Tool textures (Source) - Third-party games

GoldSrc

Source Engine

Source 2

Source (Third-party)

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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.

Anyone can make their very own tool texture, by utilizing available Material Map Compile Flags, such as %compilenonsolid 1, %compileDetail 1 and %compilenodraw 1 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 third-party Source games only.

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Warning:Some games may have outdated or obsolete tool textures in the "Dev" folder, such as dev/dev_windowportal in .

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.

General

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

Image	Name	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
	Black Arkane	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Identical to Tools/ToolsBlack, but for some reason is used instead.
	White Arkane	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Identical to Tools/ToolsWhite, but for some reason is used instead.
	Blocks Bullets Forcefield	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Identical to Tools/ToolsBlockBullets, but uses the "forcefield" surfaceprop.
	Invisible Non-Solid	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Not solid to anything, but blocks LOS. Useful as a utility texture, like buttons you should be able to clip into.
	Nodraw Stone	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Identical to Tools/ToolsNodraw, but will make stone impact sounds when hit.
	Nodraw Invisible	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	A translucent Nodraw texture. Cannot be used to seal the map.
	Nodraw Noshadow	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Identical to Nodraw but does not cast any shadows. Risk of Confusion: Uses the Invisible texture instead.
	Nodraw Surfaceprop	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Seven, materials all identical to Tools/ToolsNodraw but using different surfaceprop types (chitin, dirt, grass, metal, sand, stone, wood) and not casting any shadows.
	Viscluster	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Identical to Trigger, but used for func_viscluster.
	XOG Volume	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Identical to Trigger, but used for newxog_volume.
	CSM Volume	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Identical to Trigger, but used for trigger_csm_volume.
	Color Correction	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	A tool texture used for color_correction_volume.
	Soundscape Trigger	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	A tool texture used for trigger_soundscape.

Optimization

There are currently no third-party games using custom tool textures for optimization.

Clips

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

Image	Name	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
	Stairs	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Functionally the same to Player Clip, but allows for steeper angles when walking on, up to 63.4349488°.
	Clip Xen Leaves Version	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	A special clip used for clipping the leaves in Xen.
	Camera Clip	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Todo: Figure out Presumably solid to the camera[confirm]
	Player Clip Interactive	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Todo: Figure out

Sky and Fog

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

Image	Name	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
	Skybox NoLight	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Identical to Skybox, but does not cast any light rays. Tip:This is also true of Nodraw in any game while the skybox is visible.

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.

Image	Name	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
	Dynamic Difficulty	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Marks)	Solid to grenades. Tied to the trigger_dynamic_difficulty entity for the game's difficulty system.
	Func Fishes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Used with the func_fishes entity to spawn fish inside of its volume.
	Func Leaves	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Used with the func_leaves entity to spawn leaves particles inside its volume.
	Gray	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Purpose unknown; just a gray texture.
	Interactive	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Utility texture tied to the ship_base_interaction brush entity to specify the only surfaces available for the player to interact with the entity.
	Non-Interactive	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Utility texture tied to the ship_base_interaction brush entity as a measure to help identify surfaces from which the player are unable to interact with said entity.
	Ship Room	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (No Marks)	Utility texture tied to the ship_trigger_room brush entity to create several different rooms and special areas on the ship.
	Vitrail Light	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Purpose currently unknown, probably used with some type of brush entity.
	Waterbounds	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Used underwater when water meets the skybox.