how do you make a solid material that reflects like water?

[mr.crowley]

how do you make a solid material that reflects like water?

 

[Raeven0]

Water reflection is controlled by a special render target... I don't think you'd be able to have a normal texture that also looks like water.

 

[Ti133700N]

add the line

"$envmap" "env_cubemap"

in your material .vmt file

Of course if you add a normal map it will look alot better

"$bumpmap" "mytextures/solidmetal_normal"

You can also play with the reflection settings

"$envmapcontrast" 1
"$envmapsaturation" 1
"$envmaptint" "[ .5 .5 .5]"

and you'll need to put cubemaps in your level and build them (buildcubemaps)

 

[Raeven0]

Sure, but that doesn't satisfy the like water clause

 

[Limpet]

You could set up something similar to valve's water shader, yes?

 

[Penguin929]

Couldn't you just make an nodraw solid thing near the surface of some water?

 

[mr.crowley]

You could set up something similar to valve's water shader, yes?

im trying to do that but its not working

Couldn't you just make an nodraw solid thing near the surface of some water?

i dont want it to look like water, i just want it to reflect like water

 

[Ti133700N]

im trying to do that but its not working
i dont want it to look like water, i just want it to reflect like water

...so you do what I said in my first post...

 

[mr.crowley]

...so you do what I said in my first post...

i tryed that, the reflection doesnt work realisticly

 

[Unarmed]

Just out of curiosity, what is i that you want to reflect like water but that isnt? I cant really see a use for it...

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

I think he means have it reflect everything, including the columns.

 

[mr.crowley]

I think he means have it reflect everything, including the columns.

yea im trying to make it look like the original starship titanic

 

[Limpet]

Try breaking that floor into smaller blocks and have a cubemap for each one.
You could also try setting a larget cubemap size as well.

I don't think the Source engine does too well with reflections as acurate as that though.

 

[mr.crowley]

Try breaking that floor into smaller blocks and have a cubemap for each one.
You could also try setting a larget cubemap size as well.

I don't think the Source engine does too well with reflections as acurate as that though.

i tried that, it looks bad

and the source engine can do that well with reflections, look at the water in half-life2

 

[Raeven0]

Water reflection is controlled by a special render target

--which implies that normal textures probably can't do it. Want to try? Use basetexture _rt_WaterReflection. Also remember as you're working that Source reflections are card-dependent--even if you see flawless reflections on your floor, I can't see reflections at all. If I'm lucky I'll see the sky reflected on some faces.

You could resort to the infamous Goldsource poor-man's-reflections method of mirroring the room's geometry on the underside of a translucent floor.