Trouble with cubemaps and water reflection.

[tedrock]

i appear to only be able to use the default skybox. if i use any of the other sky boxes i get the purple and black checkers on the water. i have a env_cubemap and if i try to build cubemaps i get this error:
] buildcubemaps
R_RedownloadAllLightmaps took 53.374 msec!
Current mod isn't in a subdirectory of "game"!
bounce: 1/1 sample: 1/1
Can't load skybox file sky_dustbowl_01 to build the default cubemap!
R_RedownloadAllLightmaps took 42.702 msec!

not sure what it means when it says it's not in "game"... i'd really like to use something rather the default skybox texture.

 

[Paria]

once you have actually run the buildcubemaps command the data is written to the bsp - but you must actually reload the map to see the changes,

i just added 1 cubemap to my map and did a quick and dirty compile to test things out,

This is normal and expected

*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_gravel_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_gravel_01 to build the default cubemap!
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for skybox/sky_gravel_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file skybox/sky_gravel_01 to build the default cubemap!

Then in game i used just the following for a quick and dirty look at cubemaps,

sv_cheats 1 (because i didnt run in -dev mode)
mat_specular 0
buildcubemaps
map YOURMAPNAME (to reload the map)
mat_specular 1 (to revert it back to its original setting)

purple checkered water now looks correct, the code from the console was as follows,

Current mod isn't in a subdirectory of "game"!
[b]bounce: 1/1 sample: 1/1[/b] 
*** Error: Skybox vtf files for sky_gravel_01 weren't compiled with the same size texture and/or same flags!
Can't load skybox file sky_gravel_01 to build the default cubemap!

So basically did you actually re-load the map after building the cubemaps to see the changes?.

 

[tedrock]

ahh no i didn't. i assumed if it was giving an error it was failing. thank you.

on a side note does anyone know how to make TF2 water look better? it doesn't seem to reflect as much as other source water textures and it's ripple animation shows it's repetitive nature a lot more then the other textures.

 

[Demitri Omni]

Also, if I have about 5 water entities connected to each other (I.E., I have a pipe going from the main center area's pool, into a pipe, down a slant through the pipe, out the other end of the pipe, and into a small sewer area), will that have any adverse effect on the map's compile process?

 

[Paria]

ahh no i didn't. i assumed if it was giving an error it was failing. thank you.

on a side note does anyone know how to make TF2 water look better? it doesn't seem to reflect as much as other source water textures and it's ripple animation shows it's repetitive nature a lot more then the other textures.

check the texture scale of the water texture, its probably set to .25 which can look a little repetitve for water try scaling it up to .5 in the texture tool.

 

[Demitri Omni]

Also, if I have about 5 water entities connected to each other (I.E., I have a pipe going from the main center area's pool, into a pipe, down a slant through the pipe, out the other end of the pipe, and into a small sewer area), will that have any adverse effect on the map's compile process?

I figured it out. I apparently built all the brushes and only set the one in the main center pool to actually be a func_water_analog. I really need to get on the ball.

 

[Sacrifist]

Its because every sky other then hydro is screwed up. The skies can be fixed. I have fixes for all of them but 2fort and dustbowl as Ive not needed to use those for a map. It just shows how sloppy valve can be. Hell, some of the skys dont even line up properly.