light
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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.
Confirm:How many of the
 Class hierarchy
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| CLight |
| lights.cpp
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light is a point entity available in all 
Source games.
It creates an invisible static light source that shines in all directions.
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.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>
- Deprecated.
Entity to point this light at. Non-functional, as this entity casts light in all directions, regardless of if it has a target; use light_spot instead. - 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.
- 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.
Confirm:How many of the BaseEntity keyvalues even work on static lights? Does parenting work?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_spot
- Light_deferred
- Lighting
- Adding Light
- Intermediate Lighting
- Advanced Lighting
- Effect flags (dynamic light effects)
- Tool textures (for Block light)
- $reflectivity (controlling reflected light off surfaces)