The Aquarium Effect

hi i have a problem making an aquarium. Its a huge level where every thing is scaled up (making the player aproximatly 6 inchs tall). My problem is when i go to my aquarium. Its basicaly a box with glass faces and water in the middle i can see into the aquarium but when I'm in the aquarium i cannot see out into the rest of my level thru the glass sides. I can see the glass texture and everything above the plain where the water surface is. But i cannot see the rest of my map below that plain (thru the glass) can any one help?

Select your water, cover it all in the texture (use the block texture application tool) in tools\nodraw.

Then texture the surface only with your desired water texture :smile:

your remind me of a Telus technition.....

Yes im already doing that. I'm in my water floating around and i can't see thru my glass sides into my level thats the problem.

try texturing the glass entirely in no draw too, apart from for one side.

Also, having that much water is a baaaad idea!

unfortunatly this does not seem to work too

I tried that about a month ago "or something like that". I came to the
conclusion it cant be done. If you use nodraw texture on your glass you
see right throught the water and dont see the water effects like if
your in the water. I posted that in the verc forum. You can find it
under "water challenge" at that forum. If that what your talking about
anyways.

do you by any chance have a leak in your map? and are there any entities going inside the water that shouldnt be there?

nope no leak, i see the water texture on top and it looks like im under water when im under water. But when i look out the glass sides to see the rest of my level it is not visible its just grey (not even the repeating texture that happens with leaks) but i can see parts of objects that are above the plain of the water surface. Any way im going to create my own water by fudging it with gravity altering stuff and fog n' stuff ill get back if it works.

suggestion scrapped after trying it myself.

For this type of effect, don't use glass textures. Just use a func_wall with render FX alpha to make a transparent effect...

Wouldn't everything outside the tank look 'bigger'/enlarged cause of the light is fragmented in a different angle then everything inside the tank? If that's the case you could do some tinkering with probably a brush with the skybox texture and a camera, Make a 3d skybox with the brusworks/some props of the whole level, then create a brush inside the tank with all faces coverd in nodraw, and the face that's on the inside of the tank has the skybox texture.

Don't know if that would solve the problem, I also don't fully understand what Fishy's solution would do...anyway, my way (if it acctually works :rolleyes: ) would be a relative good work around.

iceman, Gwil gave you the correct answer within minutes of you asking this. i tried it myself and it works.

Actualy i gave Gwil's suggestion a try and it did not work for me. If it worked for you im happy for you :smile: . But it didn't for me. Any way i solved my problem by tieing the water object to a func_water_analog and then it seems to work fine. (it could have been that march update) any way sorry for not handing out any answer points. I know you all gave it a valiant effort (exept for lockjaw u negative poster). And thanks dash for solving the scum on the side of the fish bowl solution (adding it).