light_spot
 Class hierarchy
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| CLight |
lights.cpp
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light_spot is a point entity available in all 
Source games. It is a cone-shaped, invisible light source. Can be turned on and off through inputs, though switchable lights may cause lightmap errors. This is a static spotlight that can be pointed at another entity.
Note:When using this entity it is often necessary to turn the brightness value up significantly for the effects of the light to be visible compared to other lighting entities. Values of 3000-4000 are sometimes necessary for light sources like streetlights.
AltNames:light, light_spot, light_glspot, and (in all games since 
) light_directional are all tied to the same C++ class in game, and only differ in VRAD.Contents
Keyvalues
- Name
(targetname)<string> - The name that other entities refer to this entity by, via Inputs/Outputs or other keyvalues (e.g.
parentnameortarget).
Also displayed in Hammer's 2D views and Entity Report.See also: Generic Keyvalues, Inputs and Outputs available to all entities
Important:Naming a static light radically changes its behavior. See Naming Lights for details.- Entity to point at
(target)<targetname> - The name of an entity in the map that the spotlight will point at. This will override the spotlight's angles.
- Inner (bright) angle
(_inner_cone)<integer> - The angles of the inner spotlight beam.Note:Values larger than 90 are clamped to 90; this can be circumvented with custom RAD compiler, but lighting on dynamically-lit models may behave unexpectedly.
- Outer (fading) angle
(_cone)<integer> - The angles of the outer spotlight beam.Note:Values larger than 90 are clamped to 90; this can be circumvented with custom RAD compiler, but lighting on dynamically-lit models may behave unexpectedly.
- Focus
(_exponent)<integer> - Changes the distance between the umbra and penumbra cone. (higher values make the edge of the light more blurred.
Tip:When increasing the Focus value to for example 5 you can use the spotlight as a directional fill light. - Maximum distance
(_distance)<integer> - This is the distance that light is allowed to cast, in inches. Non-functional in
Source 2013 and later, use 50 and 0 percent falloff instead.
- Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X)
(angles)<angle> - This entity's orientation in the world. Pitch is rotation around the Y axis, yaw is the rotation around the Z axis, roll is the rotation around the X axis.
- Pitch
(pitch)<integer> - Used instead of
anglesvalue for reasons unknown.
- Appearance (lightstyle)
(style)<integer choices> - Various lightstyle presets. Cannot be used on named lights.
Warning:Using this parameter near displacements reduces performance!
Lightstyle presets
(epilepsy warning)Literal Value Description Sequence Preview 0 Normal m
10 Fluorescent flicker mmamammmmammamamaaamammma
2 Slow, strong pulse abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba
11 Slow pulse, noblack abcdefghijklmnopqrrqponmlkjihgfedcba
5 Gentle pulse jklmnopqrstuvwxyzyxwvutsrqponmlkj
1 Flicker A mmnmmommommnonmmonqnmmo
6 Flicker B nmonqnmomnmomomno
3 Candle A mmmmmaaaaammmmmaaaaaabcdefgabcdefg
7 Candle B mmmaaaabcdefgmmmmaaaammmaamm
8 Candle C mmmaaammmaaammmabcdefaaaammmmabcdefmmmaaaa
4 Fast strobe mamamamamama
9 Slow strobe aaaaaaaazzzzzzzz
12 !FGD Underwater light mutation mmnnmmnnnmmnn
- Custom Appearance
(pattern)<string> - A string of english letters, like a sequence of piano keys, that define a pattern of brightness. a is 0%, m is 100%, and z is 200%. Requires light to have a targetname.
Internal keyvalues used only by VRAD:
- Brightness
(_light)<color255 + int> - The RGB color and brightness of the light. Colors must be between 0 and 255; brightness can be anything.
- Note:Negative brightness will suck out the amount of lighting that the equivalent positive brightness would cast. Use sparingly; set falloff to linear instead of quadratic to make it more like an ordinary shadow and less like a black hole.
- BrightnessHDR
(_lightHDR)<color255 + int> - RGB color and brightness override used in HDR mode. Default is
-1 -1 -1 1, which means no change. - Warning:The fourth digit must be positive. Otherwise all light will be sucked out of your map!
- BrightnessScaleHDR
(_lightHDRscale)<float> - A simple intensity multiplier used when compiling HDR lighting.
- Constant
(_constant_attn)<float> - Linear
(_linear_attn)<float> - Quadratic
(_quadratic_attn)<float> - These three values determine how the intensity of the emitted light falls off over distance. See Constant-Linear-Quadratic Falloff.
- 50 percent falloff distance
(_fifty_percent_distance))<string> - 0 percent falloff distance
(_zero_percent_distance)<string> - Distances at which brightness should have fallen to 50% and (1/256)% respectively. Overrides Linear/Constant/Quadratic parameters if non-zero.
- Hard falloff
(_hardfalloff)<boolean> - Causes lights to fall to exactly zero beyond the 0% distance. May cause unrealistic lighting if not used carefully.
- Cast entity shadows
(_castentityshadow)<boolean> (in all games since) (also in 
) - Allows the light to modify the direction of nearby render-to-texture shadows so that they always point away from its origin. See also
shadow_control. - Note:This keyvalue may not be available in some FGDs.
- Shadow cast offset
(_shadoworiginoffset)<vector> (in all games since) - A world-space offset that gets applied to the light origin when casting entity shadows. Useful for dealing with funny-looking shadows from very low lights: Just offset up the z axis. Default
0 0 0. - Note:This keyvalue may not be available in some FGDs.
Flags
Initially dark : [1]
- Spawns with the light turned off, so a light switch or similar can turn it on.
Inputs
TurnOn- Turn the light on.
TurnOff- The the light off.
Toggle- Toggle the light's current state.
SetPattern<string>- Set a custom pattern of light brightness for this light. If the Light is off, then this input appears to turn it on.
FadeToPattern<string>- Fades from first value in old pattern, to first value in the new given pattern. If the Light is off, then this input appears to turn it on.
See also
- light and point_spotlight
- light_deferred
- Lighting
- Adding Light
- Intermediate Lighting
- Advanced Lighting
- Tool textures (for Block light)
