Aftershock

Aftershock (DX9+) is a material shader available in all Source games since Source 2007. It draws animated and scrolling refraction. It is able to smoothly fade out with alpha blending depending on its distance to the ground (per vertex; calculated with the material parameters $GroundMin and $GroundMax) and the dot product of the per vertex geometry normal and world view vector (scaled by $SilhouetteThickness). Furthermore this shader does solely support the vertexformat that studiomodels use.

Parameters

$normalmap <texture>

Normal map for the refraction.

$bumpframe <integer>

The frame to start an animated bumpmap on.

$bumptransform <matrix>

Transforms the bump map texture.

The default position is "center .5 .5 scale 1 1 rotate 0 translate 0 0".

1. center defines the point of rotation. Only useful if rotate is being used.
2. scale fits the texture into the material the given number of times. '2 1' is a 50% scale in the X axis.
3. rotate rotates the texture counter-clockwise in degrees. Accepts any number, including negatives.
4. translate shifts the texture by the given numbers. '.5' will shift it half-way.

 Note: All values must be included!

 Bug: Scaling the texture may cause odd issues where the Texture Lock tool in Hammer will not actually lock the texture in place.

 Bug: Rotating textures applied on brushes will rotate around the map origin (confirm: Orangebox engine only?). A fix for this is to change the center position in the VMT to the brush's origin.

$refractamount <float>

Controls the strength of the refraction by multiplying the normal map intensity.

$colortint <RGB matrix>

To do: Color tint of the refraction?

$bluramount <float>

Adds a blur effect. Valid values are 0, 1 and 2.

$groundmin <float>

$groundmax <float>

Both describe an interval used to fade out the shader.

$silhouettecolor <RGB matrix>

Silhouette color tint.

$silhouettethickness <float>

Scales the generic fade amount along the models edge.

Time Proxy

This shader or material parameter requires the below material proxy as specified to work properly.

	"$time" "0.0"
	"Proxies"
	{
		"CurrentTime"
		{
			"resultVar" "$time" //Needs the CurrentTime material proxy to work properly.
		}
	}

Example

The only known material using this shader, found in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, materials/models/props_combine/sphere.vmt

"Aftershock"
{
	"<dx90"
	{
		"$fallbackmaterial" "models\props_combine\sphere_dx8"
	}

	"$normalmap" "models/props_combine/aftershock-normal"

	"$refractamount" "0.02"
	"$colortint" "[1.0 1.3 1.6]"

	"$SilhouetteThickness" "0.2"
	"$SilhouetteColor" "[0.3 0.3 0.5]"
	"$GroundMin" "-0.3"
	"$GroundMax" "-0.1"
	"$BlurAmount" "0.01"

	"$time" "0.0"
	"Proxies"
	{
		"CurrentTime"
		{
			"resultVar" "$time"
		}
	}
}

See Also

• Refract
• Water_(shader)