Town Fountain Model

Model Town Fountain Model B1 - Link Fix

EArkham

Necromancer
aa
Aug 14, 2009
1,625
2,773
Town Fountain Model - Make a wish! Any wish! But unless it's for a fountain with particles, it's not coming true here.

FOUNTAIN ASSETS

Created by EArkham 2016
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198000713080

Some content is derivative of official Valve content, all rights reserved.

This content set will be updated periodically.

Please do not redistribute these assets in any way EXCEPT when used, visible, and packed inside a functional custom map!

INSTRUCTIONS

Unzip this archive into your 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\custom' folder.

Alternately if you use an automatic packing tool such as VIDE:

Unzip this in a seperate folder, then move everything inside '/props_sphinx/' (folders '/models/' '/materials/' etc) directly into your 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\' folder.

Start up Hammer through your preferred method. All assets can be found on the keyword 'fountain.'


PARTICLE INSTRUCTIONS

To use the fountain water particles, create an info_particle_system and place it at the origin of the fountain models (inside, at the very bottom). Doing this will line the effects up with the model.

For "Particle System Name" use 'fountain_water' (without quotes) for the tall fountain, and 'fountain_water_short' (without quotes) for the smaller fountain. Make sure "Start Active?" is set to "Yes."

Optionally you may want to flag these particles as weather.

When you have compiled a map using the fountain particles, make a copy of prefix_mapname_version_particles.txt, rename it to match your map's name. If your map is "koth_example_b1," then the manifest will be called "koth_example_b1_particles.txt". Place this file in the same folder as your map.

You might see console errors mentioning that particles "failed to precache." Don't worry about this; it's normal with custom particles.

As long as your particles manifest is in the correct location, and your info_particle_system entities are correctly set up and turned on, you should see splashing water in game!

DESIGN NOTES

Originally made for Muddy's map koth_kemptown.

Why is this prop broken up into multiple pieces?

This is to give the mapper the option to set up lighting and collision differently on each component, or to leave out the water entirely, if they so choose.

Why is there collision on the water props?

This is solely so that players walking on the bottom basin of water creates that pleasant splish-sploshy footstep noise. Disable collision if this is undesirable.

What's the recommended settings for this prop set?

I recommend using a 512x512 lightmap on the fountain base, vertex lighting on the fountain tiers with self shadowing turned OFF, and no vertex lighting or shadows enabled on the water. Collisions should be enabled for everything. The fountain instances are already set up like this.

You are free to experiment with other settings! That's why it's a multipart prop.

The water in the fountain is refractive. Can I disable that?

Yes. Just use skin 1 (the 2nd skin) on the water for a non-refractive (but weaker looking) surface. Alternately, just don't use the prop water at all and add a brush with a traditional water texture.

props_fountain_small.jpg


CONTENTS

INSTANCES:

mapsrc\instance_fountain_tall.vmf
mapsrc\instance_fountain_short.vmf

MANIFESTS:

maps\prefix_mapname_version_particles.txt

PARTICLES:

particles\fountain_water_fx.pcf

MODELS:

models\props_fountain\fountain_base.mdl
models\props_fountain\fountain_top_a.mdl
models\props_fountain\fountain_top_b.mdl
models\props_fountain\fountain_water_a.mdl
models\props_fountain\fountain_water_b.mdl

props_fountain_parts.jpg
 

Attachments

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Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
The swirls around the pole look a bit weird, like they're some kind of "magic" SFX from a cartoon. Have you tried making a fake water texture with reflections and animated ripples instead?
 

EArkham

Necromancer
aa
Aug 14, 2009
1,625
2,773
Nah, I have no plans to do that. As Muddy can attest, I did the particles more or less on a whim after finishing the model and only spent two hours doing them (most of which was flopping back and forth between tools mode and regular mode to adjust positioning and scaling). The lack of time shows, but they're serviceable for most purposes.

If the swirls are too visible for your tastes, you might try moving the particle system down 1-4 hammer units to get the particles under the surface of the water. Probably a 50/50 chance of that making them either more subdued or making them not render at all thanks to how Source has pretty bad render order bugs.

One day I might revisit and do something better, but not any time soon.
 

Arceus

The equine creator everyone takes for granted.
Apr 19, 2016
42
3

Muddy

Muddy
aa
Sep 5, 2014
2,574
4,592
Bumping this thread because some weird issue has cropped up with the particles.

Although the water splashing shows up fine, the water rippling effect seems to be broken. (In-game, the rippling simply doesn't show up.)
View: https://i.imgur.com/PIaO0Rr.mp4


Are you able to check if this is an issue with the download? I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong.
 

EArkham

Necromancer
aa
Aug 14, 2009
1,625
2,773
How very odd. Honestly I don't even have Hammer installed anymore, heh. :oops:

So as you probably know, the purple means that it can't find the texture (either the vmt points to the wrong location, or the vtf is missing entirely, or the name doesn't match correctly). The particle looks like it's still behaving correctly because of the motion, but the texture just isn't there.

But I don't even see a custom texture in the zip at all, and I don't see it in my WIP files, so I'm not sure I used one.

I'll try to remember later today or tomorrow to break open the pcf and see what it's trying to find.

[Edit] Okay it will probably be more like this weekend cause I apparently have like none of my stuff installed lol
 
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