Env beam

Entity Description

An entity that creates a visible beam between two points. The points can be attached to entities to make the beam move around. It is somewhat similar to env_laser.

Keyvalues

• Template:Kv targetname
• Template:Kv parentname
• Template:Kv renderfxchoices
• renderamt

<byte> Useless when set to 0

• rendercolor

⇆#000000rgb(0,0,0)⇆ Beam Color

• Radius

<integer> If the 'Random Strike' spawnflag is set, this radius determines the area within which the endpoints will randomly strike.

• life

<unsigned integer> Amount of time before the beam dies. Setting to zero will make the beam stay forever.

• BoltWidth

<float> Width of the beam. Range: 1 to MAX_BEAM_WIDTH

• NoiseAmplitude

<float> The amount of noise in the beam. 0 is a perfectly straight beam. Range: 0 to MAX_BEAM_NOISEAMPLITUDE

• texture

<sprite> The material used to draw the beam.

• TextureScroll

<integer> Rate at which the beam texture should scroll along the beam. Range: 0 to MAX_BEAM_SCROLLSPEED

• framerate

<integer> Framerate at which the beam texture should animate, if it has multiple frames.

• framestart

<integer> The frame to start the beam texture on.

• StrikeTime

<float> Refire time between random strikes of the beam. Only used if the 'Random Strike' spawnflag is set.

• damage

<float> How much damage this beam does per second to things it hits when it is continually on, or instantaneously if it strikes. For continuous damage, the value should be greater than 10 or it may not work.

• LightningStart

<target_destination> Entity that the beam starts at.

• LightningEnd

<target_destination> Entity that the beam ends at.

• TouchType

<choices> If you want the beam to fire an output when touched by entities, choose the entity type here.

Literal Value	Description
0	Not a tripwire
1	Player Only
2	NPC Only
3	Player or NPC
4	Player or NPC or Physprop

• filtername

<filterclass> Filter to use to see if activator triggers me. See filter_activator_name for more explanation.

Flags

• 1 : Start On (Starts the map with the beam turned on.)
• 2 : Toggle (Obsolete. Replaced by the Toggle input of the Source I/O system. Used to toggle the beam on and off.)
• 4 : Random Strike (When the beam has died, it will strike again randomly within a delay interval of 0 to the value in Strike again time (secs).)
• 8 : Ring (Uses the two points as a diameter, drawing a beam ring between them instead of a straight line. These points must be brush entities, or the beam will not show at all. Beam rings does not do damage.)
• 16 : StartSparks (Every time the beam strikes or is turned on, the beam temporarily emits a small shower of sparks at its Start Entity.)
• 32 : EndSparks (Every time the beam strikes or is turned on, the beam temporarily emits a small shower of sparks at its Ending Entity.)
• 64 : Decal End (Do not use. Places a decal scorch mark where a damaging beam hits the first solid (world brush or entity). Unfortunately this decal is enormous as a crater, obviously a square decal and horribly ugly.)
• 128 : Shade Start (The beam fades out toward its Start Entity.)
• 256 : Shade End (The beam fades out toward its Ending Entity.)
• 512 : Taper Out (Makes the beam taper out into a point towards its Ending Entity.)

Inputs

• Template:I targetname
• Template:I parentname
• TurnOn

Turns the beam on.

• TurnOff

Turns the beam off.

• Toggle

Toggles the beam's state.

• StrikeOnce

Causes the beam to strike once. It will stay on for its set Life and then turn off (it will never turn off if Life is set to zero).

• Color ⇆#000000rgb(0,0,0)⇆

Sets the rendercolor

• Template:Not in fgd Noise <float>

Set the NoiseAmplitude

• ScrollSpeed <float>

Set the TextureScroll

• Width <float>

Set the BoltWidth

Outputs

• Template:O targetname
• OnTouchedByEntity

Fired when an entity touches the beam. Only fired if the entity passes the 'Touch Type' choice. Check out Targetname read up on how to trigger the activator.

See Also

• A little fun with env_beam