Batch file for custom compiling*

*NOTE: in Sven Co-op batch file is no longer required to set compile parameters. All parameters can be specified through point entity: info_compile_parameters.

Tutorial suggested by 'TrEmPlEr'.

Using editor is not the only way to compile your map. Maybe you want to have simple single file to compile map by clicking it, or just save all parameters into single file? This can be done very quickly and easily!

1. Create new .txt file. Place it in the same folder with all compile tools you gonna use (keep in mind that there is normal
and x64 version of each compiler). Also put a map you wish to compile into that folder. It must be in .map format.

2. Open .txt file, and put there four commands:

hlcsg.exe mymap

hlbsp.exe mymap

hlvis.exe mymap

hlrad.exe mymap

Don't include file .map extension in the command parameters. Convert .txt file to .bat. This file is now executable.

3. Your map is ready for compiling! Run this file, if everything works fine the final .bsp file should be generated.
The log file is automatically created, under yourmap.txt file. You can add all compile parameters to created file.
Here is example of .bat file used by Trempler- one of the level designers in Sven Co-op (feel free to use it):

hlcsg.exe mymap -threads 4 -texdata 90000 -cliptype simple -estimate -chart -nowadtextures

hlbsp.exe mymap -threads 4 -texdata 90000 -estimate -chart

hlvis.exe mymap -threads 4 -texdata 90000 -estimate -chart -low -full

hlrad.exe mymap -threads 4 -texdata 90000 -estimate -chart -extra -dscale 1.5 -fade 1 -minlight 1 -scale 0.8 -smooth 90 -low -bounce 12 -blur 1.5

As you can see, adding commands is very simple, very similar to adding commands in level editor.
Be careful with -threads option, using more cores might make your system unusable during process.

You can also check amazing batch file created by Puchi here: https://gitlab.com/Puchi/Level_Design/blob/master/compile.bat

ZHLT keyvalues

Some entities shares keyvalues, you might find flags like Render Mode or Render FX in most brush entities and some point entities. The same situation is with ZHLT flags. You can config light receiving for brush entities, and light produced by 'light_' entities. Many of keyvalues described below uses similar effects to compile commands for hlRAD.exe.

1. Light Origin: Entity always takes light from it's center. Only one light calculations are made for this entity, no matter if this entity is movable or not. Trains, pushables, doors, buttons, rotatings, tracktrains- they does not receive lights dynamically- so If func_pushable starts under the wall in dark corner, textures of that pushable stays blackout no matter when we transport it. The issue may looks like this:

But don't worry, there is simple and easy fix for this! We gonna use light origin target keyvalue. Firstly, we need to know from which location our entity will be picked light from. Place info_target entity on the map, and then set it's location of your wish.
The location of this entity will be used by func_pushable (or any other entity with issue). Name that info_target, and write it's name into light origin target of func_pushable. The location of info_target is not always easy to set. You will need to choose
it smart, so entity will look more realistic. The info_target is hardest to set on entities that can travel long distance e.g. func_tracktrain where path for this entity is long, and lightning in each area it pass through differs. You can also make another room with lighting specially tuned for this entity, and place info_target there.

Final result:

You can also use custom light origin for model-based entities with zhlt_copylight flag.

2. Minimal Light Level: Not really a ZHLT value, but also very helpful. Used to set maximum lightning level for entities.
Imagine a computer screen in the darkness, machine diodes or just a lamp that produces a light and need to be full-lit.
Use minimum light level key to do this. It's only supports two states: '0' (normal light) and more than '0' (full bright).
Set it to '1' or any other value to make brush full-lit.
Here you can check some examples:

Keep in mind that it does not produce light itself (in the first image I added light by myself).
In the second example I created two brushes- first covered with "NULL" textures in every surface instead of front (where the screen texture is), and the second with the same sizes as the first one, it's textured on sides and back, but there is "NULL" texture on front. First brush (that represent screen) have it's minimum light level set to '1'. The brushes are placed in the same position. This makes only screen texture (first brush) to be full brightened, but sides are in normal brightness (second brush).
The third brush using "Additive" render mode (see Render Modes for more info), "NULL" textures and minimum light level.

3. ZHLT Lightflags: Changes light casting or receiving setting. The most useful function is 'Opaque' that let you set if that entity blocks light or don't. ZHLT Lightflags contains values:

• Default: let the entity decide about light settings.
• Embedded Fix: disables bleed fix on given entity. Sometimes when entity gets trough the wall, it may get wrong lighting in one of the site. Use this flag when this problem appear.
• Opaque (blocks light): may be useful for func_door or func_illusionary:
  
  
  

  
  

  'Opaque' function can also generate shadows on transparent "{" textures with 'Solid' Render Mode (amount: 255).
  
  Note that shadow sharpness depends on '-blur' value. The blur value of map above is 0.5 (it's 1.5 by default).
  
  
• Opaque + Embedded Fix: Both Opaque and Embedded Fix settings.
• Opaque + Concave Fix: Instead of using Embedded Fix you can use Concave Fix. It's generally used for curved entities, use
  it when you spot a black seems on curved (arched) entities.

4. Shadow color and intensity: You can add 'zhlt_customshadow' keyvalue to define custom shadow color or transparency
of 'Opaque' entities. Use one value (from 0.0 to 1.0) to change shadow intensity, or three values (each from 0.0 to 1.0) for color.

This keyvalue is not listed in entity keyvalues list, You need to disable smart edit mode and add key 'zhlt_customshadow' manually:

5. Disable collision of any entity: Making custom key 'zhlt_noclip' for brush entity, with value more than 0 makes entity have
it's collision disabled. Note that this can disable touch, direct and bullet collision detection, making func_breakable unbreakable by standard bullet attacks, or func_pushable unpushable. Add custom key like it's described on image above.

6. Making any entity invisible: Use it in the same way as key above. Add 'zhlt_invisible' to brush entity to non-empty value,
and this entity becomes invisible. Note that it's easier to use "NULL" texture to achieve same effect.

7. Changing light, light_spot and light_environment fading: This is local keyvalue that controls light travel distance. You can either make light shorter or longer. Set it by changing zhlt_fade. The default value is 1.0.

8. Changing light, light_spot and light_environment falloff method: zhlt_falloff overrides lightning spreading method.

Brush Collision

List of different entities blocking/solidity removing methods.

Global Lightning Appearance

How to disable or change appearance of all unnamed light on map. Additionally toggles targeted light on and off.

1. Place global_light_control on your map. Name it, entity must be triggered in order to toggle lights.

2. For unnamed lights change custom appearance.
Custom appearance is a string value, from 1 character up to maximum 64 characters. Specify the alphabet letters from 'a' (complete black) to 'z' (full bright) e.g. 'aaaabcddefggghijklmnoooopqpooooooonmlkjihgggfeddcbaaaa' for pulsing light
or 'z' for no light or 'zzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaa' for strobe e.t.c.

3. It's possible to turn named light on and off by specifying name of those lights in a target field.

Advanced Texlights

Info_texlights allow you to create texture lightning in a simple way, but it's not supporting triggering (on/off), appearance
or light type (light/light_spot). Light_surface resolves that problem, allowing you to change almost every aspect of texture light, includes applying texlight on given entity only or within the radius.

1. Place light_surface on your map. Give it a name for further triggering if required (to run light off/on in-game).

2. Customize keyvalues to set up your light:

name --> name of this light_surface entity. Required if you want to toggle light on/off by triggering it.
texture name --> name of texture to apply light on, e.g. "+0~LIGHT4A".
filter max distance --> if you specify a value here, this is the radius in which light_surface will search for textures (basing on texture centers).
filter max distance to plane --> same as above, but includes whole texture in a search, not only their center.
filter entity classname --> only textures applied on entities with chosen classname (e.g. func_wall) will be emitting light.
filter entity name --> only textures applied on entities with chosen targetname will be emitting light.
texture brightness --> brightness of texture (note that this is not the same as brightness of info_texlight, where you need to multiply brightness value based on texture size. Treat is like light entities brightness.
inner/outer angle --> if used, the light turns into light_spot. Those values works then like those in light_spot entity.
adjust emit scale --> scale of spotlight when inner/outer angles are used.
grid size of sampling --> scale of sampling grid, used for scaled textures (in editor) to get better quality shadows.
fast --> set it to 'Yes' for large faces with low brightness.
color --> color of the light. If not used, the compiler generates color based on texture color.
(custom)appearance --> color appearance to set for that texture, works in the same way as in normal light entities.

3. Only last think- you can set initially dark flag so the light is turned off by default. Trigger light_surface in-game
to turn it on. You can also revert the process (start on, trigger to turn off) and toggle light freely whenever it's fired. 
Remember to give this light_surface a name when you want to turn it on or off.

Multiple and Switchable light_environments

It's possible to put multiple light_environments on map, with appropriate commands you can disable global light_environment, so it's possible to make them work in the same way as regular light. Light_environment is triggerable, to we can disable and enable it whenever we want to.

First section tells how to make multiple light_environment for separated areas.
Second section describes how to use multiple light_environment, but for one area, and then how to switch between them.

1.  Multiple Light Environments: place light_environments on your map. To disable global light_environments support, you need to enable '-noskyfix' for hlRAD. Now you can use more than one light _environment to make it produce different light each separated area with sky, for both entities and models (info_sunlight is not required).

2. Switchable Light Environments: Decide which light you want to be enabled at start, and which one to be disabled.
'-noskyfix' command must be disabled (just make sure it's not in the hlRAD compile command parameters). 
I'm using three light_environment entities for this example:

• le_day (will be enabled at map start)
• le_sunset (disabled at start)
• le_night (disable at start)

The goal is to create func_button, when activated, another 'time of the day' will be used:
It's day -->Button Pressed<-- It's sunset -->Button Pressed<-- it's night -->Button Pressed<-- It's day e.t.c.

Mirror Floor Trick

Sven Co-op does not support mirrors of any kind, but it's possible to duplicate flip a room to create effect that look like mirror. This effect can be seen in Half-Life Blue Shift:

1. Firstly, create the whole room. Place all lights and brush entities, furnitures and details. You can also place monsters,
but you need to know few thinks about mirror trick:

• You need two monster entities for each monster- one for normal monster, and another for reflection.
• It's better when monsters won't go into interaction with player, so they cannot be talked to, blocked, used e.t.c.
• They need to be assigned to scripted_sequence with no interruptions, so they won't get detached from their reflection.
• For monsters that players can interact with you can decide to not render their reflection.
• Players can't be mirrored in any way.
• Decals (blood splatters, bullet holes e.t.c.) won't be mirrored.
• Dropped weapons and items can't be mirrored as well.
• Rotating entities that rotates around X or Y axis need to have their reverse direction flag selected in mirrored room.

2. (If using monsters) place monsters (e.g. monster_scientist) and scripted_sequences entities, customize properties of entity, example:

3. Time to flip the whole room! Select everything except scripted sequences, floor and player starts:

Then copy and paste this room, go into Tools-->Flip object-->Vertically, and the whole room gets flipped. Now connect
two rooms so walls of the first and second (mirrored) room will be touching, preventing leak error to generate:

Now turn floor into func_wall and give it 'Texture' render mode with fX amount of your choice. Duplicate scripted_sequences and change name of mirrored monsters. Make new scripted_sequence target monster keyvalue set to mirrored monsters names.
The placement of scripted_sequence might be a little bit tricky. You need considering angles of scripted_sequence for some animations, and offsets for mirrored sequence.

Origin of monster animation and scripted_sequence must be in the same spot in editor, so the animation will be rendered properly, just as we planned. Then mirrored animation need to have it's angles set dependently to normal animation:

The example above shows 'sit1' animation of monster_barney. When we flip the monster and scripted_sequence upside down
we will need to reorient scripted_sequence position, and change it's angles (e.g. from '45 to '135 when used example above,
and the scripted_sequence angle is '45 for normal model). But for animations like 'idle' you would see that origin
of scripted_sequence, as well as monster's 'idle' animation have their origin in a same spot, even after flipping scientist upside down. That's because it's on monster's feet position, so when we rotate monster the feet will be still touching the floor,
so scripted_sequence for mirrored monster would have exactly the same position as sequence of original monster.

Toggleable Shadows and Light Bouncing on Opaque Entities

When toggling opaque entities with 'Opaque' value in ZHLT Lightflag key, the shadow does not disappearing/appearing right.
Hopefully there is easy fix for this. Note that switching shadows won't work on multiple and switchable light_environments exterior areas (but single light_environment is supported).

1. Place light_shadow and light_bounce on map. The second entity extends light_shadow functionality and it's optional.
However it's recommended to use both for best visual results. Name entity that will be toggled on or off (e.g. func_wall_toggle)
and give the same name for light_shadow and light_bounce. Additionally, set target solid entity to the same name as all those entities have. The location of light_shadow and light_bounce does not matter.

2. If opaque entity is visible at start, enable initially dark flag in light_bounce properties. If it's invisible at start, this flag must be selected for light_shadow instead. The point is, when light_shadow is enabled, the light_bounce must be disabled, and vice versa.

3. Triggering all those three entities (they have the same name) makes all cast shadows and bounced lights to be toggled
as well. You can also name all those entities differently and trigger them separately if needed (specially when killing brush entities instead of toggling them on trigger).

Light Smoothing Control on Specified Texture

You can change smoothing value for chosen textures, works just like '-smooth' console command parameter for hlRad.

1. Place info_smoothvalue on your map. The location of this entity does not matter. Go into properties of this entity, disable smart edit mode, add a keyvalue where key is name of texture to use and the value is a smoothing value factor for this texture.
Default smoothing value is '50' for all textures on the map. Check '-smooth' command parameter in this page for more info about smoothing value.

Shadow Spreading in Exterior Areas

You can control shadows of light_environment. It's useful when you want to add more realistic shadows depends on light type-for sunny day shadows will be sharper, when for cloudy or rainy weather more blurred.

1. Go into properties of light_environment, add new custom key '_spread' by disabling smart edit mode (like in image above).
Specify a value for this key- is a light blurring (spreading) value:

Visual results may differ dependently on light_environment settings, compile command parameters and textures scale.

Brightness of Transparent Textures

Customize brightness of transparent textures like glass, which are not rendered properly by default.

1. Go into properties of transparent entity, disable smart edit mode and add two new keyvalues:

• 'zhlt_embedlightmap' with a value of '1'.
• 'zhlt_embedlightmapresolution' with a value of 2 or 4 or 8 e.t.c. (default is 1, recommended is 4).

First keyvalue creates fake lightmap on transparent textures (for this entity), what makes those textures looks more natural and fits the environment:

Second keyvalue is for optimization- scales lightmap size to decrease memory usage significantly (highly recommended).

Translucent Effect

Another Vluzacn's trick allows to apply translucent effect on specified textures.

1. Create brush or brushes that will receive light from each site. Those brushes must not be ticker that two units, and they need to be part of world (they cannot be turned into brush entities).

2. Place info_translucent entity on your map. Disable smart edit mode and add new keyvalue(s), where key is a name of texture
to simulate translucency, and the value is a light receiving amount from 100% receiving on front '0.0' to 100% receiving
on back '1.0', and where value of '0.5' means receive on back and front equally. Here is my example:

Brush receives light from the other side of room, what gives nice effect- in a blue room brush receives light from red room,
and in the red room brush receives light from blue room. This effect can be useful in some situation. Imagine a house at the night- the lights in a room is turned on, and we can tell that from the outside of the house because windows are translucent, and those windows receives the light from inside of the building. The same effect we would see inside this house- the room 
is well-lit, but it's dark outside of the building, what we can see when looking at the window. Use it on plastic, dirty glass, fabric e.t.c.

Decrease Light Fading Ratio on Textures

Select a textures to give them an effect similar to one which is provided by '-fade' command parameter in hlRad.

1. Place info_angularfade on your map, and using the smart edit mode add new keyvalues, where key is a name of texture
to apply effect, and the values is a fade ratio, where 1.0 is default fade.

This may be removed in future Vluzacn's Compile Tools release.

Custom Lightning for Models

Customize lightning of models (.mdl) on your map by using new tool texture. This is similar to texture lightning, but affects only models. Or just copy lightning data from another entity.

Method 1: Place info_texlights on your map, and using the smart edit mode add new 'BLACK_HIDDEN' key, and a value of custom light color and brightness, in a format: 255 255 128 2000 (red, green, blue and brightness). This work in the same way as other texture lightning, but it will produce a light over all 'BLACK_HIDDEN' brushes, to affect models only. From now, every model's origin placed ABOVE brush completely covered with 'BLACK_HIDDEN' texture receives light specified in info_texlight.
It's recommended to turn this brush into func_detail, and texture all it's faces except top with 'SKIP' textures, to disable it's collision. Note that this will affect all models that appear above this brush entity, even monsters and players.

If you don't know how to set up info_texlights entity, check last section in light tutorial here.

Method 2: Much simpler method includes usage of zhlt_copylight keyvalue. Add this keyvalue by disabling smart-edit mode
and clicking on "add" button, type zhlt_copylight in the key field, and name of the other model-based entity in the value field.
This will copy lightning data from target entity. You can also use info_target as target entity.

Priority of Overlapping Faces

Now it's possible to define texture render priority when two detail brushes overlapping each other.

1. Select two brushes that overlapping each other, turn them into func_detail, and make sure that detail level is the same
in both of those entities.

2. Change priority when faces overlap to the value of you choice- different in each func_detail brush. Higher priority makes brush faces to be rendered first:

You can also mix detail brush faces with world brush faces by changing detail level to '0', and then using priority when faces overlap. That makes detail brushes to be rendered first (over world brushes), just like decals does:

Overview Point

Overview point is used when you want to host your map and create an overview image of the whole map. It's even more useful for Counter Strike mappers who need overview maps for their levels, an this allows them to create it with ease.

1. Create a room from which you want your whole map to be visible. Use 'NULL' texture for walls they will be invisible from the inside of the room.

2. Place info_overview_point inside that room. From now, all visleafs are visible from this room. You can take a screenshot
of you map. Press ESCAPE twice to clear the image from unwanted rendering issues (which persist when looking outside
the world).