Tool textures (Source)

"Clip" redirects here.

• For clip textures, see clip texture.
• For the Hammer Clip Tool, see Hammer Clipping Tool.

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.

Tip:WiseClipped - 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 visleafs. If you aren't texturing an entity, you should tie the brush to func_detail or func_brush for optimization.

General

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
	Areaportal	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Use with areaportals (func_areaportals and func_areaportalwindows). Can be used with other brush entities, such as some triggers.
	Black	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (leaves marks)	Note:This is the tools/toolsblack texture, not the 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.
	Block 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 them alone are capable of preventing the engine from rendering enveloped brushwork. This can be worked around through 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.)
	Block Bullets	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (no marks)	Foremost solid to bullets, but also to NPCs and physics projectiles. It does not block all projectiles, though. Projectiles from NPCs such as the acid spit from antlion workers, will still get through. To allow NPCs and their line of sight to pass through, turn the brush into a func_brush with its Solidity keyvalue set to a solid state.
	Block Bullets 2	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (no marks)	Only. Identical to Block Bullets, the only difference is that this tool texture doesn't block visleaves.
	Blocks Bullets Forcefield	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (no marks)	Only. Solid to grenades. Identical to Block Bullets, except that it uses a $surfaceprop type of 'forcefield'.
	Block Light	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.
	Climb_versus	No	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 and Special infected which do not require a navigation mesh to move.
	Dotted	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (leaves 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 nor 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.
	Dynamic Difficulty	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (leaves marks)	Solid to grenades. Tied to the trigger_dynamic_difficulty entity for the game's difficulty system.
	Hint	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	This texture is used to instruct the compiler to cut visleaves.
	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
	Invisible	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Solid to all objects and projectiles, not solid to bullets. Smokers, Boomers and Spitters can attack you through it, but neither survivors nor infected can pass it.
	Invisible Displacement									Not actually a texture. It is the backside of a displacement. This side of the displacement will appear invisible, but solid.
	Invisible Non-Solid	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Not solid to grenades. Similar to Toolsinvisible, used as a utility texture.
	(Invisible) Ladder	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Used with func_ladder in the most multiplayer games except Half-Life 2 Deathmatch. Ladder will not work if used with func_ladder
	Invismetal	No	No	N/A	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	An invisible texture that shows metal marks when shot.
	Nodraw	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 Portal 2. Use Nodraw Portalable instead. Note:The "glass footsteps" version of this texture in Portal 2 does not seal maps. Note:While no lightmap data is generated on nodraw faces, nodraw brushes still cast shadows. Note:It is not necessary to use nodraw on faces that don't touch visleaves, as these are removed for you by the compiler. This means faces that are outside the map and faces that are flush with another one.
	Nodraw Roof	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (no marks)	Only. Identical to Nodraw, the only difference being a separate texture name to differentiate them.
	Nodraw Wood	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (no marks)	Only. Identical to Nodraw, the only difference is that the brush with this texture, when hit, it will make wood impact sounds.
	Nodraw Portalable	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (no marks)	Identical to Nodraw, the only difference is that Portals can be placed on this texture.
	Non-Interactive	No	No	No	No	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
	Occluder	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Used only for func_occluder entities.
	Origin	N/A	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Deprecated for use in Source, not available in all branches. (After giving the error "origin brushes not allowed in world" the compiler will fail.) Origin brushes were used in GoldSource to set the rotation origin of rotating entities. It can still be used to override a brush entity's origin when used as one of its brushes.
	Ship Room	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes(leaves marks)	Utility texture tied to the ship_trigger_room brush entity to create several different rooms and special areas upon the ship
	Skip	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Has no effect on anything. Useful in combination with Hint tool textures. Skip faces are removed during compile, so a brush textured with skip won't prevent leaks. Also useful as a tool in Hammer for grouping, moving and place-holding objects.
	Trigger	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Used on Trigger and func_viscluster entities.
	White	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (leaves marks)	Identical to tools/toolsblack texture only in white.

Clips

Image	Name	Visible (if worldbrush)	Casts shadows	Cuts VIS leaves	Blocks NPC LOS	Solid to NPCs	Solid to Player(s)	Solid to physics	Solid to bullets	Usage / Notes
	Clip	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Solid to players and NPCs but not other objects. In Source 2013, it's also solid to item pickups like ammo packs but not dropped weapons. Solid to dropped C4. Features clip brush textures with different material types: Concrete, Dirt, Glass, Grass, Gravel, Metal, Metal Grate, Plastic, Rubber, Sand, Tile, Wood.
	NPC Clip	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Solid to NPCs only. Solid to infected, but does not stop Smokers, Boomers and Spitters from attacking you through it.
	Player Clip	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Solid to players only. In Source 2013, it's also solid to item pickups like ammo packs but not dropped weapons. Solid to dropped C4. Solid to the survivors.
	Player Control Clip	Yes	Yes	Yes	No?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (leaves marks)	Available only in Source 2006 and earlier. It is obvious that this texture has to be tied to an entity to gain any special abilities, but what entity is not yet confirmed. Seems that it is necessary for func_vehicleclip. (See "player clip" above for the tool texture that restricts player movement.)
	Grenade Clip	No	No	No	No	No	No	Grenades only	No	Solid to grenades only.
	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°.
	Drone Clip	No	No	No	N/A	N/A	No	No	No	Used to prevent drone getting stuck on complex geometry.

Sky(boxes) and fog

Image	Name	Visible (if worldbrush)	Casts shadows	Cuts VIS leaves	Blocks NPC LOS	Solid to NPCs	Solid to Player(s)	Solid to physics	Solid to bullets	Usage / Notes
	Fog	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (leaves marks)	Confirm:Does not seem to work? (You can use this for func_smokevolume instead of the trigger texture but NOT for func_dustcloud.)
	Skybox	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. Cannot be used in the same PVS as the toolsskybox2d tool texture. 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.
	2D Skybox	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (no marks)	Available only in Source 2007 and later. Use to make 2D skyboxes without displaying the 3D Skybox. Casts light if there is a light_environment entity in the map. Cannot be used in the same PVS as the toolsskybox tool texture.
	SkyFog	No	Yes	Yes			Yes		Yes (leaves marks)	The SkyFog texture does not contain any properties. There is currently no existing corresponding Shader called "skyfog". (Generates error Error: Material "tools/toolsskyfog" uses unknown shader "SkyFog".) Confirm:It can be fixed to function properly if it's vmt settings are changed in the Source code and recompiled
	Fog Volume	Yes	No		No					Available only in Left 4 Dead and later. Used in conjunction with multiple env_fog_controllers to change fog colours and densities in a level