Underwater City: Feasible?

TheTurnip

L2: Junior Member
Mar 2, 2010
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I'm still a big n00b at Hammer, and I'm trying to change that. I've been failing pretty consistently in my overly ambitious game mode ideas, so instead I've decided to go the standard game mode route, at least until I have some skills with Hammer. But I want something interesting (not a desert/industrial building).

To that end, I've considered and discarded many thematic ideas. But I have one I like now.

An underwater spytech base. On the bottom of an ocean, with big glass domes looking out into the water, maybe a capture point or two surrounded by submarines, and perhaps even a few water leaks :D

The issue is (as a newbie) how to get water working with windows. I experimented with this today, and I seem to either get windows through which one only sees solid colours, or ones where you only see what texture is on the opposite side of the water.

So yeah. Does anyone have experience with this kind of thing at all? Is it feasible? Can you fill a sky-box like box with water?

(also, if you're curious, the interior design was going to be along the lines of ctf_moonwalk: metal interiors with some carpeting. A bit more swank than the usual TF2 map)
 
Mar 23, 2010
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yeah. i'm about to fail at my over-ambitious map. It's my first map and i'm trying to make a domination map. should've started with CTF or something else.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
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410
It's possible to make an underwater base... As long as you don't get too tightly-attached to certain effects, situations, or graphical looks. In other words, you need to fake it, and be aware of what stuff you can fake.

Problematic situations:
  • Having any sort of window that separates a room-with-water and a room-without-water.
  • Moving water levels.
  • Multiple water surfaces at different heights.
  • Using "expensive" (TF2-standard) water versus "cheap" water.
 
Last edited:
Nov 14, 2009
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If you get information on this any time soon, post it here, since I would like to know as well.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
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A generally-good strategy is to work in your windows so that people don't generally get too close to them, and when they look out of them they see only ocean and not some part of the ground or the base. (Ex: cp_photic screenshots.)

This makes it easier to fake the appearance of water that isn't actually out there.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
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To build a city at the bottom of the sea? Insanity!

But there is a texture that can achieve the underwater effect through glass... sort of. It's called effects/water_warp. It's not very good, though; for some reason it tries to warp the stuff in front of it too, to some extent. Putting a little space between it and the glass doesn't help.
 

TheTurnip

L2: Junior Member
Mar 2, 2010
62
20
First off, excellent point BoyLee. And thanks to everyone else. cp_photic is pretty close to my idea :p

I'll look more into this, but i'm thinking this may still be a bit ambitious for starters. We'll see.

Thanks again!