Talk:Adding Water

Flowing water?

Why is it that a water brush cannot vary in the Z direction at all?

Say, if I wanted to create a natural looking river or stream, it would be highly unlikely that the entire stream would be "flat." Don't get me wrong, the water in Source looks amazing... but it's all non-moving water. One would think that with the advanced physics this game is capable of, liquid would be something that could be mimicked, or is something like this too expensive for even today's juggernaut computers to handle with any sort of playability?

• Moving water can be faked. I created a "rapids" type system by applying a water texture to a displacement. I then used the "paint geometry" to raise and lower certain areas of the water in the z axis. I then applied a scrolling wave material (much like the shorelines in MINERVA:Metastasis) as an info_overlay over certain parts of the displacement to give the appearance of water rushing over rocks. Finally i used several trigger_push entities to push the player down the river (i assumed they weren't able to swim back up rapids). creating a believable river that is calm, yet flowing, could be a challenge, but something like rapids is certainly doable. If you use some sprites or other particle effects to simulate spray, it could really come out quite convincing. --vecima 13:44, 8 Feb 2008 (EDT)

• Water is exceptionally hard to physically simulate, both from a research perspective (working out how the hell it actually DOES move) and from a hardware perspective (actually simulating it in real-time). Water is still something the Pixar guys have trouble with, and they don't have the problem of having to render the screen 30 times a second. Still, I have to ask the question: What the hell is a PVS? --Graham 19:44, 8 Jul 2005 (PDT)

I added a definition page for PVS and made links to it in this document. --IanL 20:19, 8 Jul 2005 (PDT)

• Question: If I wanted to make an area in a level have the effect of water (ability to swim up and down) without having any kind of water surface, how would I go about that? I am wondering because I recall an old Unreal-Tournament level where an area with water "rules" was used to make a sci-fi floating elevator-shaft thingy. Can one make an area with water "rules" in which it is impossible to die by drowning?

Water Troubleshooting

I have a scene in which the water is rendered upside down. By this I mean from the surface I can see through my level to my skybox, when I submerge the water refracts. I have water in my 3d skybox, equal height. Compiling in hl2. --FViral 16:33, 9 Sep 2006 (PDT)

Contact with world brushes

After reading http://www.student.ru.nl/rvanhoorn/optimization.php?chapter=notices I discovered that water brushes may not intersect with world brushes (such as skyboxes). I spent several hours fiddling with my map in Hammer before finding this. Could someone with a bit of knowledge on the subject add a warning and explanation in to this page.

I ran in to this problem when trying to create a shoreline in my map, which would only be visible when submerged in it, or when shooting at it. —Unsigned comment added by Pepolez (talk • contribs) Always sign your posts with four tildes (~~~~)

I got problems whit that too, need i to make ALL the water to not contact world brushes? From Herover. leon.l.a.nielsen@gmail.com

Water Material Creation

Can we have some sort of water creation tutorial? I've had a look at the base code of water and the water shaders and material creation - hell, I've even checked out the waterfall material creation, and yet I can't seem to make too much sense of it.