Env cascade light

It is also available in Black Mesa

While Alien Swarm Deferred doesn't have support for this entity its Light environment does cast dynamic shadows by default.

CSM in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Comparison of CSM and without CSM in Black Mesa
(Click to preview)

It casts an extremely accurate shadow map via the tools/skybox texture, acting as a real-time variation of light_environment. This form of lighting is known as Cascaded Shadow Maps, or CSM, which works by rendering very detailed shadow maps which becomes a lower and lower resolution depending on the distance the viewer is from the surface, similar to mipmaps. Some games automatically add this entity to the map, but it can be placed manually as well.

Note:Due to lighting changes in , this entity has additional parameters.

Note: Black Mesa's implementation requires -cascadeshadows parameter for VRAD, this for CSM to work correctly.

Bug:In , shadows will be very faint if the map hasn't been compiled with HDR.  [todo tested in ?]

Bug:In , Lightstyles will break when this entity exists.  [todo tested in ?]

Note:You still need to have a light_environment in your map as well to create lightmap based lighting, which is not done by this entity.

Note:Older games like don't have this entity, but there is an attempt of porting it.

Note:You alternatively can implement Biohazards deferred lighting here is a port for Source 2013 Multiplayer as originally it was made for Alien Swarm.

Warning:This port contains many bugs, optimization is broken or missing, even on simple maps there will be low performance.

Todo: Make tutorial on how to implement deferred lighting in your source engine project, and also how to use it.

Represented by class CCascadeLight.

Keyvalues

Light Color (color) <color255>

This is the color of the sunlight. For , the color is automatically copied from the light_environment.

Max shadow distance (maxshadowdistance) <float>

Maximum dynamic shadow distance. Higher values are slower, default on PC is 400 units.

Use light_environment's angles (uselightenvangles) <boolean>

If true, the CSM shadow angles are automatically taken from a light_environment's angles. If false, this entity's Pitch Yaw Roll is used.

LightRadius1 (LightRadius1) to LightRadius3 <float> (only in )

Used for controlling shadow softness in cascades 1, 2, and 3.

Depthbias1 (Depthbias1) to Depthbias3 <float> (only in )

DepthBias for cascades 1, 2, and 3.

Slopescaledepthbias1 (Slopescaledepthbias1) to Slopescaledepthbias3 <float> (only in )

Slope DepthBias for cascades 1, 2, and 3.

ViewModelDepthbias (ViewModelDepthbias) <float> (only in )

DepthBias for viewmodel cascade.

ViewModelSlopescaledepthbias (ViewModelSlopescaledepthbias) <float> (only in )

DepthBias for viewmodel cascade.

CSM_Volume_Mode (CSMVolumeMode) <choices> (only in )

Use Manual mode for better quality and performance. In near future Auto mode will be removed from the game.

• 0: Auto: Static cache will update once every 10 frames (approx) covering max shadow distance or whole map around player.
• 1: Manual : Static cache area coverage and updates are managed via CSM Volumes' I/O.

Start Disabled (StartDisabled) <boolean>

Stay dormant until activated (with theEnableinput).

Inputs

SetAngles <stringRedirectInput/string>

Sets the direction shadows cast in.

Note:Effects nothing.

LightColor <color255RedirectInput/color32>

Changes color of the sunlight.

Bug:Doesn't work as expected. With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's implementation, the color only changes on static props, not on world geometry or dynamic objects. It only changes the shadow color (only in world geometry, not in models), with no change upon reloading the game. With Black Mesa's implementation, the only thing you can do is change shadows color to turquoise and change the intensity of these shadows, however this doesn't effects shadows on the viewmodel.

Examples

Note:Portal 2: Community Edition uses Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's implementation of CSM Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ( Portal 2: Community Edition): Before ent_fire env_cascade_light lightcolor 255 0 0 255. After ent_fire env_cascade_light lightcolor 255 0 0 255. Black Mesa: Before ent_fire env_cascade_light lightcolor 255 0 0 255. After ent_fire env_cascade_light lightcolor 255 0 0 255.

  [todo tested in ?]

LightColorScale  !FGD 

Deprecated.
Boosts the color of the sunlight. Non-functional, only resets the Light Color.

Bug:Effects nothing in Black Mesa.  [todo tested in ?]

SetCSMVolume  (only in )

Set CSM Volume via trigger volume.

SetCSMVolumeToSceneBounds  (only in )

Set CSM Volume to scene bounds.

SetCSMVolumeViaCSMVolumeEntity <targetnameRedirectInput/string> (only in )

Set CSM Volume to CSM Volume Entity.

Disable <void>

Disable this entity.

Note:Only in Black Mesa work as expected. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's implementation only disable blobby shadows and lighting in viewmodel, also cause freeze for some seconds.

Enable <void>

Enable this entity.

Note:Only in Black Mesa work as expected. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's implementation only enable blobby shadows and lighting in viewmodel, also cause freeze for some seconds.

See also

• light_environment
• Shadow_control
• env_sun
• Skybox Basics
• Skybox lighting
• Advanced Lighting
• Effect flags (dynamic light effects)
• newLight_Dir
• newLight_Point
• newLight_Spot
• NewLights_settings
• New_Specular
• BlackMesa XenEngine: Part3 – CSM 2.0 (page from Black Mesa developer about their own CSM implementation)
• BlackMesa XenEngine: Part2 – How a Frame is Rendered (page from Black Mesa developer about new graphics features)
• BlackMesa XenEngine: Part1 – Heavily Modified Source Engine (page from Black Mesa developer about Black Mesa engine, better known as Xenengine)