Spawnfader

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

Overview

Spawnfader controls the fade-in or fade-out animation for an entity’s visual appearance upon spawning. It handles smooth alpha transitions via colour override on the entity's AnimState, ensuring entities do not appear suddenly. This component is designed to run only on the client in multiplayer environments, syncing its state via net_tinybyte and net_bool types. It also manages the NOCLICK tag to prevent interaction during fading.

Usage example

local inst = CreateEntity()
inst:AddComponent("spawnfader")
-- Fade the entity in upon spawn
inst.components.spawnfader:FadeIn()
-- Or fade it out if it should appear from behind a screen
inst.components.spawnfader:FadeOut()

Dependencies & tags

Components used: AnimState (via self.inst.AnimState:OverrideMultColour(...)), highlightchildren (optional entity property) Tags: Adds NOCLICK during active fade; removes it upon completion.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
_fade	net_tinybyte	(network variable)	Network variable storing scaled fade progress (0–7), used for replication and sync.
_fadeout	net_bool	(network variable)	Network boolean indicating whether fading out (true) or fading in (false).
fadeval	number	0	Local alpha progress value: 1.0 initially (fully faded), decreasing over time to 0 (fully visible).
updating	boolean	false	Whether the component is actively updating the fade animation.

Main functions

FadeIn()

• Description: Starts a fade-in sequence, gradually revealing the entity over time. Also adds the NOCLICK tag until fade completes.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Safe to call multiple times; re-initiates the fade.

FadeOut()

• Description: Starts a fade-out sequence, gradually making the entity invisible over time. Also adds the NOCLICK tag until fade completes.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Safe to call multiple times; re-initiates the fade.

Cancel()

• Description: Immediately stops the fade and sets fadeval to zero, causing immediate visibility.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Only effective if updating is true; otherwise has no effect.

OnUpdate(dt)

• Description: Called every frame during fading to update the alpha multiplier using a quadratic ease-out curve. Applies colour override to the entity and its highlight children.
• Parameters: dt (number) — time elapsed since last frame.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: None; handles zero or negative fadeval by halting updates and pushing completion events.

OnRemoveFromEntity()

• Description: Cleans up event listeners when the component is removed from an entity.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing.

Events & listeners

• Listens to: fadedirty — triggers immediate fade update from network sync (OnFadeDirty).
• Listens to: death — cancels any active fade when the entity dies (OnDeath).
• Pushes: spawnfaderin — fired when fade-in completes (fadeval <= 0 and fadingout == false).
• Pushes: spawnfaderout — fired when fade-out completes (fadeval <= 0 and fadingout == true).