create "Environment Map" texture.

Spot lights can use any texture basically.

It is recommended to use No Mipmap and No Level Of Detail flags for your VTF file, so the texture will not cause aliasing issues.

• 

  Two point lights with two different lightcookie textures. The left don't use the flags, unlike the right texture.

Important:Lightcookies are not using VMT materials, you only need texture.

Animation

Spot lights also support 2 different animation types, which allow you to animate a texture in two different ways.

Texture Cookie FPS

In this mode, a spot light will split image into specified amount of frames (so called atlases) and change frames with specified speed (FPS).

The splitting of specified texture into separate parts is done using two-dimensional arrays (in this context, this can also be called a two-dimensional table). The value from TexCookieFramesX (TexCookieFramesX) creates the specified number of rows, the value from TexCookieFramesY (TexCookieFramesY) creates the specified number of columns.

The final number of frames is the value from TexCookieFramesX multiplied by TexCookieFramesY. For example, value 3 in both TexCookieFramesX and TexCookieFramesY will split image into 9 parts.

• 

  console\background01.vtf original image.

• 

  console\background01.vtf splitted into 9 parts (3 by 3).

The spot light will change frames from top to bottom and left to right. The frames from the top row are shown first, the spot light passes over them from left to right, then moves down to the next row. If it showed the last frame, it will restart the process. The amount of time it takes to move to the next frame depends on specified value from TexCookieFps (TexCookieFps).

Texture Cookie Scroll Mode

In this mode, lightcookie texture can scroll in X and Y directions. This feature can be enabled with Tex Cookie Scroll Mode (bTexCookieScrollMode) property.

X direction controlled by ScrollSpeedU (fScrollSpeedU) property. Y direction controlled by ScrollSpeedV (fScrollSpeedV) property. Both takes a float value. The default X direction is left, Y is up. Using a value multiplied by -1 will reverse direction, this allows you to use 8 different scroll directions. 0 means don't move in this direction. The size of the value affects the scroll speed.

Here is the video showcase of all 8 directions and how the feature look like.

Note:Combing this mode with previous will result in using first atlas frame for scroll mode.

Shadow Mapping

To cast dynamic shadows, Black Mesa uses  shadow mapping (shadow maps for short) technique for new point and spot light entities when HasShadow property is enabled. Used local shadowmap camera and depth buffer.

• 

  Flashlight's shadowmap camera in depth buffer.

• 

  The final image.

Spot light uses only one camera, while point lights 6 for 6 different directions to make more accurate shadows for omnidirectional light, this is why it takes 6 shadowmap slots (see below) and 6 times the cost of new spot light. You can disable each shadowmap individually for a new point light entity.

The shadowmaps stored in a large shadowmap atlas, which makes having lots of shadowmap textures a lot cheaper for GPU. There is two of them, one for static shadowmaps (see below) and one more for dynamic shadowmaps.

• 

  One of the shadow atlases.

Because shadowmap is a texture with limited amount of pixels in it, distance from the light source and objects makes it less accurate a distance.

• 

  Small distance between the light source and Barney's model.

• 

  Large distance between the light source and Barney's model.

Shadow FOV, which can be changed with OuterAngle property or ShadowFOV property, also affects shadowmap quality. Due to the pixels spread, shadows are less accurate with large FOV values.

• 

  60 OuterAngle value.

• 

  170 OuterAngle value.

There is 3 shadowmap resolutions, small (256), medium (512) and big (1024). Higher values create sharper, more accurate shadows, but cost much more to render. Sharp shadows may not be appropriate for all situations either, sometimes soft shadows look more accurate. They are defined by ShadowMapLOD property, which uses hard coded choice (0, 1, 2), this is why it's not possible to use custom shadowmap resolutions. Each shadowmap resolution takes one shadowmap slot.

• 

  256
  

• 

  512
  

• 

  1024
  

The edges of the shadows can be made smoother (or more stepped) with ShadowRadius property. It determines the radius of shadow edges for soft shadows. If its value is negative, code will auto assign a value depending on ShadowLod. These code based values can be adjusted via convars nr_shadow_rad_High, nr_shadow_rad_Med and nr_shadow_rad_Low.

• 

  ShadowRadius - 0.0001
  

• 

  ShadowRadius - 1
  

• 

  ShadowRadius - 5
  

The NearZ distance used by shadowmap camera (distance at which the light source will start cast shadows) can be controlled with NearZ property. The FarZ distance uses value from Range property.

Console variable nr_shadow_quality sets shadow quality and enable/disable shadows for all or certain objects. Controlled by Dynamic Shadow Quality option. Only 5 values are available for it:

• 0 (Disabled) - Shadows and lightcookies are completely disabled.
• 1 (POTATO) - Shadows are available for world geometry and displacements, only for Static and Stationary light types. The shadows are very pixelated. The player's flashlight also gets very simple shadows with "stairs".
• 2 (Low) - Added brush entities and static props in shadowmaps, only for Static and Stationary light types. Enabled lightcookies.
• 3 (Medium) - All the shadows are also available for Dynamic light type.
• 4 (Hight) - Added dynamic models in shadowmaps for Stationary and Dynamic.

Console variable nr_shadow_res affects the quality of shadows. Controlled by Dynamic Shadow Memory option. Only 4 values are available for it:

• 0 (Hight) - Hight quality.
• 1 (Medium) - Medium quality.
• 2 (Low) - Low quality.
• 3 (POTATO) - Very low quality.

Bug:If there are too many shadowmaps in a frame, this can lead to laggy shadow atlas update.

Todo: How many ?

Shadow filtering

Versions of the game before Necro Patch uses PСF filter. The shadow edges are sharper and exhibit a more distinct transition. There are visible aliasing artifacts, particularly on the edges. Shadows from small or thin objects were also indistinguishable. However, it was pretty good for shadows with low resolution, because they looked blurry. The shadows are somewhat similar to those that can be seen from the projected textures in Portal 2.

• 

  Barney's hand with old shadow filtering.

The Necro Patch replaced PСF filter with PCSS filter. The shadow edges appear smoother and less jagged. The transition from the shadow to the lit area has more gradient-like softening. Shadows have become more detailed for small objects. Because of this, you have to adjust the shadows more carefully.

• 

  Barney's hand with new shadow filtering.

This filter has one significant issue: there is now noticeable noise in the shadows. This is mostly noticeable in low resolution shadows, this spoils them quite a lot (although it makes them more detailed). There is no way to disable this effect. The noise also makes the shadows more similar to shadows from flashlight in Half-Life 2. It is worth noting that such thing exists in more modern engines (Unreal Engine 5 for example, even though they are not easily visible due to temporal anti-aliasing smoothing the artifact), so you can ignore the noise if it's not very noticeable, especially on shadows with high quality.

The noise is adjusted via ShadowRadius and ShadowMapLOD values, mainly via ShadowRadius; you even can disable the noise with 0 value, but this will make your shadows will look like stairs/pixels.

• 

  The noise example.

Note:It is not entirely clear which term is correct, PCSS or PCCS, since it could be orgography, but it is possible (though unlikely) that they created their own filter.

Static shadow maps

If our light source remains in the same position and never changes it, we expect that shadows from world geometry, displacement, prop_static and even bmodels (brush entities) are completely static, this means that we don't need to update shadows for them every frame, so it would be nice to bake shadows for all such objects to save performance. This is why we need static shadow maps.

When your light appears, static shadow maps skip all the dynamic models in their pass and take 1-6 pictures of everything mentioned above, then static shadow maps applies to the lighting from the light source and never change again (until save reload).

This doesn't happen if your light source is disabled, so you need to keep it enabled on spawn around 1 second. If you need disabled light source - set intensity value to 0 and then after 1 second turn off light source (don't forget to set required intensity value).

Static shadow maps are used for Static and Stationary light type. For Stationary type, engine also disable shadows passes in dynamic shadows for everything mentioned above, so that the use of static shadow maps makes sense (this still saves performance quite well). Dynamic light type don't use static shadow maps at all, because it can move, so we need to have dynamic shadows for everything.

Important to note that bmodels are also in static shadows maps, including func_physbox, func_door, func_breakable, etc. This is true, despite the fact that such objects can be removed or moved. Most likely this is due to func_detail, which is very similar in principle to regular world geometry, but cannot be removed or moved, unlike all other brush entities. It gives some problems, because shadows from lab doors or elevators will remain static, while these objects are moving. There are 2 good ways to workaround this issue, "lazy" method and " time-consuming" method. The first is very simple and quick, just use Dynamic light type, this will reduce performance but will completely fix the problem and save your time. The second is using Propper with converting your brush to model, you'll need spend time on propper_model setting and brush replacing, but this will also save performance and solve the problem.

Shadow map slots

Shadow map slots is how many lights with shadows you can have per level. There are 3 separate shadow map slots, High (for lights with 1024 value for ShadowMap LOD property), Medium (for lights with 512 value for ShadowMap LOD property) and Low (for lights with 256 value for ShadowMap LOD property).

In High and Medium you can have 48 separate shadow maps, for Low you can have 47 separate shadow maps (143 shadow maps in total).

Each spot light with shadows takes 1 shadow map slot, so you can have 48/47 spot lights with shadows, if they are using the same value for ShadowMap LOD property.

Each point light with shadows takes 6 shadow map slots, because point light uses 6 separate shadow maps to render shadows. This means that you can have 8 point lights with shadows, if they are using the same value for ShadowMap LOD property. You can increase this value if you need, just disable shadows for one of the shadow face properties.

If one of the shadow map slots is full - you will not be able to have shadows for more lights with such shadow quality, you will need to use other value for ShadowMap LOD property.

Point lights and spot lights doesn't counts separately. You can't have 48 spot lights with 8 point lights, but you can have 6 spot lights with 7 point lights.

You can free up shadow map slots with Kill input. So, you can place triggers which will Kill lights that player can't see and spawn new lights via point_template (uncheck the second flag for point_template, this prevents some bugs). This helps a lot when you want to have many dynamic lights in different areas.

Important to note that due to some engine bugs you can't use many lights with shadows. Some tests show that 9th point light cause lights with shadows to be very glitchy. This can be done with spot lights as well. So don't be surprised if at some point you find something like this.

• 

  The bug example.

It looks like you can workaround it if you will switch ShadowMap LOD property values from higher to lower.

Tip:You can use nr_debug_print_shadow_slots_info to get full info about shadowmap slots.

Shadow map passes per frame

Instead of using the current value from the FPS, shadows use the value from nr_shadow_max_passes_per_frame console variable. It stagger the updation of shadow maps, for both static and dynamic, over a few frames. This feature adjustable via Dynamic Shadow Memory graphics settings. This solution preserves performance, since instead of using 300 from FPS value, the shadow will be updated only 24 times per second, which is enough to display most scenes in dynamic shadows.

Bug:"End Game" chapter crashes at some moment with 29 and higher values.

Shadows behavior with VIS and areaportals

Static type

Static type is the most stable, since its shadows are baked in and updates only with save loads or while lighting turning on. It shows all shadows even with closed areaportal.

• 

  Areaportal is open.

• 

  Areaportal is closed.

Stationary type

Shadows for static props and brushes are baked, but not for physics props and other dynamic models. This means that shadows from dynamic models will disappear if they are hidden by a closed areaportal or if VIS is hiding such objects. Shadows for static props and brushes will not disappear.

• 

  Areaportal is open.

• 

  Areaportal is closed.

In some cases, this can be noticeable if dynamic model creates a large shadow.

• 

  Areaportal hides the box, note that there is no shadow.

• 

  Areaportal shows the box, now there is a shadow of the box.

With mat_wireframe 1.

• 

  Areaportal hides the box.

• 

  Areaportal shows the box.

Dynamic type

Shadows for static props and world geometry are baked, but not for dynamic models and brushes. This means that shadows from dynamic models and brushes will disappear if they are hidden by a closed areaportal or if VIS is hiding such objects. Shadows for static props and world geometry will not disappear. Moving lighting will update shadows for static props and world geometry, even with closed areaportal.

• 

  Areaportal is open.

• 

  Areaportal is closed.

Player spawn and areaportals

If player spawned in position where areaportal don't hide objects - shadows will be fine. Otherwise, static shadowmap will not see models with bmodels and will bake shadows only for world geometry and displacements. This problem is not relevant only for Dynamic light type. The problem disappears after save reload from proper position.

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  Player spawned in position where areaportal don't hide objects. The columns are func_detail, the pipes are prop_static.

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  Player spawned in position where areaportal hide objects. Note that the columns and pipes don't have any shadows.

Shadows behavior with start/end fade dist for prop_static

This mechanic has some issues with static shadowmaps. It seems that there are limitations that don't allow to fix these issues, or this issues was not noticed at the development stage.

Static type

If player spawns in fade radius - shadows will never disappear (until save reload if out of radius).

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  In radius.

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  Out of radius.

If player spawns out of radius. - shadows will never appear (until save reload in radius).

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The same for props with both Start and End fade dist.

Stationary type

The above mentioned issues are also available for this type.

Appears issue for prop_static with both Start and End fade dist.

If player spawns in Start fade radius - shadows will never disappear (until save reload if out of radius). The same happens if player spawns in End fade radius.

If player spawns out of radius - shadows will appear if you are in End fade radius and disappear if you are in Start fade radius (until save reload in radius). This happens because prop_static actually disappears completely, and creates a separate object as a fading model (this is also why decals disappear if player is out of Start fade radius).

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  In radius.

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  Out of Start fade radius.

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  Out of End fade radius.

Dynamic type

Dynamic type don't use static shadowmaps at all. This means that there is no problems with fading prop_static at all.

Important:All the issues are also available for func_lod.

Godrays Implementation

Implementation

Godrays in this game are based on sprite entities. They are a post-processed 2D plane that always turns to player's camera. The size of such plane is consistent with the screen size making it appear larger at a distance, in comparison to the world, similar to how Glow render mode works for env_sprite, but unlike the render mode, such plane is rendered so that the sprite will cut through any surrounding geometry, similar to how Additive render mode works for env_sprite.

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  Sprite.

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  Godrays.

This plane is also not affected by VIS, which means that you will always see it, even if your area in which your light source is located is closed by an areoportal.

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Such implementation has several consequences that limits amount of cases when you can use it.

Limitations And Use Tips

Local point light godrays can "leak" (example on the pictures), since nothing limits the rendering and the size of the plane. The only you can do is place triggers that will turn on/off godrays, but this also basically means you can't use godrays in multiplayer levels, because multiple players can be located in different places of your map (there is no way to disable godrays for each client separately).

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Because godrays always turns to player's camera, make sure you are using this effect in areas where view angle for player is very limited. The reason is showed in this short video clip, note how battery stops processing at some moment.

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  Bad example, player's view angle is not limited, the player also can walk around in any direction. Both factors are making godrays leaking and bad clipping most of the time.

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  Good example, player can look at the godrays forwardly only. The player also can walk only back or forward in this area. Both factors making the godrays nice looking.

Note:Everything mentioned here also applies to the disks.

Dedicated ConVars

Cvar/Command	Parameters or default value	Descriptor	Effect
nr_allow_hammer_nerfs	0	Integer	Allow new lights nerfs via Newlights_gbuffersettings entity. 0 - Disabled. 1 - Allowed. 2 - Enabled/Forced.
nr_allow_hammer_nerfs_4ways	0	Integer	Allow Enable4WaysFastPath property from Newlights_gbuffersettings entity. 0 - Disabled. 1 - Allowed. 2 - Enabled/Forced.
nr_shadow_max_passes_per_frame	16	Float	Frame per second in shadowmaps. The higher the value, the smoother and faster the shadows from objects can change. The recommended value is 24-28, not higher.
nr_shadow_quality	4	Integer	Sets shadow quality and enable/disable shadows for all or certain objects. Controlled by Dynamic Shadow Quality option. Only 5 values are available here. 0 (Disabled) - Shadows and lightcookies are completely disabled. 1 (POTATO) - Shadows are available for world geometry and displacements, only for Static and Stationary light types. The shadows are very pixelated. The player's flashlight also gets very simple shadows with "stairs". 2 (Low) - Added brush entities and static props in shadowmaps, only for Static and Stationary light types. Enabled lightcookies. 3 (Medium) - All the shadows are also available for Dynamic light type. 4 (Hight) - Added dynamic models in shadowmaps for Stationary and Dynamic.
mat_unlock_gfx_highend_unsupported	0	Bool	When enabled this convar will unlock extreme graphics options. There will be a significant FPS drop when running game on ULTRA or INSANE configs. Game will consume upto 3 gigs of VRAM when some of the extreme graphics options have been enabled. These high end graphics config options are not officially supported. Don't enable this unless you have at least 3.5 GHZ quad core CPU with GTX 1080. These options are mainly for debugging and modders.
nr_lights_quality	4	Integer	Sets lights quality, state (for specific entities), enable/disable effects. Controlled by Dynamic Light Quality option. Only 7 values are available here. 0 (POTATO) - Disabled muzzle flash light (regardless of muzzleflash_light), lighting from batteries (regardless of cl_battery_dlights), light sources from dynlightscript.txt, dynamic lights are also disabled for some other entities. Halflambertion is disabled. New specular is disabled. Bumpmaps are disabled. Lights are disabled completely in secondary cameras (monitors, water, etc). Overlaying on viewmodel looks pretty broken. Light is not smoothed out (most noticeable in the least bright areas). 1 (Low) - Allowed muzzle flash light, lighting from batteries, enabled light sources from dynlightscript.txt, other dynamic lights are also enabled for some other entities. Enabled bumpmaps for models. 2 (Medium) - Enabled bumpmaps for brushes. Lights in secondary cameras, but most effects is disabled. 3 (Hight) - Halflambertion with new specular is enabled. Fixed overlaying on viewmodel. Light is smoothed out. 4 (Very Hight) - Bumpmaps are also uncompressed, this makes lighting on surfaces more detailed. 5 (INSANE) - All the effects is enabled in secondary cameras. 6 (DevOnly) - This one for developers only. Includes uncompressed buffers and 32-bit depth. Don't use if you are general player or modder.
nr_shadow_res	0	Integer	Affects the quality of shadows. Controlled by Dynamic Shadow Memory option. Only 4 values are available here. 0 (Hight) - Hight quality. 1 (Medium) - Medium quality. 2 (Low) - Low quality. 3 (POTATO) - Very low quality.
nr_shadow_res_dkvk	0	Integer	It doesn't seem to work.
r_4way_minimal_mode_override	-1	Integer	Enable/disable bumpmaps for Lightmapped_4WayBlend. Since one material of this shader provides 4 bumpmaps at once, disabling them will significantly affect performance. -1/0 - Enabled. 1/2 - Disabled. Note:This cvar needs mat_reloadallmaterials to see changes.
np_gr_quality	2	Integer	Enable/disable godrays. Controlled by God Rays option or Enable God Rays button (if used VGUI). 0 - Disabled. 1/2 - Enabled. 1 supposed to enable godrays only for newLight_Dir, 2 for both point lights and newLight_Dir, but currently both values enable both types.
np_gr_quality_sample_count	3	Integer	Amount of samples for godrays. This affects the quality/detail of the rays. Controlled by God Rays option, although the original game never changes the value (always 3). Min value is 0, max is 4. The max value is not recommended, it has a huge impact on frame rate, at the same time it does not create a big difference in the game.
np_gr_quality_pass_count	1	Integer	Pass count. Not very clear what exactly this affects, but it significantly reduces performance, and Fancy Rays also become pretty buggy. Controlled by God Rays option, although the original game never changes the value (always 1). Min value is 0, max is 4. Use the default value only.
nr_gbuffer_for_reflection_enabled	1	Bool	Enable/disable gbuffer for water reflections.
nr_gbuffer_for_refraction_enabled	1	Bool	Enable/disable gbuffer for refractions.
nr_gbuffer_for_secondary_cams_enabled	1	Bool	Enable/disable gbuffer for secondary cameras (monitors, etc).
nr_gbuffer_for_secondary_cams_quality	-1	Bool	New lights quality in secondary cameras and water reflections. With -1 it will use quality from nr_lights_quality cvar. With 0-5 it will use itown quality settings (in the same way as nr_lights_quality).
nr_shadow_filter_quality	2	Integer	Sets shadow filter quality. Min value is 0, max is 3. 0 (POTATO) - Shadow filter disabled. 1 (Medium) - Medium quality. 2 (Hight) - Hight quality. 3 (INSANE) - Best filter quality.
nr_shadow_rad_Low	1.0	Float	Sets shadow filter quality scale for lights with 256 ShadowLOD value.
nr_shadow_rad_Med	1.5	Float	Sets shadow filter quality scale for lights with 512 ShadowLOD value.
nr_shadow_rad_Hight	1.5	Float	Sets shadow filter quality scale for lights with 1024 ShadowLOD value.
nr_shadow_biasoverwrite	0	Bool	Used by New Lights Editor. Allows/disallows to overwrite bias related values.
nr_shadow_nearz_overrite	-1.0	Float	Used by New Lights Editor. Changes NearZ value for all new lights.
nr_shadow_rad_override	0	Bool	Used by New Lights Editor. Allows/disallows to overwrite shadow radius related values.
nr_shadow_fov_overrite	-1	Float	Used by New Lights Editor. If the value of this convar is higher than -1 it will overrite FOV for shadowed lights.
nr_shadow_biasdepth	0.0002	Float	Used by New Lights Editor. Changes Depth Bias value for all new lights.
nr_shadow_biasnormaloffset	1	Float	Used by New Lights Editor. Changes Normal Bias value for all new lights.
nr_shadow_biasslope	0.2	Float	Used by New Lights Editor. Changes Slope Depth Bias value for all new lights.
nr_shadow_active	666	Integer	Sets max active shadowmaps. The value seems hardcoded.
nr_debug_print_shadow_slots_info		Void	Prints text to the console about shadowmap slots and their light sources. It prints light type (point or spot) with their index, shadowmap enabled state (for each face), shadowmaps number, new light's targetname and position of it. Below it also prints information about free shadowmap slots for each shadow resolution.
nr_debug_force_shadowmap_res	-1	Bool	Only for debugging. Forces all new lights to use specified shadowmap resolution. -1 means use value from the property.
nr_debug_force_dynamic_on_all_stationary_lights	0	Bool	Only for debugging. Forces all stationary new lights to be fully dynamic and update even baked shadows.
nr_debug_force_lightstyle	0	Integer	Only for debugging. Forces all new lights to use specified appearance/light style. Possible values are 0-13. 13 for custom style from nr_debug_force_lightstyle_custom_string. 0 means use use value from the property.
nr_debug_force_lightstyle_custom_string	1	String	Only for debugging. Forces all new lights to use custom appearance/light style. Works the same as with lightmapped lights.
nr_debug_shadow_render_internal_disable	0	Bool	Only for debugging. Forces all new lights to disable shadowmaps rendering.
nr_debug_shadow_print_indices_assignment	0	Bool	Only for debugging. Prints text to the console about all new light sources and shadowmaps after level/save loading.
nr_debug_lights_mesh	0	Bool	Only for debugging. Enable/disable new lights mesh.
nr_debug_lights_mesh_fullscreen	0	Bool	[Todo]
nr_debug_light_mesh_volumesize_large	0	Bool	Only for debugging. Enable/disable new lights large mesh volume size mesh.
nr_debug_cull_deferred_lights	1	Bool	[Todo]
nr_debug_cull_deferred_code_lights_via_bsp	1	Bool	[Todo]
nr_dev_shoot_lights_enabled	0	Bool	Enable/disable point lights on each shoot. Only for player and only for bullet weapons. Shotgun can create several at once. Disappears after save reload. Warning:Kills performance.
nr_dev_lights_quality_override	0	Bool	Enable/disable light quality override. Required for some cvars with nr_dev_ prefix.
nr_dev_gb_debug_type	4	Integer	0 - DepthOnly. 1 - GBuffer_Fast 2 - GBuffer_Fast2. 3 - GBuffer_Fast3. 4 - Gbuffer_Slow.
nr_dev_gb_quality	2	Integer	Changes gbuffer quality.
nr_dev_lb_quality	1	Integer	0 is broken. 1 - default mode. 2 - debug materials with new specular.
nr_disable_setting_auto_reload	0	Bool	[Todo]
nr_fps_spam	0	Bool	For devolopers only. Spamming in the console performance values. Numbers aren't accurate.
nr_light_spot_bbox_optimizie	2	Intenger	Sets BBOX type for spot lights. Min value is 0, max is 3. There are note that 1 is broken. 3 makes BBOX size very small, so spot light sources will disappear even if they are in the player's field of vision.
nr_light_spot_mesh_volumesize_large	0	Intenger	This makes BBOX larger than it needs to be.
nr_lights_info		Void	Used by the game when you launch it. Prints in the console info about hardware support for texture formats, allocated formats and quality settings.
nr_lights_vol_check_threshold	10	Float	[Todo]
nr_light_settings_transition_exp	2	Integer	Affects the quality of the transition for changes from newLights_settings. 0 - no transition. 1 - transition. 2 - smooth transition.
nr_lights_procedural_disable_all_lights	0	Bool	Disable all proceduraly created new lights (npc_zombie_hev, item_battery, weapons, etc).
nr_lights_procedural_enable_lights_priority_check	1	Bool	If enabled - all the code based procedural lights will go through priority based check before adding to render queue.
r_nr_deffered_debug_normals	0	Bool	Enable/disable normals debug.
r_nr_deffered_force_diffuse_only	0	Bool	Forces new lights to use diffuse texture only.
r_nr_deffered_lights_hlslclip_range_on	1	Bool	Enable/disable actual new light range in normals debug.
r_nr_deffered_lights_hlslclip_dir_on	0	Bool	[Todo]
r_nr_deferred_AA_fix_multiplier	1	Bool	Fixes anti aliasing issues. Example Disabled. Enabled.
sv_ignite_light_mode	2	Integer	Sets fire light source availability for ignited objects. Min value is 0, max is 3. 0 - Fully disabled. 1 - Available for marines, doesn't work. 2 - Available for all NPCs. 3 - Available for everything, including physics objects and player. Bug:Doesn't work with env_shooter.

Note:

• It's not full list.
• Some of these console variables needs save reload for changes.

Bugs/Limitations

See /Bugs and limitations

See also

• newLight_Dir - directional sun light with godrays only.
• NewLights_Spawner - spawner of deferred point lights.
• env_lensflare - cinematic dynamic lens flare.
• newLight_Spot - spot deferred light entity.
• newLights_settings - entity that changes deferred light settings.
• godrays_settings - entity that changes godrays settings.
• env_cascade_light - deferred cascade sun light entity.
• New Lights Editor - in game deferred lights editor.
• Effect flags - effects flags, some of them are dynamic light effects.
• BlackMesa XenEngine: Part 4 – Lighting & Shadows - page from Chetan (lead programmer for Black Mesa) about new lights.
• BlackMesa XenEngine: Part2 – How a Frame is Rendered - page from Chetan (lead programmer for Black Mesa) about how a frame is rendered.
• BlackMesa XenEngine: Part1 – Heavily Modified Source Engine page from Chetan (lead programmer for Black Mesa) about Xengine.