CreateEntity function

[pellevoice]

Creating any entity by classname, without the need for pre-compiled templates.
Also allowing to set initial keyvalues.

const ent = Instance.CreateEntity("logic_relay",{targetname:"my_relay"});

[Poggicek]

Can you give examples of what entities and properties you'd want to spawn and where using ForceSpawn from templates isn't suitable

[girlglock]

Some examples of entities created from script:

Creating Hud Hints:

const hint = Instance.CreateEntity("env_hudhint",{targetname :"player_timer", message:"Time Left: 0:10"});
Instance.EntFireAtTarget(hint, "Display");
// after some time
hint.Kill();

Creating Particles
(this one can be applied to any case of "too many to add by hand in hammer", in the past i had to create custom py scripts to modify a .vmap.txt file in order to insert entities with increasing keys into it)

//lets assume we have 30 different particles for each day of the spooky season and it would be very tedious to set up templates for in hammer
const now = new Date();
const day = now.getDay();

const pcf = Instance.CreateEntity("info_particle_system", {targetname: "festivedeco_${day}", effect_name: "particles/hud/spooky/spooky_day_${i}.vpcf", start_active: false});
Instance.EntFireAtTarget(pcf , "Start");
// after some time
Instance.EntFireAtTarget(pcf , "destroyimmediately");

Creating Triggers (currently not possible with ent_create mayhaps a separate method similar to old Lua api's
CreateTrigger( Vector origin, Vector mins, Vector maxs ) would be better suited

const trigger = Instance.CreateEntity("trigger_multiple", {targetname: "some_trigger", min: {0, 0, 0}, max {100, 100, 100});
Instance.ConnectOutput(trigger , "OnStartTouch", (inputData) => {
      //something
});

[girlglock]

Creating Instructor hints:

const index = 0;
const duration = 60;
const message = "hello :3c"

const instructorHint = Instance.CreateEntity("env_instructor_hint", {
  targetname: `instructorHint_${index}`,
  hint_color: {0, 0, 255},
  hint_forcecaption: true,
  hint_icon_offscreen: "icon_tip",
  hint_icon_offset: 0,
  hint_icon_onscreen: "icon_tip",
  hint_local_player_only: false,
  hint_nooffscreen: 0,
  hint_pulseoption: 2,
  hint_range: 90,
  hint_static: false,
  hint_timeout: duration,
  hint_caption: message
});

Instance.EntFireAtTarget(instructorHint, "showhint");

[pellevoice]

The shortcoming of point_template is that you're stuck with whatever templates and keyvalues that have been compiled in the map. Allowing you to spawn anything whenever with whatever keyvalues makes things a whole lot more versatile.

Girlglock's examples should be more than enough for its potential.

Trigger-creation is a huge plus too. See #23

[Poggicek]

it also allows you to share script logic without having to provide map entities, e.g. you might want to write some library that needs some entity setup

[pellevoice]

Another example use-case of a rope-physics lantern, created with the old lua API a few years ago.
Traceline was used to set the ceiling-position of the rope, and its length would be set dynamically as a result.

The entity-spawning would look something like this in JS, using a lot of different keyvalues:

const model = Instance.CreateEntity("prop_physics_override",{
		model : "models/props/de_dust/hr_dust/dust_lights/dust_ornate_lantern_03.vmdl",
		disableshadows : 1,
		targetname : "slave_phys",
		spawnflags : 4,
	});
const light = Instance.CreateEntity("light_omni2",{
		targetname : "ropelantern_child",
		parentname : "slave_phys",
		color : "255 161 0 255",
		brightness_lumens : 5000,
		brightnessscale : 2.00,
		directlight : 2,
		skirt : 1.0,
		range : 1024,
		enabled : 1,
		outer_angle : 180,
		inner_angle : 180,
	});
const ropetarget = Instance.CreateEntity("light_omni2",{
		targetname : "slave_ropetarget",
		parentname : "slave_phys",
		color : "255 161 0 255",
		directlight : 2,
		castshadows : 0,
		brightness_lumens : 100,
		skirt : 1,
		range : 300,
		enabled : 1,
		outer_angle : 180,
		inner_angle : 180,
	});
const rope = Instance.CreateEntity("phys_lengthconstraint",{
		targetname : "ropelantern_child",
		attach1 : "slave_phys",
		spawnflags : 0,
		forcelimit : 99999,
		torquelimit : 99999,
		enablecollision : 1,
		attachpoint : "" + rope_pos.x + " " + rope_pos.y + " " + rope_pos.z,
	});
const visualrope = Instance.CreateEntity("env_beam",{
		targetname : "slave_beam",
		spawnflags : 1,
		renderamt : 255,
		rendercolor : "20 20 20 255",
		life : 0,
		BoltWidth : 1,
		texture : "materials/sprites/laserbeam.vmat",
		LightningStart : "slave_beam",
		LightningEnd : "slave_ropetarget",
	});

[pellevoice]

Playable chess in CS:GO, back in 2021.
Everything being spawned in via script at runtime, such as models, sounds, particles, worldtext and triggers.

This did use templates, since CS:GO didn't properly dispatch entities via its Entities.CreateByClassname function.
Each one of these templates would only contain a single entity of the desired class, so things could be constructed in realtime.
Templates at the time still supported to alter keyvalues pre-spawn via their PreSpawnInstance hook, which made it all possible.
A proper, built-in CreateEntity function would still make things easier.

The entire chess-game is scalable, so you can create large or small boards where everything else matches up. Including the triggers in red outline. #23 is relevant for this.

It was controlled with WASD+LMB using the game_ui entity which is now gone from CS2. #16 is relevant for this.

chess_csgo_2021.mp4

[Yesber]

I think the previous rope-physics lantern show perfectly why creating entities dynamically without a point_template is very useful. Here are two more examples:

// throwing grenades
// spawning entities that are not in hammer
const smoke = Instance.CreateEntity("smokegrenade_projectile", {
    targetname: "smoke_1",
    origin: "100 200 300",
});
smoke.Teleport(null, null, new Vector(300, 200, 100));
smoke.FireInput("initializespawnfromworld");

// worldtext
// setting keyvalues that you cant set otherwise
const worldText = Instance.CreateEntity("point_worldtext", {
    targetname: "text_1",
    message: "Hello World",
    font_size: "72",
    justify_horizontal: "1",
    justify_vertical: "1",
    rendercolor: "255 255 255",
    rendermode: "kRenderNormal",
    origin: "100 200 300",
    angles: "0 45 0",
    scales: "1 1 1",
});