Point spotlight

Class hierarchy
CPointSpotlight ↳CPointEntity ↳CBaseEntity
point_spotlight.cpp

A point_spotlight.

point_spotlight is a point entity available in all Source games. Creates two glow sprite effects: a beam effect for viewers outside the light cone and a halo effect for viewers inside the cone. Also creates dynamic light at the end of the beam if desired flags are set which is achieved using spotlight_end.

The spotlight_end functionality can be disabled with the 'No Dynamic Light' spawnflag. In that state, the spotlight will not actually illuminate other objects on its own and can be used with an accompanying light_spot or env_projectedtexture instead.

Bug:In Portal 2 and Black Mesa the Alpha (renderamt) property is not functional at all, use HDRColorScale instead.

Warning:This entity generates 3 edicts (for itself, the beam visual and beam target respectively: point_spotlight, beam, spotlight_end! In Team Fortress 2 and Garry's Mod, the point_spotlight itself has been converted to a server-only entity (does not take up an edict), and in Team Fortress 2, when no targetname and parentname is assigned, the point_spotlight and spotlight_end entity is also killed, thus consuming 1 edict in total for a static spotlight.

Bug:Killing this entity either by Kill input or by killing its parent while it's turned on will leave behind the beam and spotlight_end entities. Beam won't be visible but the spotlight_end will be.

Workaround:Fire LightOff input first, then with small delay Kill.

  (tested in: ,)

Note:beam collides only with prop_static and world geometry, this means that beam of point_spotlight and dynamic light will ignore any dynamic objects (with the exception of func_physbox), NPCs, physics objects, e.t.c.

Third-Party notices

Note:In Alien Swarm Deferred this entity is not supported and on loading a map all point_spotlight entities will be converted to Light deferred! Important: Black Mesa are using deferred lighting for light source from this entity.

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

Ignore Solid (IgnoreSolid) <boolean> (in all games since ) (also in , !FGD in )

If set, this spotlight won't trace for solids, emitting at its full length and ignoring potential obstructions.

Spotlight Length (SpotlightLength) <integer>

Length of the spotlight beam.

Spotlight Width (SpotlightWidth) <integer>

Width of the spotlight beam.

Color (R G B) (rendercolor) <color255>

Spotlight color.

HDR color scale. (HDRColorScale) <float>

Float value to multiply sprite color by when running in HDR mode.

Halo size scale. (HaloScale) <float> (in all games since ) (also in )

Float value to determine the size of the halo.

Mapbase only properties

Halo material (HaloMaterial) <string> Material to use for the halo. Spotlight beam material (SpotlightMaterial) <string> Material to use for the spotlight's beam.

Performance properties

Minimum / Maximum DX Level (mindxlevel / maxdxlevel) <integer choices> (removed since ) The entity will not exist if the engine is running outside the given range of DirectX Versions. Choices Warning:If these are used, the object may break when the user switches their DirectX settings.[missing string] 0 - Default (no bounding) 60 - DirectX 6 (!FGD for mindxlevel) 70 - DirectX 7 80 - DirectX 8 (GeForce4 Ti & FX 5000 series) 81 - DirectX 8.1 (GeForce FX 5800, 5900 & Radeon 8500/9100 and 9000/9200) 90 - DirectX 9 Shader Model 2 92 - OpenGL аналогичен DirectX 9 Shader Model 2 (using ToGL; only) !FGD 95 - DirectX 9 Shader Model 3 (in all games since ) 98 - DirectX 9 Shader Model 3 on Xbox 360 ( only) !FGD Minimum / Maximum Effect Details Level (mincpulevel / maxcpulevel) <integer choices> (in all games since ) Don't render for players with Effect Details levels that exceed the minimum or maximum. Choices 0: Default ("Low" for mincpulevel, "High" for maxcpulevel) 1: Low 2: Medium 3: High Minimum / Maximum Shader Details Level (mingpulevel / maxgpulevel) <integer choices> (in all games since ) Don't render for players with Shader Details levels that exceed the minimum or maximum. Choices 0: Default ("Low" for mingpulevel, "Very High" for maxgpulevel) 1: Low 2: Medium 3: High 4: Very High See also:  cpu_level / gpu_level convars

Flags

Start On : [1]

No Dynamic Light : [2]

Bug:In Left 4 Dead 2 alpha of spawned spotlight_end is set wrongly causing no light to be visible.

Fix:Use following script as point_spotlight's Entity script

function L4D2PointSpotlightFix() {
    for(local ent; ent = Entities.FindByClassname(ent, "spotlight_end");) {
        if(NetProps.GetPropEntity(ent, "m_hOwnerEntity") == self) {
            local clrrender = NetProps.GetPropInt(self, "m_clrRender");
            NetProps.SetPropInt(ent, "m_clrRender", clrrender);
            return;
        }
    }
}

function OnPostSpawn() {
    if((NetProps.GetPropInt(self, "m_spawnflags") & 3) == 0) {
        L4D2PointSpotlightFix();
    }
    self.ConnectOutput("OnLightOn", "L4D2PointSpotlightFix")
}

Inputs

LightOn

Turn the spotlight on.

LightOff

Turn the spotlight off.

LightToggle  (only in )

Toggles the spotlight on/off

SetColor <color255RedirectInput/color32> (in all games since ) (also in )

Change the color of the spotlight. Light must be turned off then back on for dynamic light to update.

Note:Functionally identical to the Color input. A delay of at least 0.01 is required before the spotlight is turned back on, or else it will remain off.

ForceUpdate  (in all games since ) (also in )

Force an update of the spotlight position and orientation.

Outputs

OnLightOn

!activator = !caller = this entity
Fires when light turns on.

OnLightOff

!activator = !caller = this entity
Fires when light turns off.

Code related

By default, point_spotlight uses the material sprites/glow_test02.vmt. You can change this if you are shipping your own binaries by going into point_spotlight.cpp in the server project, navigating to line 351 and replacing the file path with your own material or a reference to a variable set via a KV similarly as Mapbase's SpotlightMaterial KV.

See also

• Lighting