$ambientboost

$ambientboost is a QC command available in all Source games since Source 2006. Indicates the model be rendered with the ambient boost heuristic.

In order to keep a model from becoming too dark in some situations, the heuristic boosts the ambient cube contribution in cases where the ambient term is otherwise overwhelmed by any direct lights. To use this, include $ambientboost in your QC files for a given model and the boost heuristic will be applied to the ambient cube contribution of shading.

This technique was first used on Alyx in Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Note:As this is a runtime lighting effect, this command will have no effect on static props which have per-vertex lighting or lightmaps. This could be achieved with a modified VRAD.

Syntax

$ambientboost