env_screenoverlay
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Note:An overlay will be applied to all players in multiplayer games, even when the!activatoris one player. To apply an overlay to a single client, the command
Note:In
, the overlay can be overridden by certain actions such as being ubercharged or burned. The
Tip:You can create custom pixel shaders for the overlay and pack them with the map. See sdk_screenspace_shaders for more details.
![]() |
---|
CEnvScreenOverlay |
![]() |
env_screenoverlay
is a point entity available in all Source games. It can display and control a set of screen overlays, to be displayed over the player's view. Useful for view effects like drunkenness, or teleporter afterimages, etc.

r_screenoverlay <material_path>
needs to be used with a point_clientcommand.


SetScriptOverlayMaterial
input or VScript function on the player can be used to set a separate overlay that will not be overriden by such actions.Materials
You can use any material as an overlay, but UnlitGeneric materials are the least likely to have any visual bugs.

Valve provides these materials in the /effects
folder:
- combine_binocoverlay
- Combine binoculars
- tp_eyefx/tpeye
- Green teleport shimmer
- tp_eyefx/tpeye2
- Red teleport shimmer
- tp_eyefx/tpeye3
- Blue teleport shimmer
- tp_eyefx/tp_eyefx
- Warped distortion, somewhat similar the one seen on strider charge shots.
- tp_eyefx/tp_black
- Black. A thin border around the overlay is still visible.
- tp_eyefx/tp_eyefx_eli
- Flashing animation of three figures. Hardly usable as an overlay.
These materials are not designed as screen overlays, but will work as one:
- debug/yuv
- Monochrome (Black and white)
- effects/com_shield002a.vmt
- The combine shield shader effect - refraction with drifting squares.
- models/effects/portalfunnel_sheet
- Red-yellow-green scrolling ground overlay
- models/props_combine/portalball001_sheet
- Green downward haze
- effects/tp_refract
- Red/Orange Refractive overlay
- glass/glasswindow_refract01
- As if looking through a glass Observation window from Portal
Flags
Allow Suit Zoom : [1] !FGD
Keyvalues
- Name (targetname) <string>
- The name that other entities refer to this entity by, via Inputs/Outputs or other keyvalues (e.g.
parentname
ortarget
).
Also displayed in Hammer's 2D views and Entity Report.See also: Generic Keyvalues, Inputs and Outputs available to all entities
- Overlay Name 1 (OverlayName1) to Overlay Name 10 (OverlayName10) <string>
- Name of the first overlay material to display.
- Overlay Duration 1 (OverlayTime1)) to Overlay Duration 10 (OverlayTime10) <float>
- Amount of time that the overlay should be displayed for, after which it will begin showing the next overlay. Setting this to -1 will make the entity display the overlay indefinitely, until it's forced to change by an input.
Inputs
- StartOverlays
- Start displaying currently selected overlay, selected using the SwitchOverlay input.
- StopOverlays
- Stop displaying any overlays.
- SwitchOverlay <integer>
- Switch to displaying a specific overlay. Pass in the desired overlay number in the parameter, where 1 is the first overlay, etc. Out of bounds values will be ignored. Negative numbers will be converted to positive numbers + 1 (-1 becomes 2, etc) due to how the input is coded internally.
See also
- Video with some overlays.