Ok I have tryed everything and searched for days. Still have this water problem.

Ok im making my map and a few problems came up. 1st the water had the
pick shader look (fixed that) Then it was super bright (fixed that) Now
the water is invisible from the top but normal if you go inside it. I
have tryed so many things i just cant figure it out. Screenshots
here:

http://img90.exs.cx/img90/7379/73-2.jpg

http://img90.exs.cx/img90/1020/4c-2.jpg

Does anyone know what might cause this?

check you got skybox (a box over the play are and hollow it, seems water sometimes start to work when you do it), also compile with lights. Check you got a cubemap near water. Try with those first :wink:

Look at the SDK water tutorial map (supplied with the SDK), you need to use some env_cubemaps and water LOD controls to get water working proper...

I have look at everything. I have tryed all that. Oh man this is
getting frustrating. Whatever ill trying rebuilding it or something.
Ill post when i find what the problem is. If i find out that is.

maybe try re-installing hammer, it might have corrupted files or
something, steam does all kinds of weird stuff with you files :smile:

dunno wat it is, but my water does the same thing

I had this problem for awhile as well. I resolved it by deleting the
sourcesdk folder, and deleting the sourcesdk.gcf file, and
redownloading the entire thing again. After that, everything works
peachy :biggrin:

Going to try that.

Ok, here's an idea (which you should try instead of reinstalling the SDK!). If you're using env_cubemaps in your level they can make it look strange if you don't use them fully.

Place an env_cubemap above your water's surface, as well as a water_lod_control somewhere, and obviously make sure all sides to your water brush except the surface is the nodraw texture. Compile, and run it in-game with the console. When the map has been loaded, type the command buildcubemaps to, er, build your cubemaps. This should make it look lovely; if it doesn't, use a different water texture and try again! (the blue canal water one looks great and doesn't need this above process)