Increase Underwater Visibility

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OldManJenkins

L1: Registered
Jul 24, 2010
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I'm making a map that is played mostly underwater, but I need a way to increase the visibility underwater at least somewhat.
The water texture I'm currently using is nature/water_canals_cheap001_dx70, because any other texture I've tried either looks just as bad or worse underwater.

Here's a screenshot from outside, which looks fine: (ignore the fact that I have vertical water, that's not part of my problem)
melee_cube_b60001.jpg


And here are some from inside the water:
melee_cube_b60002.jpg

melee_cube_b60003.jpg


It's impossible to see very far, which makes it harder to play, plus there's a weird contrast when moving from outside the water to inside. Is there any way to solve this short of spending an hour editing texture properties?
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Since you're doing a TF2 map, surely one of those water materials has better visibility. Short of that the only solution is likely to edit the waters fog property. To my knowledge.
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
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Sep 28, 2009
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Well, for one, you're using a Half Life 2 water texture, which has much foggier water.

To reduce the fog of a water texture, you'll need to make your own. Water is a bit of a tough thing to make, but the commands you'll need are here:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Water_(shader)#Textures

I recommend copying one of the existing water textures and changing the values in the .vmt file.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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Nov 14, 2009
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Actually you have piqued my interest: HOW do you have vertical water? All the experts said it was impossible!
 

lana

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Sep 28, 2009
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It's not impossible, it just causes problems with reflection and visibility.