Material Reference

This is a reference of all material keywords and parameters.

Parameters Key

These are all the parameters which can be passed to material functions and values.

<float>	Any number.
<int>	An integer - any number without a fractional part.
<string>	Any value enclosed in quotes.
<index>	An integer number that is an index into an array.
<map>	An image map, which may include image programs (below).
<prog>	A vertex / frament program. Written using the GL ARB shader language. These files are stored in the glprogs directory.
<exp>	An expression that is evaluated every frame.

Global Keywords for Regular Materials

qer_editorimage <map>	Image to display in the editor
description <string>	Just a simple description for people using this material
polygonOffset	[float] offset the depth buffer to combat z-fighting
noShadows	Don't cast shadows
noSelfShadow	This material doesn't cast shadows on the model it's on (but it does on other models)
forceShadows	Allows nodraw surfaces to cast shadows
noOverlays	Overlay / Decal suppression
forceOverlays	Force decal overlays for alpha tested or translucent surfaces
translucent	The engine thinks this is a translucent material (which means no ambient/zfill pass will be done for this material)
forceOpaque	Opposite forces the engine to think this is a nontranslucent material.
twoSided	Draw the front and back. Implies no-shadows, because the shadow volume would be coplanar with the surface, giving depth fighting.
backSided	Draw only the back. This also implies no-shadows.
mirror	Use to make mirrors
noFog	Don't fog this surface
guisurf <guifile> guisurf entity[2|3]	This surface has a gui on it. Use "somegui.gui" to specify the gui, or entity, entity2, entity3, etc for the level designer to set it in Radiant.
sort <type>	Type is one of: subview, opaque, decal, far, medium, close, almostNearest, nearest, postProcess
spectrum <int>	Spectrums are used for "invisible writing" that can only be illuminated by a light of matching spectrum
deform <type>	Type is one of: sprite, tube, flare, expand, move, turbulent, eyeBall, particle, particle2
decalInfo <staySeconds> <fadeSeconds> [start rgb] [end rgb]	Used in decal materials to set how long the decal stays, and how it fades out.
renderbump <args...>	RenderBump command options, without "renderbump" at the start
diffusemap <map>	shortcut for { blend diffusemap map <map> }
specularmap <map>	shortcut for { blend specularmap map <map> }
bumpmap <map>	shortcut for { blend bumpmap map <map> }
DECAL_MACRO	shortcut for polygonOffset 1 discrete sort decal noShadows

Global Keywords for Light Materials

noShadows	This light doesn't cast shadows.
forceShadows	fog, blend, and ambient lights don't cast shadows by default. This forces them to cast shadows.
noPortalFog	This fog volume won't ever consider a portal fogged out.
fogLight	Option to fill with fog from viewer instead of light from center.
blendLight	Perform simple blending of the projection, instead of interacting with bumps and textures.
ambientLight	An ambient light has non-directional bump mapping and no specular.
lightFalloffImage <map>	specifies the image to use for the third axis of projected light volumes.

Global Surface Parameters

surfacetype "<stp>"	Sets a surface type for particles and sound effects, where <stp> is one of the valid surface types.
solid	may need to override a clearSolid
water	used for water
playerclip	solid to players
monsterclip	solid to monsters
moveableclip	solid to moveable entities
ikclip	solid to IK
blood	used to detect blood decals
trigger	used for triggers
aassolid	solid for AAS
aasobstacle	used to compile an obstacle into AAS that can be enabled/disabled
flashlight_trigger	used for triggers that are activated by the flashlight
nonsolid	clears the solid flag
nullNormal	renderbump will draw as 0x80 0x80 0x80, which won't collect light from any angle
areaportal	divides areas
qer_nocarve	don't cut brushes in editor
discrete	surfaces should not be automatically merged together or clipped to the world, because they represent discrete objects like gui shaders mirrors, or autosprites
noFragment	dmap won't cut surface at each bsp boundary
collision	collision surface. if a model has no collision surfaces, then all surfaces are considered collision surfaces
noimpact	don't make impact explosions or marks
nodamage	no falling damage when hitting
ladder	player can climb up this surface
nosteps	No footstep sounds.

Stage Keywords

blend <type> blend <src>, <dst>

Blend types: Type Src Dst

blend gl_src_alpha gl_one_minus_src_alpha 
add gl_one gl_one 
filter gl_dst_color gl_zero 
modulate gl_dst_color gl_zero 
none gl_zero gl_one 
bumpmap Normal map 
diffusemap Diffuse map 
specularmap Specular map 

Source blend modes: gl_one Constant 1

gl_zero Constant 0 
gl_dst_color The color currently on the screen 
gl_one_minus_dst_color One minus the color currently on the screen 
gl_src_alpha The alpha channel of the source image 
gl_one_minus_src_alpha One minus the alpha channel of the source image 
gl_dst_alpha The alpha channel of the screen image 
gl_one_minus_dst_alpha One minus the alpha channel of the screen image 
gl_src_alpha_saturate Minimum of the source alpha and one minus screen alpha 

Destination blend modes: gl_one Constant 1

gl_zero Constant 0 
gl_src_color The color of the source image 
gl_one_minus_src_color One minus the color of the source image 
gl_src_alpha The alpha channel of the source image 
gl_one_minus_src_alpha One minus the alpha channel of the source image 
gl_dst_alpha The alpha channel of the screen image 
gl_one_minus_dst_alpha One minus the alpha channel of the screen image 

map <map>	The image program to use for this stage.
remoteRenderMap <int> <int>	Width and Height of the buffer to render a remote image in to (for cameras). The entity this material is applied to has to support remote render views.
mirrorRenderMap <int> <int>	Width and Height of the buffer to render a mirror in to. This of course makes this stage a mirror stage, which is different from using the 'mirror' global keyword because that makes the entire material a mirror, rather than just one stage.
videomap [loop] <file>	This stage uses a video stream as an image map.
soundmap [waveform]	This stage uses a sound meter from the sound system as an image map. Specify 'waveform' to get a scope rather than bars.
cubeMap <map>	This stage uses a cube map as the image map. Looks for _px, _py, _pz, _nx, _ny, _nz for the positive x, y, z, and negative x, y, z sides.
cameraCubeMap <map>	This stage uses a cube map in camera space. Looks for _forward, _back, _left, _right, _up, and _down.
ignoreAlphaTest	Always use DEPTHFUNC_LEQUAL rather than DEPTHFUNC_EQUAL which is normally used for opaque and alpha tested surfaces.
nearest	Use nearest texture filtering.
linear	Use linear texture filtering.
clamp	Same as the global keywords. Use to override a global clamp for a specific stage.
zeroclamp
alphazeroclamp
noclamp	Use to set texture repeat for a stage when global clamp is set.
uncompressed	Do not compress this image in medium quality mode.
highquality
forceHighQuality	Do not compress this image in low quality mode.
nopicmip	Ignore the image_downSize cvar.
vertexColor	Multiply the pixel color by the vertex color.
inverseVertexColor	Multiply the pixel color by one minus the vertex color.
privatePolygonOffset <float>	Explicit larger (or negative) polygon offset for this stage.
texGen <type>	Type is one of: normal, reflect, skybox, wobbleSky <exp> <exp> <exp>.
scroll <exp>, <exp>	Scroll the texture coordinates.
translate <exp>, <exp>
scale <exp>, <exp>	Just scales without a centering.
centerScale <exp>, <exp>	Subtracts 0.5, then scales, then adds 0.5.
shear <exp>, <exp>	Subtracts 0.5, then shears, then adds 0.5.
rotate <exp>	Subtracts 0.5, then rotates, then adds 0.5.
maskRed	Don't write to the red channel.
maskGreen	Don't write to the blue channel.
maskBlue	Don't write to the green channel.
maskAlpha	Don't write to the alpha channel.
maskColor	Shortcut for maskRed maskGreen maskBlue
maskDepth	Don't write to the depth buffer.
alphaTest <exp>	Only write if the alpha value is greater than <exp>.
red <exp>	Set the red vertex color.
green <exp>	Set the green vertex color.
blue <exp>	Set the blue vertex color.
alpha <exp>	Set the alpha vertex value.
rgb <exp>	Shortcut for red <exp> green <exp> blue <exp>
rgba <exp>	Shortcut for red <exp> green <exp> blue <exp> alpha <exp>
color <exp0>, <exp1>, <exp2>, <exp3>	Shortcut for red exp0 green exp1 blue exp2 alpha exp3
colored	Shortcut for color parm0, parm1, parm2, parm3
if <exp>	Conditionally disable stages.
fragmentProgram <prog>	Use an ARB fragment program with this stage.
vertexProgram <prog>	Use an ARB vertex program with this stage.
program <prog>	Shortcut for fragmentProgram <prog> vertexProgram <prog>
vertexParm <index> <exp0> [,exp1] [,exp2] [,exp3]	Values to pass to the vertex program. One expression gets repeated across all 4 values. Two expressions put 0, 1 in z, w. Three expressions put 1 in w.
fragmentMap <index> [options] <map>	The image map to use for texture unit <index>. [options] can be cubeMap, cameraCubeMap, nearest, linear, clamp, noclamp, zeroclamp, alphazeroclamp, forceHighQuality, uncompressed, highquality, or nopicmip.
megaTexture <mega>	This stage uses a MegaTexture.

Image Program Functions

These can be used anywhere that accepts <map>, and can be nested.

heightmap(<map>, <float>)	Turns a grayscale height map into a normal map. <float> determines how "deep" the bump map appears.
addnormals(<map>, <map>)	Adds two normal maps together. Result is normalized.
smoothnormals(<map>)	Does a box filter on the normal map, and normalizes the result.
add(<map>, <map>)	Adds two images without normalizing the result.
scale(<map>, <float> [,float] [,float] [,float])	Scales the RGBA by the specified factors. Defaults to 0.
invertAlpha(<map>)	Inverts the alpha channel (0 becomes 1, 1 becomes 0).
invertColor(<map>)	Inverts the R, G, and B channels.
makeIntensity(<map>)	Copies the red channel to the G, B, and A channels.
makeAlpha(<map>)	Sets the alpha channel to an average of the RGB channels. Sets the RGB channels to white.