info_overlay
info_overlay
is a internal point entity available in all Source games. Its a much more powerful version of a standard decal. Against decals, overlays can be: resized, rotated, scaled, and distorted.
Overlays should be created using the Hammer Overlay Tool, which will also set the sides
keyvalue accordingly. If you need the overlay to span multiple faces, open the overlay's properties in SmartEdit mode, choose Brush Faces and then Ctrl-Click in the camera window to add more faces.
Contents
Limitations/Bugs
Advanced Information
In Source, decals and overlays are not actually "painted" on surfaces. They are simple planes that overlaps from a close distance brushes surfaces. This is to keep in mind when you deal with overlays that will be projected on differents faces that are not coplanar. A little gap will be visible between faces as you can see on the picture below. This cannot be avoided since Source won't work that way. (Actual painting texels would be too expensive to do.) This is the same working for fake dynamic shadows and others projected textures on surfaces.
Distorting overlays
If the overlay is not yet placed, select the overlay tool and your material, and click where you wish the center of the overlay to be. You should now see 4 white boxes at the edges of the overlay, and you may drag them about to distort it.
If you wish to distort an existing overlay, first select the overlay you wish to edit, and then select the overlay tool. Then you should be able to distort the overlay as described above. If the overlay does not respond, try deleting it and then following the above procedure.
Storing of overlays
The info_overlays are all packed into a special lump in the BSP file. To enable accesses by name, a info_overlay_accessor entity is created in the compiled map, which translates targetnames to info_overlay ID numbers.
Keyvalues
- Name
(targetname)
<targetname> - Name of the overlay. Used to access the overlay with an env_texturetoggle.
- Brush faces
(sides)
<sidelist> - Faces on which the overlay will be applied.
- RenderOrder
(RenderOrder)
<integer> - Higher values render after lower values (on top). This value can be 0–3.
- 0: Default
- 1: Medium
- 2: High
- 3: Very High
- U Start
(StartU)
<float>
- U End
(EndU)
<float> - Texture coordinates for the image X-axis. This normally starts at zero (left) and goes to 1 (right). Adjust values to change position and scaling.
- V Start
(StartV)
<float>
- V End
(EndV)
<float> - Texture coordinates for the image Y-axis. This normally starts at zero (top) and goes to 1 (bottom). Adjust values to change position and scaling.
- Overlay Basis Origin (Read-Only)
(BasisOrigin)
<vector> - Offset of the surface from the position of the overlay entity.
- Overlay Basis U (Read-Only)
(BasisU)
<vector> - Direction of the material's X-axis.
- Overlay Basis V (Read-Only)
(BasisV)
<vector> - Direction of the material's Y-axis.
- Overlay Basis Normal (Read-Only)
(BasisNormal)
<vector> - Direction out of the surface.
- Overlay Point 1(Read-Only)
(uv0)
<vector>
- Overlay Point 2(Read-Only)
(uv1)
<vector>
- Overlay Point 3(Read-Only)
(uv2)
<vector>
- Overlay Point 4(Read-Only)
(uv3)
<vector>
- Start Fade Dist
(fademindist)
<float> - Distance at which the overlay starts to fade (<0 = use fademaxdist).
- End Fade Dist
(fademaxdist)
<float> - Maximum distance at which the overlay is visible (0 = don't fade out).
SystemLevelChoice:
- Minimum / Maximum Effect Details Level
(mincpulevel / maxcpulevel)
<choices> (in all games since ) - Don't render for players with Effect Details levels that exceed the minimum or maximum.[Key names are related to
cpu_level
cvar used by Effect Details.]
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- Minimum / Maximum Shader Details Level
(mingpulevel / maxgpulevel)
<choices> (in all games since ) - Don't render for players with Shader Details levels that exceed the minimum or maximum.[Key names are related to
gpu_level
cvar used by Shader Details.]
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