Reflective Surfaces
by Perin (view all articles)
unrated
This is a good method to have a reflective surface in Half-Life
by Perin (view all articles)
unrated
This is a good method to have a reflective surface in Half-Life
Ever wonder how to make a mirror in Half-Life? Ever wanted to have a mansion with a nice reflective floor? Read this to find out!
Ok, well that was a cheesy introduction, but hey, got the attention
. Anyways, I made this tutorial to explain one of the methods of creating a mirror image reflective surface. I'll mention right now, *The player will not appear in the reflection*. I hope this helps any of you who have been stumped on this before.
Step 1: Create a full room, part of a map, or whatever, with complete walls, ceiling and a floor.
Step 2: Make sure that the floor height is *1* unit tall. Extend the wall height down by 1 unit to make sure that the floor is covered by all walls.
Step 3: Select every other brush, entity and whatnot *except* the floor.
Step 4: Copy the entire selection and hit CTRL+M. Enter 180 in the X value and hit OK. Next hit CTRL+i *or* CTRL+l to mirror the image vertically *or* horizontally. Only one will be need and you will understand which one because it should be the identical shape, just flipped.
Step 5: Move the flipped selection under the original. Make sure everything is lined up perfectly and make sure the walls from the original are touching the walls from the flipped selection.
Step 6: Select the floor and create it as a func_wall. Set the Render Mode to Texture and then FX Amount to whichever you prefer. Set to 100 for a nice appearance for now.
Now, you may compile, add in other prefabs, lights, etc.
Here is the final product:
I hope you enjoy this, and I really hope it helps. Good luck to anyone doing reflective surfaces. The ONLY problem I notice is that the player is not reflected and the faces are doubled. So, take caution and use wisely.
Have a great time =)
Ok, well that was a cheesy introduction, but hey, got the attention
. Anyways, I made this tutorial to explain one of the methods of creating a mirror image reflective surface. I'll mention right now, *The player will not appear in the reflection*. I hope this helps any of you who have been stumped on this before.
Step 1: Create a full room, part of a map, or whatever, with complete walls, ceiling and a floor.
Step 2: Make sure that the floor height is *1* unit tall. Extend the wall height down by 1 unit to make sure that the floor is covered by all walls.
Step 3: Select every other brush, entity and whatnot *except* the floor.
Step 4: Copy the entire selection and hit CTRL+M. Enter 180 in the X value and hit OK. Next hit CTRL+i *or* CTRL+l to mirror the image vertically *or* horizontally. Only one will be need and you will understand which one because it should be the identical shape, just flipped.
Step 5: Move the flipped selection under the original. Make sure everything is lined up perfectly and make sure the walls from the original are touching the walls from the flipped selection.
Step 6: Select the floor and create it as a func_wall. Set the Render Mode to Texture and then FX Amount to whichever you prefer. Set to 100 for a nice appearance for now.
Now, you may compile, add in other prefabs, lights, etc.
Here is the final product:
I hope you enjoy this, and I really hope it helps. Good luck to anyone doing reflective surfaces. The ONLY problem I notice is that the player is not reflected and the faces are doubled. So, take caution and use wisely.
Have a great time =)
