Overly blue water

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.

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 ...

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

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

I've made the water according to that guide, using 3 of the default
water materials to no avail :sad: 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.

$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)?

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.

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.

Sorry, double post<div class="quote"><div class="quotetext"><div class="quote"><div class="quotetext">
</div></div></div></div>

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

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>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.</DIV></DIV>

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 :sad:

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

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

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

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.

not using my own materials :sad:

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