$surfaceprop

$surfaceprop is a QC command available in all Source games.

It is also available as a shader parameter. It links the surface of either a material or model to a set of physical properties, including:

• What sounds are emitted during collisions
• What effects are emitted when the surface is shot
• Mass, buoyancy, bounciness...
• The effect of the surface on nearby sounds (reverberation, echo, absorption...)

Bug:In Counter-Strike: Source, not including a $surfaceprop in a vmt for brushes will cause the material to take on the sound (and perhaps the other properties as well) of whatever the last material that was interacted with which did have a $surfaceprop defined.

Workaround:Use $surfaceprop "default".

Syntax

Syntax is the same for both models and materials:

$surfaceprop <name>

Names are defined in <game>\scripts\surfaceproperties_manifest.txt (and the files it references). For a list of Valve's stock props, see Material surface properties.

Bug: Left 4 Dead does not display bullet decals properly on brick surfaces. If you're okay with the decals and visual effects being inappropriate, you can change the $surfaceprop to something else to fix it, such as concrete.

Note:This has been fixed in Left 4 Dead 2.

In Materials

• $surfaceprop is not linked to any particular shader, so it can be used at any time.
• Only brush based shaders require this parameter. $surfaceprop must always be defined within the collision property of the QC file if anything other than the default is to be used, however.

In Models

• Surface props can be defined for individual bones with $jointsurfaceprop.
• A static prop can only have one $surfaceprop.

Clarify: It is unclear whether a model's $automass is calculated from $surfaceprop or prop_data. Relevant code is in CJointedModel::ComputeMass() in the 2006 SDK.

See also

• Material surface properties
• List of CS:GO Surface Types