NewLight Point

newLight_Point is an e0 available in Black Mesa. It is one of the many new lighting entities available. Black Mesa incorporates a new lighting system which utilizes  Deferred lighting to create a hyper realistic interpretation of light.

Gif from Black Mesa Definitive Edition beta announcement.

← Black Mesa Level Creation

Keyvalues

Name (targetname) <string>

The name that other entities refer to this entity by.

Parent (parentname) <targetname>

The name of this entity's parent in the movement hierarchy. Entities with parents move with their parent.

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.

Important:Have huge differences if you use texture for your newLight_Point.

Enabled (Enabled) <choices>

Enable/Disable this Entity.

Determines if the light is off at level start.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

Appearance (FlareStyle) <choices>

Template:Light appearances

Light Color (LightColor) <color255>

This is the color of the sunlight.

Determines color of light.

Light Ambient Color (LightColorAmbient) <color255>

This is the ambient color of the sunlight.

Determines color of shadows that light source creates.

Light Intensity (Intensity) <float>

RGB * Intensity.

Brightness of the light.

SpecularMultiplier (SpecMultiplier) <float>

0 to 1 RGB * Intensity * SpecularMultiplier.

Brightness of the specular shader from this light source.

Examples

SpecularMultiplier - 1 SpecularMultiplier - 10 SpecularMultiplier - 20

Range (Range) <float>

Range.

How far the light source illuminates. Measured in Hammer Units.

Examples

Range - 150 Range - 300 Range - 500

Light Type (LightType) <choices>

Determines the light type.

• 0: Static - shadows are cast only by static objects (prop_static, geometry, etc.). Lighting does not update if it has parent (use if part scene has no large moving parts, or shadow accuracy is not important).
• 1: Stationary - shadows are cast by static and dynamic objects, lighting does not update if it has a parent.
  Important:Shadows for dynamic props update, but not dynamic geometry!
• 2: Dynamic - shadows are cast by static and dynamic objects, lighting updates if it does have a parent. This light is quite expensive, and should only be used for moving light sources, and if your scene have moving geometry.

Examples

Light Type - Static Light Type - Stationary Light Type - Dynamic

HasShadow (HasShadow) <choices>

Do you want this light to have shadows?

Determines whether the light source will cast shadows. Remember that 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.

Determines quality of shadows. 1024 is very expensive, use it only in places where it's really needed, in most cases 512 is good alternative. 256 produces the blurriest shadows, but it is also the cheapest.

• 0: 256
• 1: 512
• 2: 1024

Examples

256 512 1024

Important:In one level you can have only 8 light spot/points with shadows which use one and same shadow lod, even if you don't use all them simultaneously. If this limit is not respected - 9-th and next lights will not cast shadows. However - you can rise up this limit with point_template, just kill past lights with kill input and spawn new when you need it. Also use different shadow lods.

ShadowFaceX (ShadowFaceX) <choices>

Shadow Enabled for this Face ?

Determines whether the given side lighting will display shadows.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceX_Minus (ShadowFaceX_Minus) <choices>

Shadow Enabled for this Face ?

Determines whether the given side lighting will display shadows.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceY (ShadowFaceY) <choices>

Shadow Enabled for this Face ?

Determines whether the given side lighting will display shadows.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceY_Minus (ShadowFaceY_Minus) <choices>

Shadow Enabled for this Face ?

Determines whether the given side lighting will display shadows.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceZ (ShadowFaceZ) <choices>

Shadow Enabled for this Face ?

Determines whether the given side lighting will display shadows.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowFaceZ_Minus (ShadowFaceZ_Minus) <choices>

Shadow Enabled for this Face ?

Determines whether the given side lighting will display shadows.

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

NearZ (NearZ) <float>

NearZ used by shadowmap camera for this light.

Determines distance at which light source will cast shadows.

DepthBias (DepthBias) <float>

DepthBias - Offset added to depth values in shadowmaps.

SlopeDepthBias (SlopeDepthBias) <float>

Slope Depth Bias - For surfaces having aliasing due to steep angles with light.

NormalBias (NormalBias) <float>

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

Examples

NormalBias - 1 NormalBias - 5 NormalBias - 10

Bug:Numbers lower than 0.8 can cause huge graphics problems.  [todo tested in ?]

The bug example

File:NormalBiasBug.gif NormalBias - 0

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.

Determines shadow blur. Low numbers are expensive to render.

Examples

ShadowRadius - 0.0001 ShadowRadius - 1 ShadowRadius - 5

Enable Texture Light (bTexLight) <choices>

Enable Texture Ligh.

Determines whether the given light source uses .vtf texture from game files (just like env_projectedtexture). With NewLight_Point, this technically works like a cube. A great example is the batteries that use lights/lightcookie_battery.vtf.

• 0: Disabled
• 1: Enabled

Examples

Disabled Enabled Texture that use batteries.

Note:One of the most expensive features, use wisely. If shadows enabled - it can work with lags even with powerful PC.

Texture name for TexLight (texName) <string>

Texture name for Texture shadows.

Determines which texture will use light source. It use .vtf files, not .vmt.

.Enable Prop Only Mode (bNegLight) <choices>

Enable Prop Only Mode.

Determines whether light source will only illuminate models.

• 0: Disabled
• 1: Enabled

LightnGodRayMode (LightnGodRayMode) <choices>

0:Light 1:Godrays 2:Both Light and GodRays.

Determines whether light source will cast light, godrays, or both.

• 0: Light
• 1: Godrays
• 2: Both Light and GodRays

Examples

LightnGodRayMode - Light LightnGodRayMode - Godrays LightnGodRayMode - Both Light and GodRays

EnableGodRays (EnableGodRays) <choices>

Enable GodRays.

Determines whether godrays are enabled or not at map start.

• 0: Disabled
• 1: Enabled

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

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 to start from: 0.5 to 1.5.

Examples

Density - 1.0 Density - 2.0 Density - 0.5

Weight (Weight) <float>

Weight Controls the intensity of volumetric shadow. Blocking of rays by geometry. Good values to start from: 0.1 - 10.0.

Examples

Weight - 1.0 Weight - 2.0 Weight - 5.0

Decay (Decay) <float>

Decay NOT being used.

Todo: Document what does it change.

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

Exposure - 1.00 Exposure - 10.0 Exposure - 0.10

DistFactor (DistFactor) <float>

DistFactor Controls the falloff of rays / length. 1.0f 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

DistFactor - 1.00 DistFactor - 10.0 DistFactor - 50.0

DiskRadius (DiskRadius) <float>

Radius of Disk/circle of sun in texturespace. 1.0 will be full screen 0.5 is half screen etc.

Examples

DiskRadius - 0.02 DiskRadius - 0.10 DiskRadius - 0.99

Note:With 0 - will not render.

ColorInner (ColorInner) <color255>

This is the color of the inner circle.

Examples

255 0 0 255 0 255 0 255 0 0 255 255

Note:Unlike lighting - brightness of inner depends on fourth number which can be written here.

ColorRays (ColorRays) <color255>

This is the color of the rays.

Examples

0 0 255 120 0 255 0 120 255 0 0 120

Note:Unlike lighting - brightness of rays depends on fourth number which can be written here.

GodRaysType (GodRaysType) <choices>

GodRaysType.

• 0: Normal
• 1: Fancy

Examples

File:GodRaysTypeNormal.gif Normal File:GodRaysTypeFancy.gif Fancy

DiskInnerSizePercent (DiskInnerSizePercent) <float>

Used only in Fancy Gaphics Mode. Disk inner circle radius = DiskRadius * DiskInnerSizePercent.

Examples

DiskInnerSizePercent - 0.75 DiskInnerSizePercent - 0.50 DiskInnerSizePercent - 0.99

Note:With 0 - will not render.

ColorOuter (ColorOuter) <color255>

Used only in Fancy Mode. This is the color of the outer circle.

Examples

0 255 0 255 255 0 0 255 0 0 255 255

Note:Unlike lighting - brightness of outer depends on fourth number which can be written here.

Ell_FR_ConstA (Ell_FR_ConstA) <float>

Examples

0.9 5 10

Ell_FR_ConstB (Ell_FR_ConstB) <float>

Examples

0.1 1 10

EEll_SR_ConstA (EEll_SR_ConstA) <float>

EEll_SR_ConstB (EEll_SR_ConstB) <float>

Ell_RRF_ConstA (Ell_RRF_ConstA) <float>

Examples

0.9 1.5 42

Ell_RRF_ConstB (Ell_RRF_ConstB) <float>

Examples

0.1 0.7 5.0

RotSpeed (RotSpeed) <float>

Determines rotating speed of fancy rays, 0 - don't rotate, negative number - will rotate to left.

Examples

File:RS1.gif RotSpeed - 3.14 RotSpeed - 0 File:RS3.gif RotSpeed - 40

RotPatternFreq (RotPatternFreq) <float>

Determines count of fancy rays in frame, with negative number will deny RotSpeed +/- effect.

Examples

File:RPF1.gif RotPatternFreq - -40 File:RPF2.gif RotPatternFreq - -4

RenderInWorldSpace (m_bEnableWorldSpace) <choices>

Disables disks if this enabled.

• 0: Disabled
• 1: Enabled

m_fAlphaDiskInner (m_fAlphaDiskInner) <float>

m_fAlphaDiskOuter (m_fAlphaDiskOuter) <float>

UseToneMapRays (m_bUseToneMapRays) <choices>

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

UseToneMapDisk (m_bUseToneMapDisk) <choices>

• 0: Enabled
• 1: Disabled

ShadowPass_Brush (m_bSRO_Brush) <choices>

Do we want to Render Brushes in shadow passes for this light?

• 0: YES
• 1: NO

ShadowPass_StaticProp (m_bSRO_StaticProp) <choices>

Do we want to Render StaticProps in shadow passes for this light?

• 0: YES
• 1: NO

ShadowPass_DynProp (m_bSRO_DynProp) <choices>

Do we want to Render Dynamic Props in shadow passes for this light?

• 0: YES
• 1: NO

ShadowPass_AlphaTest (m_bSRO__Trans) <choices>

Do we want to Render AlphaTested Objects in shadow passes for this light?

• 0: YES
• 1: NO

Inputs

SetColorLight

<color255>. Change Light's Color value. Doesnt effect the godrays

SetIntensityForLight

<float>. Change Light's intensity value. Doesnt effect the godrays

TurnOnGodRays

Turn the Godrays on.

TurnOffGodRays

Turn the Godrays off.

TurnOn

Turn the light on.

TurnOff

Turn the light off.

Toggle

Toggle the light's current state.

Issues

Deferred lighting incorrect work with $translucent

Deferred lighting all time rendering through walls with material shader parameter $translucent. This happen because of game can't tell the depth of scene because of the transparency, what you are see in the picture is just the lighting layer applied to the color of transparency texture.

No $translucent. Behind the wall placed lighting and some models with small room.

With $translucent. Now player see everything, but only what lighted.

Scene behide window. Looks like the gargantua has lost its texture and turned white.

Scene out window. This is what should see player.

This problem also applies to brushes which not have $translucent, but which parented to brushes that have this parameter. Similar will happen if brush with $translucent is part of your brush entity.

This sticker is brush parented to the glass. Flashlight off.

This sticker is brush parented to the glass. Flashlight on.

Same will happen if you use overlays/decals on brushes with $translucent.

Metal speaker is overlay that use $alphatest, but lighting of the health charger visible anyway, because overlay pasted on the transparency window.

This issues not happen if replace LightmappedGeneric to ShatteredGlass shader. ShatteredGlass give similar to LightmappedGeneric results, so, you can use it for glass or transparency surfaces when it's needed.

LightmappedGeneric.

ShatteredGlass.

In some cases use $alphatest if it'll give similar to $translucent resualts, with this your surface also will cast dynamic shadows.

$translucent.

$alphatest.

Godrays incorrect work with $translucent

Godrays (also disk) all time fully rendering through textures with material shader parameter $translucent, because of this you will see unexpected results like in the picture. Disable Godrays when you need or use $alphatest if it'll give resualts similar to $translucent. You also can try use some other tricks to escape this problem.

Bug example in bm_c1a3c.

Sign from other side.

Weird clipping

Often meeting strange clipping/flickering, strange phenomenon that also was in early stages of the game, this does not depend on OS or drivers, despite this there are rumors that this occurs most often among users of Linux. There is no known way to deal with this, most often happen with NewLight_Spot.

File:WC1.gif One of many examples..

File:WC2.gif One of many examples.

File:WC3.gif One of many examples.

Deferred lighting shine through nodraw texture

Not a bug, but a pattern. Unfortunately, this cannot be controlled in any way, you should keep in mind this before paint nodraw to escape situations like in the gifs. If your dynamic light source illuminates face that player never see - use cheap textures with low resolution and which don't use material shader parameters, a good solution would be dev textures.

File:SLB1.gif Black Mesa - bm_c2a2a.

File:SLB2.gif Black Mesa: Blue Shift - bs_c0m0c.

See Also

• light_spot
• env_lensflare
• newLight_Dir
• Lighting
• Adding Light
• Intermediate Lighting
• Advanced Lighting
• Effect flags (dynamic light effects)
• Tool textures (for Block light)
• BlackMesa XenEngine: Part 4 – Lighting & Shadows (page from Black Mesa developer about new lights)

Todo: Better describe functions. Add pictures and videos. Fix some stuff.