User:DJFluXion/Making Your Own Water
Water is one of the Source engine's most complex material types/shaders.
Water does not have a $basetexture value by default, but rather, is made up of a real-time transforming normal map, fog, a combination of reflection and refraction, a flow map (for dx90 users and below), and an env_cubemap to give the water surface a specular reflection effect.
Water in the Source engine, is composed of three different elements:
- A material for when the observer is above the water surface, facing down into it;
- A material for when the observer is beneath the water surface, looking upwards; and,
- A scrolling overlay screen effect that the observer sees when underwater.
"Expensive" vs. "Cheap" Water
Generic VMT Files For Water
The general code for the three elements of water.
For color values, both RGB and HSV can be used. Use square brackets for denote a HSV value "[H S V]" and curly brackets to denote a RGB value "{R G B}".
For sub-dx90 users, a flow map (pictured to the right) must be used, as this will be transformed instead of a normal map. A flow map is also called a du/dv map, a derivative map, and a movement map. The flow map will be specified using the $bumpmap material parameter. $bumpmap should only be used in fallback materials, and specified in the main water file, using the <dx90 rule, with the $fallbackmaterial material parameter inside.
It is generally recommended to make a fallback material for water, as water can be a memory-hog on older computers.
Above water material:
"Water"
{
"%compilewater" 1
"%keywords" "<string>"
"%tooltexture" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$abovewater" 1
"$underwateroverlay" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$refracttexture" "_rt_WaterRefraction"
"$refracttint" "<RGB>" or "<HSV>"
"$normalmap" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$refractamount" <value>
"$envmap" "env_cubemap"
"$refractblur" 1
"$surfaceprop" water
"$bottommaterial" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$scale" "[1 1]"
"$bumpframe" 0
"$fogenable" <bool>
"$fogcolor" "<RGB>" or "<HSV>"
"$fogstart" <value in HU>
"$fogend" <value in HU>
"$temp" "[0 0]"
"$curr" 0
"$curr2" 0
"Proxies"
{
"AnimatedTexture"
{
"animatedtexturevar" "$normalmap"
"animatedtextureframenumvar" "$bumpframe"
"animatedtextureframerate" 30
}
"TextureTransform"
{
"translatevar" "$temp"
"resultvar" "$bumptransform"
}
"Sine"
{
"sineperiod" 20
"sinemax" .6
"sinemin" -.6
"resultvar" "$curr"
}
"Sine"
{
"sineperiod" 15
"sinemax" -.6
"sinemin" .6
"resultvar" "$curr2"
}
"Equals"
{
"srcvar1" "$curr2"
"resultvar" "$temp[0]"
}
"Equals"
{
"srcvar1" "$curr"
"resultvar" "$temp[1]"
}
"WaterLOD"
{
"dummy" 0
}
}
}
Below water material:
"Water"
{
"%compilewater" 1
"%keywords" "<string>"
"%tooltexture" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$abovewater" 0
"$cheapwaterstartdistance" <value in HU>
"$cheapwaterenddistance" <value in HU>
"$refractamount" <value>
"$reflectamount" 1
"$refracttint" "<RGB>" or "<HSV>"
"$reflecttint" "<RGB>" or "<HSV>"
"$refracttexture" "_rt_WaterRefraction"
"$scale" "[1 1]"
"$blurrefract" 1
"$normalmap" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$underwateroverlay" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$surfaceprop" "water"
"$bumpframe" 0
"$fogenable" <bool>
"$fogcolor" "<RGB>" or "<HSV>"
"$fogstart" <value in HU>
"$fogend" <value in HU>
"Proxies"
{
"AnimatedTexture"
{
"animatedtexturevar" "$normalmap"
"animatedtextureframenumvar" "$bumpframe"
"animatedtextureframerate" 30
}
"TextureScroll"
{
"texturescrollvar" "$bumptransform"
"texturescrollrate" .3
"texturescrollangle" 60
}
}
}
Screen distortion overlay effect:
"Refract"
{
"%keywords" "<string>"
"%tooltexture" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$refractamount" <value>
"$refracttint" "<RGB>" or "<HSV>"
"$refractblur" <bool>
"$bluramount" <0, 1, 2>
"$ignorez" <bool>
"$scale" "[1 1]"
"$bumpmap" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$normalmap" "<path> relative to <game abbr>/materials/"
"$bumpframe" 0
"Proxies"
{
"AnimatedTexture"
{
"animatedtexturevar" "$normalmap"
"animatedtextureframenumvar" "$bumpframe"
"animatedtextureframerate" 30
}
"TextureScroll"
{
"texturescrollvar" "$bumptransform"
"texturescrollrate" .2
"texturescrollangle" 45
}
}
}