Special Entity Names

There are five special entity names you can use in an entity's inputs and outputs. As an example of their usefullness, suppose you want a trigger_multiple to set fire to the player (single-player only). You could use the following output:

output OnTrigger
target !player
input Ignite

This would send the Ignite input to the first player to join the server. Now, suppose you wanted the trigger_multiple instead to ignite anything that triggers it. You could use this ouput instead:

output OnTrigger
target !activator
input Ignite

Any entity that activates the trigger_multiple will be sent the Ignite input. These special entity names can also be used in override parameters, and some can be used in entity fields (!player, for instance, is a valid target for an ai_relationship).

output OnTrigger
target entityB
input SetParent
override !player

The following special entity names can be used:

!activator - The entity that activated this one. Useful for trigger_* entities that can actually be activated. If logical entities (like a logic_case) are placed between the activator and the trigger, delaying its being triggered, HL2 can usually follow the chain of entities to the original activator.

!picker - The entity that the first player to join the server is looking at. !picker will even pick invisible entities like func_useableladder, but it won't pick the world.

!player - The first player to join the server. Most useful in single-player missions. To affect all players, use player instead.

!pvsplayer - The entity will look in its Potential Visibility Set and pick the first player it sees. That means it'll look around itself and find a player.

!self - The entity sending the input. Useful for point_template-spawned entities that will have different names.

Note that they all begin with an exclamation point (!). If you try to use a special name that doesn't exist (!foobar, for example), HL2 will do nothing but spit out an error.

This tutorial is brought to you in part by phresh of #editlife (irc.gamesurge.net).

Additional funding for Special Entity Names was provided by the five or ten people who joined my testmap server for no real reason.