$lightmap

$lightmap is a material shader parameter for the VertexLitGeneric shader available in Source 2013 Multiplayer and Garry's Mod.

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It defines a lightmap to be used to light the MDL model's material, instead of the per-vertex lighting used by prop_static or point-based vertex lighting used by other models.

This parameter does not usually need to be added manually, as VRAD will generate model lightmaps automatically if generatelightmaps is enabled for the prop_static and -StaticPropLighting is enabled in VRAD. Nonetheless, it can still be added manually, such as for using a lightmap on a prop_dynamic, or if a prop_static has multiple materials (as VRAD can only generate lightmaps for the first material and skin).

Tip:

• VRAD has a -dumppropmaps option, which will create external TGA versions of the generated static prop lightmaps which can be converted to VTF and manually defined as a $lightmap.
• For already-compiled maps, the lightmaps are stored as PPL files. These can be converted to VTF using Ficool2's proptexelvtf.exe (direct download).

Confirm:If $lightmap is used to manually define lightmaps for a prop_static, it may be necessary to disable vertex lighting for the prop (disablevertexlighting) to prevent VRAD from wasting time calculating lighting for the prop and generating a VHV file that will ultimately go unused and waste space.

Note:The VertexLitGeneric shader code for lightmapped props from can be backported to , but the lightmaps will need to be explicitly defined in the VMT, rather than generated as PPL files by VRAD.

VMT syntax

$lightmap <texture>

models/lightmapped/example.vmt

vmt

VertexLitGeneric { $basetexture "models/lightmapped/example_base" $lightmap "models/lightmapped/example_lightmap" }

Limitations and caveats

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See also

• Modulate - A shader that can be used to fake lightmaps or vertex coloring in all Source engine branches. It can bypass some of the limitations of $lightmap, but requires additional setup to look convincing.