Snarkpit Forum Index » Source engine editing » Overly blue water
Overly blue water
1
Post Reply
Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by ReNo on Sat Nov 6th at 6:14pm 2004

I've managed to make water that both looks and acts like water (as per the advice given in the documentation) but once in game it looks overly blue, like it is reflecting some blue light that doesn't actually exist. Has anyone made water in source that doesn't look horribly over blue? I've tried various different water textures and all had the same effect.
[addsig]



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by Forceflow on Sat Nov 6th at 6:21pm 2004

Sure you have your game settings for water right ? Maybe they screw things up.
If the setting is "reflect world" it might be reflecting something that isn't actually there ...
[addsig]



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by ReNo on Sat Nov 6th at 6:27pm 2004

The water in the normal CS:S maps look fine with my game settings, so I don't think it is due to that.
[addsig]



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by Leperous on Sat Nov 6th at 6:28pm 2004

You might need a water "material"... http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/Materials/water.html



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by ReNo on Sat Nov 6th at 6:49pm 2004

I've made the water according to that guide, using 3 of the default water materials to no avail Perhaps its somehow related to the skybox of the level, and as by default hammer sets your map to use a skybox that doesn't yet exist (obviously an HL2 one) the map fails to load a skybox and so there is a problem. The map in question was set indoors so I wouldn't think it would be an issue, but perhaps the chosen sky always has some effect on water in a level. I'll test it out and let you know.
[addsig]



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by G.Ballblue on Sat Nov 6th at 7:44pm 2004

$reflecttint { R, G, B }

This is the color tint for the real-time reflection and environment map.

I found that on the "water material" site lep showed. Does the B value happen to be a little high? (assuming these are things that can be edited, and you can access)?

[addsig]



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by ReNo on Sun Nov 7th at 7:26pm 2004

Until I make some custom materials I can't really test that, but it does sound logical. However, as I've tried using water materials that are used in CS:S maps and DON'T look blue, I don't see how it could be the issue. I've read on the collective forums that others are having their water come out with pink or purple tints, even when using the same texture I've been using.

As for my thought about it being linked to the sky texture somehow, this is definately not the case. I've tried with no sky, and two different skies, and the result was always the same.
[addsig]



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by Zevensoft on Sun Nov 7th at 9:57pm 2004

This setting could be causing as much trouble:

$envmap (texture name)

Texture to use for environment mapping (only for ?cheap? water or water only refracts). Set this value to ?env_cubemap? to use cubemaps placed in the map.

If it's set to "env_cubemap" then you'll need an env_cubemap. The pink people report seeing is the water shader using a texture that doesn't exist, the card doesn't know any better so it just draws whatever is in memory.




Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by ReNo on Mon Nov 8th at 3:19am 2004

Sorry, double post
[addsig]



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by ReNo on Mon Nov 8th at 3:20am 2004

I think thats pretty much right mate - here is a similar answer that I received from Prometheus at the VERC collective...

? quote:
Wex, water relfections are based on the cubemaps I believe, and since Steam isnt letting anyone use the buildcubemaps command (due to file writing permissions), all water is using the default cubemap of the skybox of the level. If there is no skybox defined you get a wacky shader on the water and also the lack of a cubemap makes it so water wont look right in its lighting environment (cause itll be reflecting something that isnt there)

im sure Valve will fix it up.
[addsig]



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by FroSt on Thu Dec 2nd at 10:08pm 2004

thought id revive this thread as it seems similer to my problem at the moment

basically the water on my map looks ok when your near it but at certain places and depending if your looking down/ahead etc the water will change from looking normal to having an odd coloured glase over it.

this is how it should look

and this is how it looks if i move slightly


could it be connected to the sky texture at all? because ill admit i cant seem to get any of them to work in hl2dm, ive tried map_day01, day01, etc in the map properties but it always fails to load, the map is all inside by the way although the walls are displacements, ive tried surrounding the whole map is a brush with no luck.

also if i try using a cubemap all the textures on my map will have a funny purple all over it like bright purple sand

anyone got any ideas its driving me nuts





Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by diablobasher on Thu Dec 2nd at 10:50pm 2004

Could be something to do with your system, like the whacky missing faces thing from half life. Other than that not sure [addsig]



Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by FroSt on Fri Dec 3rd at 2:44am 2004

dont think its a hardware problem, i dont get it in cs s

im pretty sure it wasnt there at 1st but it suddenly appeared but not sure at what point it started happening






Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by Vassago5kft on Fri Dec 3rd at 3:43am 2004

Well, if you're making your own materials for water, there could be a plethora of things that are wrong.
If you're just using the CS:S textures, then it's a whole other problem all together. Before the release of the full SDK, I was able to get my water looking perfect, along with working cubemaps. I did this by deleting my sourcesdk folder and gcf files, then redownloading the SDK. I now have to do that AGAIN though, since the full SDK has caused more problems for me again.




Quote
 Re: Overly blue water
Posted by FroSt on Fri Dec 3rd at 1:41pm 2004

not using my own materials
its a hl2DM map so all materials from hl2, guess ill make a backup of it and start deleting stuff see if it sorts itself out





1
Post Reply