Tool textures (Source)

GoldSrc

Source Engine ( official | third-party )

Source 2

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Tool textures are used, mostly by the tools but sometimes by the engine, to perform special tasks. They can easily be found in Hammer by using tools\ as a filter in the texture browser, but other tool textures may be located in different directory.

Anyone can make their very own tool texture, by utilizing available material map compile flags, such as %CompileNonSolid, %CompileDetail and %CompileNoDraw for a tool texture which is not solid, does not cut visleafs and is invisible.

A %tooltexture may also be set, which is only to be seen in Hammer's texture browser, while the $basetexture is seen in-game; however, the self made tool textures must be shipped with the map, else they might not work.

This page contains tool textures which can be found on any Source games (including description for third-party games which changes how the tool texture works or have different behavior). For third-party games specific tool textures, see third-party page.

Tip:WiseClipped gives a tutorial on using many of the Source Tool textures shown below.

Note:All tool textures that are assumed to be texturing an entity work exactly like ordinary textures if applied to world brushes instead. As this makes them useless for world brushes, their visibility as world brushes is irrelevant. Also, many tool textures cut VIS leaves. If you aren't texturing an entity, you should tie the brush to func_detail or func_brush for optimization.

Warning:Some games may have outdated or obsolete tool textures in the "Dev" folder, such as dev/dev_windowportal in Left 4 Dead series.

Note:Next to tool textures, there are also brush entities, which can perform tasks similar to tool textures.

For example, have Clip for both teams, Player Clip for survivors and NPC Clip for infected; however, it also has func_playerinfected_clip just for player controlled infected.

If you cannot find a tool texture fit for a task, perhaps the game you're mapping for has a brush entity for that.

Tip:Some of these tool textures cut VIS leaves Such as toolsinvisible, toolsinvisibleladder, and invismetal. Which are never seen and would be wasteful to create visleaves for them.
You may want to add %CompileDetail to the offending materials to prevent them from cutting visleaves. The modified VMT's do not need to be shared with the compiled map, as only vbsp uses these compile flags right when building the maps.
But you do need to use custom folder (if available, preferred), or pack these up in a vpk file and load them into hammer by editing the gameinfo to load your vpk with modified files above all other folders and search paths.

Note:For toolsinvisibleladder, it alternatively is possible in some games to use %CompileClip (and optionally $translucent) instead of %CompileNoDraw and %CompilePassBullets, but only if tied to func_ladder (works in , not in ).

General

General — Common

These tool textures are available in every Source engine game.
Some of these textures have special function in some games. These special functions are noted by having the game's icon listed in the description (such as , , , , etc.).

Texture	Visible if world brush	Casts shadows	Cuts VIS leaves	Blocks NPC LOS	Solid to NPCs	Solid to player(s)	Solid to physics	Solid to bullets	Usage / Notes
toolsblack	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	Risk of Confusion:This is the UnlitGeneric tools/toolsblack texture, not the LightmappedGeneric Halflife/Black texture. This texture is often used for brushes that are far away and they are dark. It cannot be lit by any type of light, but is affected by fog color. An example of its use is in the "space" backgrounds during the G-Man monologues in Half-Life 2 or for crude buildings in the 3D Skybox. Uses UnlitGeneric in: Uses LightmappedGeneric in: In games where it uses LightmappedGeneric, you may want to use vgui/black instead (to avoid wasting lightmap usage) or make your own tool texture.
toolswhite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	(in all games since ) (not in ) Identical to lights/white (which is available in all Source games), but doesn't cast any light by default. Using glass surfaceprop.
toolsblockbullets	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Warning:This tool texture is actually just a solid invisible wall in every way shape and form. It does absolutely nothing useful. See Blockbullets for info on how to actually block bullets and projectiles. Use blockbullets_cs variant, which correctly stops bullets even with 1 unit thickness.
toolsinvisible	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Solid to prop_physics, projectiles, players, & NPCs. Not solid to bullets. Also solid to bullets. Smokers, Boomers and Spitters can attack you through it. Survivors stop being dragged towards smokers when touching a toolsinvisible wall. Risk of Confusion: ToolsNodraw_Noshadow uses the same tool texture in the texture browser, which also blocks LOS!
toolsinvisibleladder	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Used for ladders in most multiplayer games except , either by itself, or tied to func_ladder. Important:Leave at least a unit gap between the ladder and any detail brushes to prevent it from eating brush faces of the drawn ladder. This is not an issue in , which keeps brush ladders as a separate entity.
toolsnodraw	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Not drawn in game, seals leaks, and is skipped by VRAD. Blocks visibility if used on all surfaces of the same brush. Optimally, every face that can't be seen during normal gameplay should have this texture. Portals can be placed on it, but not in . Use Nodraw Portalable instead if this behavior is desired. Note:The "glass footsteps" version of this texture in Portal 2 does not seal maps. Todo: Insert this version into the list Note:While no lightmap data is generated on nodraw faces, nodraw brushes still cast shadows. Note:Despite common misconception, it is not necessary to use nodraw on faces that are outside the map and faces that are flush with other faces of the same entity, as these are automatically removed by VBSP. Additionally, func_detail faces which touch structural faces will be removed, but vice versa will not (faces completely obscured by func_detail should still be nodrawn).
toolsorigin	N/A	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	[ Deprecated] Leftover from GoldSrc, where a brush with this texture was used to set the rotation origin of rotating entities. It is still functional in Source (overriding the entity's origin keyvalue) but no longer necessary. When placed outside of a brush entity, the compiler will fail with the error "origin brushes not allowed in world".
toolsblock_los	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Blocks the line of sight of NPCs and bots. mat_wireframe 1/2 will reveal that, while this texture doesn't block visleaves, it draws crossing polygons, and they alone are capable of preventing the engine from rendering enveloped brushwork. This can be worked around by turning the Block LOS–textured brush into a func_brush with its Solidity keyvalue set to a solid state. (A Block LOS func_brush can still be traversed in this state.)
toolsblocklight	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Casts shadows artificially. Only used at compile time by VRAD. Does not seal leaks. See more uses here.
toolstrigger	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Used on triggers and on func_viscluster entities. Visible if used on an entity without EF_NODRAW.

General — Game-specific

These tool textures are only available in specific Source engine games.

Texture	Visible if world brush	Casts shadows	Cuts VIS leaves	Blocks NPC LOS	Solid to NPCs	Solid to player(s)	Solid to physics	Solid to bullets	Usage / Notes
toolsblack_cheap	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	in Portal 2 identical to ToolsBlack, the only difference is that uses a special Black shader. has a replacement that works with older engines.
toolsblack_nofog	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	Identical to ToolsBlack, but no fog will appear in front of it. Uses the UnlitGeneric shader. Inherits various City17 %keywords from ToolsBlack.
toolsblack_noportal	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	In Portal 2 identical to ToolsBlack. Seems to have been intended as a non-portalable version, but this is already the case with the normal texture in the final game.
toolsblack_noportal_nofog	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	in Portal 2 identical to ToolsBlack, but does not render fog.
toolsblack_noportal_skybox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	in Portal 2 functions like ToolsBlack_Cheap but uses a $basetexture and contains keywords from HL2. Because the $basetexture parameter doesn't have any effect on the Black shader, this hints that the material could have previously used the UnlitGeneric shader.
toolsnolight	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	Identical to ToolsBlack, but for some reason is used instead.
toolsblockbullets2	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Identical to ToolsBlockBullets, but doesn't cut visleaves.
toolsnodraw_roof	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Identical to ToolsNodraw, but with a different texture name.
toolsnodraw_wood	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Identical to ToolsNodraw, but will make wood impact sounds when hit.
toolsnodraw_metal	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Identical to ToolsNodraw but with metal surfaceprop. Does not show metal marks. You may want to use Invismetal instead.
toolsnodraw_portal	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	in Portal 2 identical to ToolsNodraw, but portals can be placed on this texture.

Optimization

Texture	Visible if world brush	Casts shadows	Cuts VIS leaves	Blocks NPC LOS	Solid to NPCs	Solid to player(s)	Solid to physics	Solid to bullets	Usage / Notes
toolsareaportal	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Use with areaportals (func_areaportal and func_areaportalwindow). Can be used with other brush entities, such as some triggers.
toolshint	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Instructs VBSP to cut visleaves along this texture, but does nothing else.
toolsskip	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Has no effect on anything (except bomb in ). Skip faces are removed during compile, so a brush textured with Skip won't prevent leaks. Useful in combination with Hint tool textures (to prevent the other sides from cutting vis) and as a tool in Hammer for grouping, moving and place-holding objects. Bug:In , skip brushes act as clip brushes for the bomb. Tip:This can be exploited by a mapper to prevent the bomb from falling into a pit if planted too close to the edge.
toolsoccluder	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Used only for the occluding sides of func_occluder entities. Unlike toolstrigger, toolsoccluder will correctly work when VBSP is compiled with -nodrawtriggers.

Clips

Clips — Common

These tool textures are available in every source engine game.
Some of these textures have special function in some games. These special functions are noted by having the game's icon listed in the description (such as , , , , etc).

Texture	Visible if world brush	Casts shadows	Cuts VIS leaves	Blocks NPC LOS	Solid to NPCs	Solid to player(s)	Solid to physics	Solid to bullets	Usage / Notes
toolsclip	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Solid to players and NPCs but not other objects. Also solid to item pickups like ammo packs but not dropped weapons. Solid to dropped C4. Solid to hostages in . Feature clip brush textures with different material types: Concrete, Dirt, Glass, Grass, Gravel, Metal, Metal Sand Barrel, Metal Grate, Metal Vehicle, Plastic, Rubber, Rubber Tire, Sand, Tile, Wood, Wood Basket, Wood Crate. Tip:If you need a clip of a specific material like Clip_Glass in a game that does not have these various clip materials, you can make a brush using any regular material with the property you want and then turn it into a func_brush that is always solid but not rendered. See more about clip texture here.
toolsnpcclip	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Solid to NPCs only. Solid to bots. Not solid to hostages. Solid to infected only, but does not stop Smokers, Boomers and Spitters from attacking through it.
toolsplayerclip	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Solid to players only. Also solid to item pickups like ammo packs but not dropped weapons. Solid to players, bots (!), and dropped C4. Solid to hostages in . Solid to the survivors only.
toolscontrolclip	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	(removed since ) (also in ) [ Deprecated] This texture has to be tied to an entity to gain any special abilities, but what entity is not yet confirmed. This texture, along with trigger, works on func_vehicleclip. It was removed in Half-Life 2 base since Source 2007, but exist in Team Fortress 2 and Source 2.

Clips — Game-Specific

These tool textures are only available in specific Source engine games.

Texture	Visible if world brush	Casts shadows	Cuts VIS leaves	Blocks NPC LOS	Solid to NPCs	Solid to player(s)	Solid to physics	Solid to bullets	Usage / Notes
toolsgrenadeclip	No	No	No	No	No	No	Solid to Grenades	No	Solid to grenades only.
toolsdroneclip	No	No	No	N/A	N/A	No	No	No	Used to prevent drones getting stuck on complex geometry.

Sky and Fog

Sky and Fog — Common

These tool textures are available in every Source engine game.
Some of these textures have special function in some games. These special functions are noted by having the game's icon listed in the description (such as , , , , etc).

Texture	Visible if world brush	Casts shadows	Cuts VIS leaves	Blocks NPC LOS	Solid to NPCs	Solid to player(s)	Solid to physics	Solid to bullets	Usage / Notes
toolsfog	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	No effect; uses nonexistent compile flag %CompileFog. (You can use this for func_smokevolume instead of the Trigger texture, but NOT for func_dustcloud.)
toolsskybox	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	This texture is used to make 3D skyboxes. Casts light if there is a light_environment entity in the map. Things such as another area of a map will render on top of the skybox. An areaportal can stop this from happening, but it's generally better practice to add more scenery to cover the stuff that shouldn't be seen, reposition those things out of view, or just don't have an opening in that area.
toolsskybox2d	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	(in all games since ) Used to make 2D skyboxes without displaying the 3D Skybox. Casts light if there is a light_environment entity in the map. Bug:Light cast from this texture can still be blocked by 3D skybox geometry. No effect if used in the same PVS as the toolsskybox tool texture.
toolsskyfog	No	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A	Yes	N/A	Yes (Marks)	The SkyFog texture does not contain any properties. There is currently no existing corresponding Shader called "skyfog". (Generates error Error: Material "toolsskyfog" uses unknown shader "SkyFog".) Confirm:Can it be fixed to function properly if its VMT settings are changed in the Source code and recompiled?
toolsfogvolume	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	(in all games since ) Used in conjunction with multiple env_fog_controllers to change fog colours and densities in a level. Fog inside its volume will not appear to have different atributes when viewed from outside its volume, as it globally changes the appearance of all fog across the map when entered.

Sky and Fog — Game-Specific

These tool textures are only available in specific Source engine games.

There are no game specific tool textures in this section.

Miscellaneous

These are textures that have a special use, sometimes only seen in one single game.

Some of these textures are not even "real" tool textures, as they do not possess any Compile Flags, but they have some important use that no other texture available can do.

Texture	Visible if world brush	Casts shadows	Cuts VIS leaves	Blocks NPC LOS	Solid to NPCs	Solid to player(s)	Solid to physics	Solid to bullets	Usage / Notes
toolsblockbomb	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Acts like ToolsInvisible. Possibly unimplemented.
climb	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	A ladder only for Infected. Not visible to Infected Players during Versus, but can be climbed on. Use Climb Versus Instead. Could be used in areas blocked by func_playerinfected_clip where Player Infected cannot go to and should be unable to see a climbing spot, but the AI should be able to use it for hordes.
climb_alpha	Visible to Infected	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Same as Climb Versus, with the only difference being that climb_alpha uses $alphatest, while climb_versus uses $additive. This texture may be usable in spots where the texture is applied over a translucent material, in order to fix sorting issues, but it has so far never been used in any official campaign.
climb_versus	Visible to Infected	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	A ladder only for infected. Must be used with func_ladder; otherwise, it will be ignored by the navigation mesh editor.
hulkwall	Visible to Infected	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	This is an obsolete visual cue texture of a wall that can be broken by special infected players. The texture itself has no special abilities other than being invisible to survivors. This texture is since superceeded by ../effects/tankwall. But this one was not removed from the game. See This page for further information.
hulkwallglow	Visible to Infected	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	This is an obsolete visual cue texture of a wall that can be broken by special infected players. The texture itself has no special abilities other than being invisible to survivors. This texture is since superceeded by ../effects/tankwall. But this one was not removed from the game. See This page for further information.
../effects/tankwall	Visible to Infected	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	This is the "new" visual cue texture of a wall that can be broken by special infected players. The texture itself has no special abilities other than being invisible to survivors. See This page for further information.
toolsdotted	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	A face textured with this texture is rendered on top of all other brush geometry. Furthermore, a brush with Dotted on any face will not block visibility or cull any face that it touches, meaning that any area enclosed in a Dotted-textured brush will not be removed from the map in any way. Confirm:This effect is probably just due to having $alphatest.
toolsinvisibledisplacement	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends on game	(only in ) Light is not blocked by this texture, except in . Despite being in the Materials/Tools folder, this is not a tool texture. It has no abilities. It is simply an invisible texture used for displacement clipping, where you make an invisible displacement instead of a clip brush because making intricate clip brushes is difficult. Uses $decal 1 and $surfaceprop "dirt".
../effects/clear	Fully Translucent	Depends on use	Depends on use	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Depends on use	Basic LightmappedGeneric that has no abilities other than being invisible. Officially used like invisibledisplacement for displacement clipping. Has no VMT properties other than $alphatest 1.
invismetal	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Invisible texture, with metal surface properties. Simmilar to how Nodraw Metal should have worked. Creates metal sparks when shot, but bullets pass through. Does not seal maps. Tip:You may want to edit the VMT to add %CompileDetail 1 to prevent it from cutting visleaves, which makes it much more useful. Alternatively, tie it to a func_detail or other entity. Confirm:An invisimetal texture also exists in , although it uses a different texture. Does it work the same?
No Image Locked	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	This is a special tool texture, intended to prevent VMEX from decompiling any maps using this custom tool texture. BSPSource ignores this, rendering it useless. It does not really exist, as every user has to make their own, but it is listed here for completeness sake.
toolswarmlight	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Basic UnlitGeneric texture that has no abilities. Used with func_brush to make it non-solid and fade away when approached. It being UnlitGeneric makes it seems as if it were glowing in a warm color, but is not listed in lights.rad, so it won't actually emit any light for VRAD to compile. Only used in c8m2_subway behind the three windows to the right of the entrance of the end map saferoom building, to simulate glowing light in a room.
wrongway	Yes (in ) Only to Infected (in )	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Used to indicate the borders of the playable area. Only visible to Infected players. No campaign uses this tool texture anymore. See L4D Level Design: Blocking the Infected Team for more info. Used especially for the Wingman game mode. It has the same properties as WrongWay Timer. Tip:All Yes/No flags can be changed if applied to a func_brush.
wrongway_timer	Doesn't work correctly	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Used for brushes that are temporarily blocking Terrorists during the freezetime of the Retakes game mode. It is only visible to players that are close to the origin of the entity that this material is applied to (e.g., func_brush), achieved with the PlayerProximity material proxy. Warning:Does not work as intended on world brushes and func_details as they have no origin: In-game, the $alpha is either equal to the $alpha of the closest functioning application of this material on screen or - if there is none - the $alpha remains "stuck" at some value, no matter the proximity.