Env sun

Entity description

Places a Sun or Moon effect (glow sprite) in the skybox where it does not parallax, giving the impression that it is infinitely far away. The env_sun Entity does not contribute any actual lighting.

Skyboxes are the main source of light for most maps, and as such are one of the most important parts of making a map.

Overview

Skybox lighting enters the map through every toolsskybox-textured brush, representing direct sun/moonlight and diffuse skylight. Its basic properties are controlled by three entities used in combination (four in some games):

• light_environment defines the direction, color and intensity of the direct sunlight, and the color and intensity of the diffuse skylight.
• shadow_control defines the color, direction, and attenuation distance of the dynamic shadows that are created by light_environment. Dynamic shadows will be buggy and unconfigurable without this entity.
  • Note:shadow_control is deprecated and non-functional in CS:GO engine branch, and has been succeeded by env_cascade_light. Use that entity instead.
• env_sun places a glowing sprite in the skybox to represent the Sun's apparent position in the sky. It has no effect on lighting aside from this.
• env_cascade_light casts harsh, real-time shadows onto the map, usually copying settings from the light_environment entity (in all games since )(also in ).
• newLight_Dir places godrays radiate from disk/circle in the skybox; does not contribute any actual lighting (the lighting code is disabled) (only in ).
• light_deferred_global casts dynamic shadows and lighting similar to env_cascade_light (only in )(also in ).

Explanation

To make sense of it all, just make sure you have only one of each of these entities in your map, and that the Pitch and Yaw <angles> are set the same for all three of them. (Pitch is equivalent to the Sun's angle of elevation from the ground, and Yaw is its compass bearing.)

These lighting settings—direction, color, brightness, etc.—are fairly specific to the actual image used for the 2D skybox. The List of skies article suggests some settings for official game skyboxes. The worldspawn entity defines which skybox to use. Also note that fog will look wrong if env_fog_controller's settings don't correspond to the particular skybox in use.

Note:Pitch can be overridden for light_environment and env_sun, but not shadow_control. The Pitch override also cannot be switched off and its rotation is measured counter-clockwise from the horizontal (so straight down is -90°) whereas the <angles> Pitch's rotation is clockwise (so straight down is +90°). The workaround for this is to make sure your Pitch override merely repeats the <angles> value; for example, if your shadow_control, light_environment and env_sun <angles> are "45 -60 0", set the Pitch override to "-45".

• You can also send inputs to the env_sun entity by directing them to "env_sun" instead of using a target name.
• The effect is additive with the sky: a pure yellow sun with a bright blue sky will appear white in-game; change the color to account for this.

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) <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.

• target

<target_destination> Name of an entity used to determine where the sun is in the skybox. The sun should be lined up on a line from this entity to the env_sun entity.

• HDRColorScale

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

• use_angles

<boolean> The old way to orient env_sun is to point it at a target. The new way is to specify the angles. If you use the new way, set this property to YES, otherwise, set this property to NO.

• pitch

<integer> This value sets the pitch position of the sun. It overrides the pitch value in the angles keyvalue, even if left at 0, so it needs to be specified. Contrary to the angles keyvalue, the rotation of this pitch is measured counter-clockwise from the horizontal, so that 90 is straight up, while -90 is straight down. (It's simply the negative of a normal pitch value.)

• rendercolor

⇆#000000rgb(0,0,0)⇆ Color of the sun.

• size

<integer> Size of the sun.

• overlaycolor (in all games since )

⇆#000000rgb(0,0,0)⇆ Overlay Color (R G B)

A value of 0 0 0 will act the old way.

• overlaysize (in all games since )

<integer> Overlay Size

A value of -1 means the overlay will act the old way.

• material (in all games since )

<material> Material Name

Material of the inner glow. (sprites/light_glow02_add_noz)

• overlaymaterial (in all games since )

<material> Overlay Material Name

Material of the overlay glow. (sprites/light_glow02_add_noz)

Inputs

• !FGD:

• TurnOn

Enable sun rendering.

• TurnOff

Disable sun rendering.

• SetColor ⇆#000000rgb(0,0,0)⇆

Set the rendercolor.

Outputs

• !FGD