Analog Water

[Balloonsfor600]

OK, so it's been a while because life has been busy, but I am resuming work on my tf2 map as I think it is about ready for an alpha test (probably with just my campus' gaming club, followed by a public alpha).

At this point, I have a few issues to work out so that I can take some measurements so that I can request a model or two (got ma own concept art, but have some trouble modeling, so if anyone is willing to do some model work for their portfolio or just for fun, please pm me).

But I digress. My current issue is that I cannot seem to get an analog water to descend and line up with a static water. Basically, I have a canal lock and at one point, the water in the lock should descend and then, when the lock opens on one side, that water should be level with the static water that is there. But, I can't seem to get them to line up no matter how hard I try to count the hammer units it is descending. Is there an easier way to get the analog water to line up with the static water because every time I try, I end up with water one being a few noticeable units higher, even with the most minute adjustments. And yes, everything is on grid (pretty sure they are both on 16).

 

[lana]

I think your problem might be with the analog water standing out too much from the regular water. After all, it'll look like the cheap version of the water, and could look like it's closer or farther away.

As per your model request, our forums have a new requests section. You can always drop a thread there and see what comes out of it.

 

[Balloonsfor600]

That would cause a visible gap between the two surfaces?

And yeah - the model thing was just a random plug - sorry for it being a bit out of place.

 

[lana]

Well, the normal water might appear clearer than the analog water, which could cause a gap, but I'm unsure exactly how visible it might seem. Can you provide a screenshot?

 

[Boylee]

The static water shaders are a lot more complex than the dynamic ones ones.
Even if the edges line up perfectly, (which will be very difficult because of the different surface textures,) they will look totally different, and very incongruous placed alongside each other.

The only thing I can think to try is this:

1. Build one big water brush at the level of the static water that also covers the area of the soon to be func_water_analog.
   
2. Clip the brush you want to make the func_water_analog from out of the big brush you just made.
   
3. Make it a func_water_analog and set the movedirection parameter to the opposite it was before. You should now have two perfectly aligned water brushes, with the func_water_analog set to move up instead of down.
   
4. Make sure they are both textured on the surface with nature/water_movingplane or nature/water_dx70 as these are the only shaders that work with func_water_analog. Also make sure that you texture them both as one, so tick "treat as one" with both faces selected in the face edit sheet, and align both textures to world. This SHOULD ensure the textures line up.
   
5. Test it and see if it works. I don't know if it, will that's just what I would try.

 

[Balloonsfor600]

Sure. Here is one.

Thanks for the tips BoyLee - I will look at trying that.

 

[Grim Tuesday]

I feel like an idiot not knowing this, but in my map I have water. What is this Func_Water_Analog business?

 

[lana]

I feel like an idiot not knowing this, but in my map I have water. What is this Func_Water_Analog business?

As you may know, water is very expensive to use and performs things that brushes normally can't. Therefore, you can't normally tie water to entities, making it incapable of moving or being manipulated. func_water_analog allows the mapper to manipulate the water as if it were a func_movelinear, by allowing it to move in a certain direction a certain distance. You can also do crazy stuff with it, like make angled water.

 

[Balloonsfor600]

Update on this issue - I need to learn to count. Just make sure that you count the number of hammer units correctly and it should be easy to set that move distance. I don't know why it took me so long to count correctly. Thanks for the help and suggestions.