Hello, welcome to my Spotlight tutorial, where I will show you how to create some pretty good looking light effects for your map. All you need is familiarity with hammer. Thats all.

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A ZAZUBA3 TUTORIAL

To start we need a basic map for the lighting to take effect. This small setup took me around 5-6 minutes.

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Now that you have a surrounding its time to put in a prop for our lighting to come out of. (appearance wise)

I have added 2 street lamps.

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With our lamps in place, its time to add the physical light. Create a "light_spot" entity, aim it directly downwards (This is if you are creating the Street lamp, if you ware using a different model aim it likewise to your model) and put it underneath your lamp.

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Now its time to create the visual light (remember this is a light effect, but it does not actually light up models or textures), but results in good looking lighting effects. Create a "pointspotlight" entity. (You can refer to my settings at the bottom of the page) We are going to aim this downwards. Also, most mappers prefer to put their "pointspotlight" directly inside of their "light_spot", and I have done that also.

(Note: In hammer view, the yellow line coming out of this entity shows where your lighting will go, so if your light isn't going where you want, make sure that it is in place in the "Top, side, and front" views in hammer.)

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Now lets compile (F9+enter) and see what we have. If yours is off, simply return to hammer and double check your work. This is my result:

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If all is well you should be happy with your new lighting knowledge, and use it for great detail in your maps to come. Thank you for using my tutorial, if you have any questions / concerns please PM me on FPSB.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= LIGHT SETTINGS =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

-=Model=-

Entity Class = PropStatic Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X) = "0 270 0" Minimum DX Level = "DX6 (Default)" Maximum DX Level = "DX9 (Default)" World Model = "models/propsc17/lamppost03a_on.mdl" Skin = "0" Collisions = "Use VPhysics (model vertex data)" Disable Shadows = "No" Screen Space Fade = "No" Lighting Origin = "-I left this blank-" Start Fade Distance = "-1" End Fade Distance = "0" Fade Scale = "1"

-=Physical Light=-

Entity Class = Light_Spot Name = "-I left this blank-" Brightness = "255 255 255 200" HDR Brightness = "-1 -1 -1 1" Appearance = "Normal" Custom Appearance = "-I left this blank-" Constant = "0" Linear = "0" Quadratic = "1" Half (50%) Falloff = "-I left this blank-" Complete (0%) Falloff = "-I left this blank-" Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X) = "-90 0 0" Pitch = "-90" Entity to point at = "-I left this blank-" Inner (bright) angle = "15" Outer (fading) angle = "25" Maximum cast distance for models = "0" Exponent = "0.0"

-=Visual Light=-

Entity Class = Point_Spotlight Name = "-I left this blank-" Parent = "-I left this blank-" Pitch Yaw Roll (Y Z X) = "90 0 0" Spotlight Length = "500"

Spotlight Width = "50" Color (R G B) = "255 255 255"

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THANK YOU FOR READING MY TUTORIAL

Notes:

I understand the point_spotlight may have been rather small, this can be fixed simply by making the width larger.

I did not include how to use the light entity's I should do so here.

When using the entity = "point spotlight"

Name = Use when creating Inputs and Outputs

Parent = Use for linking to triggers and other miscellaneous features

Pitch Yaw Roll = Used for positioning in your map. The entity "point_spotlight" has a rather awkward and distinct feel with the Y Z X axis, so double check your work here!!!

Spotlight Length = This is used for how long, or bright the light will be (keep in mind that it includes fading distance as well)

Spotlight Width = This is how large the light is going to be, its difficult to find the perfect size, but with a few attempts of trail/error you should find the right width for your model.