Ultra Reflective Water

[Fishstick]

How would I make a lake or volume of water that almost perfectly reflected the world? I tried regular water with a huge expensive water limit with no luck, you could somewhat see the reflection but its not what I want.

See this picture to understand what I want.
[img_thumb]http://www.amfmdx.net/travel/gifs/yosemite/reflective-lake.jpg[/img_thumb]

[Terrenteller]

Add/replace the following in the surface VMT.

"$forceexpensive" "1"
"$reflectamount" "1"
"$reflectentities" "1"
"$reflecttexture" "_rt_WaterReflection"

[Fishstick]

I edited the file but how do I get it to save back into the .gcf. I edited the one in the source 2007 shared materials.gcf

[editline]07:00PM[/editline]

Or can I just put it in the materials/nature folder in the game directory?

[Terrenteller]

Yup. Can't do much with GCFs except extraction.

[Fishstick]

I tried it and it's not working. I am using nature/Sewer_Water001. Here is the vmt:

"Water"
{
	"Water_DX60"
	{
		"$fallbackmaterial" "nature/water_canals03_dx70"
	}

	"Water_DX80"
	{
		"$refractamount" ".25"
	}

	"Water_DX81"
	{
		"$refractamount" ".25"
	}

	"$forceexpensive" 1
	"$reflectamount" "1"
	"$reflectentities" 1
	"$reflecttexture" "_rt_WaterReflection"

	"%tooltexture" "dev/water_normal"

	"$refracttexture" "_rt_WaterRefraction"

	"$refractamount" "3.0"

	"$scale" "[1 1]"

	"$bumpmap" "dev/water_dudv"

	"$normalmap" "dev/water_normal"

	"%compilewater" 1

	"$surfaceprop" "water"

	"$bottommaterial" "nature/sewer_water001_bottom"

	"$bumpframe" "0"

	"$fogenable" 1

	"$fogcolor" "{45 45 35}"

	"$fogstart" 0.00

	"$fogend" 250.00

	"$abovewater" 1	

	"Proxies"
	{
		"AnimatedTexture"
		{
			"animatedtexturevar" "$normalmap"
			"animatedtextureframenumvar" "$bumpframe"
			"animatedtextureframerate" 20.00
		}

		"TextureScroll"
		{
			"texturescrollvar" "$bumptransform"
			"texturescrollrate" .05
			"texturescrollangle" 45.00
		}
		"WaterLOD"
		{
		}
	}
}

[Firegod522]

Take a picture in game for us.

[Fishstick]

[IMG]http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3414/singleplayer0000.jpg[/IMG]

If it helps, the water is in a 3D skybox. Sorry about the quality also, I couldn't be bothered to change it for an hour of work.

I also wouldn't mind comments and criticisms on this. Its for the Singleplayer Map Competition.

[Firegod522]

I don't think expensive water works in the 3Dskybox. (does it?)

Put it in the normal level somewhere and see if it does anything for you.

[brerben]

[QUOTE=Firegod522;23217694]I don't think expensive water works in the 3Dskybox. (does it?)

Put it in the normal level somewhere and see if it does anything for you.[/QUOTE]

You are correct, expensive water doesn't work in the 3D skybox. However, cheap water using a reflection pulled from a cubemap will work with good results

[Fishstick]

I am still having no luck. I tried changing the material file several times with no luck.

Here is the original if you want to have a go.

"Water"
{
	"Water_DX60"
	{
		"$fallbackmaterial" "nature/water_canals03_dx70"
	}

	"Water_DX80"
	{
		"$refractamount" ".25"
	}

	"Water_DX81"
	{
		"$refractamount" ".25"
	}

	// Make this water expensive no matter what the water_lod_control entity
	// says.
	"$forceexpensive" 1

	// Make the water reflect entities.  By default, no entities are
	// reflected
	//"$reflectentities" 1

	// Make this water cheap no matter what the water_lod_control entity
	// says.  This'll ignore $reflecttexture and $refracttexture.
	// Reflections will happen with $envmap, and refraction is assumed
	// to be opaquely the water fog color.
//	"$forcecheap" 1

	// This says what texture to use to view this is Hammer.
	"%tooltexture" "dev/water_normal"

	// If this is set, we want real-time refraction
	"$refracttexture" "_rt_WaterRefraction"

	// This is the amount of warp for the refraction.
	"$refractamount" "3.0"
//	"$refractamount" "0.0"

	// This is the color of the refraction
	// This is going away so that edge transitions don't screw up.
	// Always set to white for now.
	//"$refracttint" "[1.0 1.0 1.0]"

	// If this is set, we want real-time reflection.
	// If this isn't set, you'll use an envmap, which needs to be set here.
//	"$reflecttexture" "_rt_WaterReflection"

	// This is for cheap reflections.  Point env_cubemaps entities at
	// each major water area.
	"$envmap" "env_cubemap"

	// This is the amount of warp for the reflection.
	"$reflectamount" "0.2"

	// This is the color tint for the real-time reflection AND env_cubemap.
	//"$reflecttint" "{255 255 255}"

	// WTF?
	"$scale" "[1 1]"

	// This is the dudv map for the water.  It is generated from a normal map.
	"$bumpmap" "dev/water_dudv"
	// This is the normal map for the water.
	"$normalmap" "dev/water_normal"

	// This is needed for the tools
	"%compilewater" 1

	// This is needed for physics, etc.
	"$surfaceprop" "water"

	// You must have this. . this is a material that is practically identical
	// to this one in most cases.  It must have $reflecttexture disabled, and
	// you can set for params uniquely for underwater.
	"$bottommaterial" "nature/sewer_water001_bottom"

	// This is needed for the proxy below which animates the normal map, etc.
	"$bumpframe" "0"

	// Enable water volumetric fog.
	"$fogenable" 1

	// This is the color of the fog in the water when looking from above.
	// You'll have the same thing in the bottom material for when looking from 
	// below.
	"$fogcolor" "{45 45 35}"

	// This is the distance in inches from the eye which water fog starts.
	// This has to be 0.0 for edge fading to work properly.
	"$fogstart" 0.00

	// This is the distance in inches from the eye which water fog ends.
	"$fogend" 250.00

	"$abovewater" 1	

	"Proxies"
	{
		"AnimatedTexture"
		{
			"animatedtexturevar" "$normalmap"
			"animatedtextureframenumvar" "$bumpframe"
			"animatedtextureframerate" 20.00
		}

		"TextureScroll"
		{
			"texturescrollvar" "$bumptransform"
			"texturescrollrate" .05
			"texturescrollangle" 45.00
		}
		"WaterLOD"
		{
		}
	}
}

[laptopman]

[QUOTE=brerben;23218235]You are correct, expensive water doesn't work in the 3D skybox. However, cheap water using a reflection pulled from a cubemap will work with good results[/QUOTE]

Except that it will move when you do/turn when you do.
I though expensive water does work in the 3d skybox, but only if you don't have water in the regular map.

[editline]06:48PM[/editline]

If you are doing it for the 3d skybox, you are better off making Faux reflection (by turning all the geometry upside down and using an animated refract textures