$emissiveblend
... 
This article needs a screenshot to help visually convey the subject.
You can upload screenshots at Special:Upload. For help, see Help:Images.
You can upload screenshots at Special:Upload. For help, see Help:Images.
$emissiveblend is a material shader parameter available in all 
Source games since 
Source 2007 for VertexLitGeneric. It provides advanced self-illumination that can be flowed using a flowmap. It is used for the Vortigaunts in 
Half-Life 2: Episode Two and succeeds the VortWarp shader from 
Half-Life 2: Episode One. All parameters must be specified except for $emissiveblendstrength in order for the effect to work properly.
Note:$emissiveblendis additive, and does not read from the material's albedo.$emissiveblendparameters are X+ and Y-, for both flowmap and scroll. (e.g. Giving X a positive scroll vector will have it go left and giving Y a positive scroll vector will have it go up)- This effect does not need to use a flowmap, and can instead be used as a simple emissive map. Use dummy textures (
dev/nullor a pure white texture with a pure black alpha channel) for$emissiveblendtextureand$emissiveblendflowtexture, and use a value of"[0 0]"for$emissiveblendscrollvector. In this instance, illumination is solely provided by the$emissiveblendbasetexture, and the time proxy is not required.
Parameters
Enables the effect.
The texture that the flowmap scrolls. Not mapped to a UV.
The texture used for the self-illumination. Can be colored or grayscale. Does not adopt the base texture's color.
Todo: Does the alpha channel of this texture do anything? The one Valve uses has a specific alpha channel defined.
Flowmap used for the
$emissiveblendtexture.Color tint of the effect. Default
"[1 1 1]".A matrix that controls the direction and speed the
$emissiveblendtexture scrolls. X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) respectively. A setting of 1 results in the texture tiling every 1 second, 0.1 every 10 seconds. 0 is no scroll. Default "[1 1]".Time Proxy
For any reason, you may want to modulate time by scale it. The below material proxy is a simple sample to work properly.
Note: you don't need to declare "CurrentTime" Proxie in cases where you don't need to relative modify time scale. "$time" "0.0"
"$CurrentTime" "0.0" // declare a custom VMT Parameter to "CurrentTime" Proxie output
"$timeMult" "0.5" // declare a custom VMT Parameter to use at "Multiply" Proxie
"Proxies"
{
"CurrentTime"
{
// It pass CurrentTime Proxie to "$CurrentTime" variable to scale materials effects such $emissiveblendscrollvector.
"resultVar" "$CurrentTime"
}
"Multiply"
{
"srcVar1" "$CurrentTime" // get $CurrentTime VMT parameter to multiply with srcVar2
"srcVar2" "$timeMult" // get $timeMult VMT parameter to multiply with srcVar1
"resultVar" "$time" // writes multiplication product into $time, scaling "CurrentTime"
}
}
Example
Static
This is an example of a static $emissiveblend texture. It will appear just like $selfillum does.
$EmissiveBlendEnabled 1 // Enable EmissiveBlend. Like $selfillum 1
$EmissiveBlendStrength 1 // how strong the entire glow effect is.
$EmissiveBlendTexture vgui/white // This will be useless, but is required.
$EmissiveBlendBaseTexture Glow_texture_color // this is the glowing texture.vtf
$EmissiveBlendFlowTexture vgui/white // EmmisiveBlend can "flow" or move. But ours is static, so a white texture is used.
$EmissiveBlendTint " [ 1 1 1 ] " // RGB glow intensity. Leave at 1 1 1. This can be used to change how strong each color should glow. So instead of using a darker red color, you may use [.5 1 1] to have red glow half as strong.
$EmissiveBlendScrollVector " [ 0 0 ] " // makes the EmmissiveBlend flow in either direction if a proper EmissiveBlendFlowTexture were set. But ours is static, so leave at 0 0Flowing
This is an example of a flowing $emissiveblend texture. It will appear like as if water is flowing across a model.
$EmissiveBlendEnabled 1 // Enable EmissiveBlend. Like $selfillum 1
$EmissiveBlendStrength 1 // how strong the entire glow effect is.
$EmissiveBlendTexture Glow_texture_color // this is the glowing texture.vtf
$EmissiveBlendBaseTexture Glow_texture_mask // This is the glowing texture's mask, like $selfillummask. SHOULD BE VTF i8 FORMAT, NOT DXT5!!!
$EmissiveBlendFlowTexture Glow_texture_mask_flow // EmmisiveBlend can "flow" or move. This here is the flowmap used, just like water.
$EmissiveBlendTint " [ 1 1 1 ] " // RGB glow intensity. Leave at 1 1 1. This can be used to change how strong each color should glow. So instead of using a darker red color, you may use [.5 1 1] to have red glow half as strong.
$EmissiveBlendScrollVector " [ 0 0 ] " // makes the EmmissiveBlend flow in either direction if a proper EmissiveBlendFlowTexture were set. But ours is static, so leave at 0 0The only known material using this shader parameter, found in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, materials/models/vortigaunt/vortigaunt_blue.vmt
"VertexLitGeneric"
{
"$surfaceprop" "default"
"$basetexture" "Models/vortigaunt/vortigaunt_base"
"$bumpmap" "Models/vortigaunt/vortigaunt_normal"
"$phong" "1"
"$phongboost" "10"
"$phongexponenttexture" "Models/vortigaunt/vortigaunt_exponent"
"$phongalbedotint" "1"
"$phongfresnelranges" "[.18 .4 1]"
"$halflambert" "1"
"$nodecal" "1"
// Rim lighting parameters
"$rimlight" "1" // To enable rim lighting (requires phong)
"$rimlightexponent" "10" // Exponent for phong component of rim lighting
"$rimlightboost" "3" // Boost for ambient cube component of rim lighting
// Blend between color textures
"$detail" "Models/Vortigaunt/vortigaunt_blue"
"$detailblendmode" "3"
"$detailblendfactor" "0.0"
"$detailScale" "1.0"
// Emissive Scroll Pass
"$emissiveBlendEnabled" "1" // Enables effect
"$emissiveBlendTexture" "models/vortigaunt/vortigaunt_illum"
"$emissiveBlendBaseTexture" "Models/Vortigaunt/vortigaunt_blue"
"$emissiveBlendFlowTexture" "models/vortigaunt/vortigaunt_flow"
"$emissiveBlendTint" "[1 1 1]"
"$emissiveBlendScrollVector" "[0.11 0.124]"
"$time" "0"
"Proxies"
{
"VortEmissive"
{
}
"MaterialModify"
{
}
"CurrentTime"
{
"resultVar" "$time"
}
}
}
