Reflective Textures

Dadema

L-3: Not very succesful map maker
Jan 27, 2016
163
83
When I looked at the room 2016 contest I saw a lot of reflective textures (like windows).
Do you need to change the vmt or is there an other way?
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Are you one of those people who can't see reflections any more because of that TF2 bug? There are plenty of default textures that reflect; you just have to manually type "mat_reflectivity 1" in the console between starting the game and connecting to a server.
 

henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
2,075
515
Textures don't reflect. Materials do.
 

worMatty

Repacking Evangelist
aa
Jul 22, 2014
1,257
999
If you want to make a material reflect cubemaps, you use the $envmap property. Follow the link to the property's page on the VDC and you'll find other properties you can use to adjust the result. Specular masks are very useful for controlling spots of reflection, and their strength, across a material. A good example to study is cp_manor/wood_floor01.vmt. Note that the $reflectivity property controls the amount and colour of light that bounces off a material, and is not used to govern the reflection of cubemaps.

Another option for reflecting stuff is func_reflective_glass, though it rarely has a use in a typical TF2 map.