Heater

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-03

Overview

The Heater component defines and exposes thermal properties for an entity, enabling it to act as a heat source or sink. It supports dynamic heat generation via functions or static values, and accounts for heat in different states: active (heating), carried (when equipped or held), and endothermic/exothermic behavior. The component adds the HASHEATER tag to its owning entity upon construction and removes it on cleanup.

Usage example

local inst = CreateEntity()
inst:AddComponent("heater")
inst.components.heater:SetHeat(15) -- static heat value
inst.components.heater:SetCarriedHeat(10, 0.5) -- carried heat with multiplier
inst.components.heater:SetThermics(true, false) -- exothermic only

Dependencies & tags

Components used: None identified
Tags: Adds HASHEATER to inst; removes HASHEATER on component removal.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
heat	number or nil	nil	Base static heat output when no heatfn is set.
heatfn	function or nil	nil	Optional function (inst, observer) -> number to compute dynamic heat.
equippedheat	number or nil	nil	Static heat when entity is equipped.
equippedheatfn	function or nil	nil	Optional function (inst, observer) -> number for dynamic equipped heat.
carriedheat	number or nil	nil	Static heat when entity is carried.
carriedheatfn	function or nil	nil	Optional function (inst, observer) -> number, multiplier for dynamic carried heat.
carriedheatmultiplier	number	1	Multiplier applied to carried heat (used with carriedheatfn or carriedheat).
exothermic	boolean	true	If true, entity emits heat; otherwise, it absorbs heat.
endothermic	boolean	false	If true, entity absorbs heat (overrides/excludes exothermic).
stop_falloff	boolean	false	If true, heat does not fall off with distance (inverted via ShouldFalloff).
radius_cutoff	number or nil	nil	Optional radius beyond which heat output is considered zero.

Main functions

SetThermics(exo, endo)

• Description: Configures whether the entity is exothermic (emits heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat).
• Parameters:
  • exo (boolean) — sets exothermic flag.
  • endo (boolean) — sets endothermic flag.
• Returns: Nothing.

IsEndothermic()

• Description: Returns the endothermic state.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: (boolean) — true if the entity is endothermic.

IsExothermic()

• Description: Returns the exothermic state.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: (boolean) — true if the entity is exothermic.

SetShouldFalloff(should_falloff)

• Description: Sets whether heat output should falloff with distance.
• Parameters: should_falloff (boolean) — if true, falloff is enabled; heat falls off with distance.
• Returns: Nothing.

ShouldFalloff()

• Description: Returns whether heat falloff is enabled (inverse of internal stop_falloff flag).
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: (boolean) — true if heat should falloff (i.e., not self.stop_falloff).

SetHeatRadiusCutoff(radius_cutoff)

• Description: Sets an optional distance cutoff for heat emission; beyond this radius, heat output is effectively zero.
• Parameters: radius_cutoff (number) — distance threshold.
• Returns: Nothing.

GetHeatRadiusCutoff()

• Description: Returns the configured heat radius cutoff.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: (number or nil) — the cutoff radius, or nil if unset.

GetHeat(observer)

• Description: Computes and returns the current heat output, using either a dynamic function or a static value.
• Parameters: observer (entity instance) — the entity querying heat (used by function-based heat).
• Returns: (number or nil) — heat value; nil if no heat source is set.

GetHeatRate(observer)

• Description: Returns the heat rate (unused in current codebase), supporting dynamic or static definitions.
• Parameters: observer (entity instance) — passed to heatratefn if defined.
• Returns: (number) — heat rate; defaults to 1 if neither heatratefn nor heatrate are set.

GetEquippedHeat(observer)

• Description: Returns heat output when the entity is equipped (e.g., held by a player).
• Parameters: observer (entity instance) — used by dynamic function if present.
• Returns: (number or nil) — equipped heat value; nil if unset.

GetCarriedHeat(observer)

• Description: Returns heat output and multiplier when the entity is carried (e.g., in inventory).
• Parameters: observer (entity instance) — used by dynamic function if present.
• Returns: (number, number) — carried heat value and multiplier (always returns two values; multiplier defaults to carriedheatmultiplier).

GetDebugString()

• Description: Returns a formatted string for debugging, summarizing all heat-related fields.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: (string) — formatted like "heat: <value> carriedheat: <value> equippedheat: <value> EXO:true ENDO:false". Function-based fields appear as <fn>.

Events & listeners

Not applicable.