Shared and Common Inputs

All entities with a name, except info_null, can accept at least one input. (Info_null will not accept any because it is removed from the map automatically before it has a chance to accept inputs.) Any entity with a Parent property can also support another set of inputs, and any entity with a World Model property can accept yet another set... and, on top of that, many entities have inputs specific to them!

The following is a list of some of the most common inputs, with their functions. All entities with a Name property will support:

- "Kill" - An entity sent the Kill input will be removed from the map entirely. It will be there again when you reload the map, of course.

- "KillHierarchy" - Removes the entity as well as every entity parented to it. That is, if EntityB has its Parent set to EntityA, then EntityB would be removed as well as EntityA.

- "AddOutput" - A very powerful tool that allows you to add an output to another entity. Send it the AddOutput input, then set up the override parameters to define what output to add. The syntax is: output target:input-to-send:parameters:delay:times-to-fire. An example would be OnUser1 EntityA:Kill::0:-1. Note how I have left the parameters field blank (because the Kill input requires no parameters) and set the times-to-fire to -1 (infinite).

- "FireUser1" - When an entity receives a FireUser1 input, it will fire its OnUser1 output. The entity itself will not be changed; it will just fire an output.

- "FireUser2" - Same as FireUser1, but fires OnUser2.

- "FireUser3" - Same as FireUser1, but fires OnUser3.

- "FireUser4" - Same as FireUser1, but fires OnUser4.

All entities with a Parent property will support these inputs:

- "SetParent" - Used to change the parent of an entity. Set the override parameters to specify the name of the new parent.

- "SetParentAttachment" - Some entities (notably, players and other such models) have special parts of themselves (arms, legs, guns...) that other entities can be parented to. The entity receiving this input must be parented to the entity itself before it can be parented to an attachment.

- "ClearParent" - The entity that receives this input will have its Parent field cleared, leaving it to move independently of a parent.

Other entities support other inputs. Mostly they're self-explanatory; if not, there's usually a note in the FGD about the input. (Just click the Help button in the entity properties dialogue box.)