Translucent water

Oni134

L2: Junior Member
Jul 29, 2018
60
18
I'm creating a map that is 50% water but i have the problem is that in the water you can't see the enemies

i tried with cubemaps and another water textures (didn't work)
2fort and the hydro_cheap water solved the problem but looks bad and i want to do this with the water of the map cp_well
the problem is you can't see enemies

how i can make the water more translucent?
 

Da Spud Lord

Occasionally I make maps
aa
Mar 23, 2017
1,339
994
You'd probably need to either create a custom material or water texture. My first recommendation would be to create a custom material by copying the water you like the look of the most, and adding the $alpha value to it.
 

Yaki

aa
Sep 3, 2018
416
254
Do you have water brushes with different dimensions? If you do, the water won't be see-through because of how Source works.

Like if you have a water brush at 200 HU height, and another at 48 HU height, the water won't be translucent when you swim in it.

(This might be false info. I heard it a long time ago before I started mapping. Can someone confirm?)
 

Tumby

aa
May 12, 2013
1,084
1,192
@Da Spud Lord That's is not how water works.
How i can do it?
Download GCFScape
Go to your installation folder of TF2. Go to Team Fortress 2/tf/
Open tf2_misc_dir.vpk
Go to materials/water/ and extract the water that you want to edit. For example, if you want to edit water_well, you will have to extract water_well.vmt, water_well_beneath.vmt, water_well_beneath_dx80.vmt and water_well_dx80.vmt
Rename these files. Replace the word "well" with anything you like. I will use the word "oni".
So now we have water_oni.vmt, water_oni_beneath.vmt, water_oni_beneath_dx80.vmt and water_oni_dx80.vmt
Go to Team Fortress 2/tf/custom/ and create a new folder with any name you like. I will use "oni water edit".
Inside that folder create a folder called "materials" and inside of that create a folder called "water".
So now we have Team Fortress 2/tf/custom/oni water edit/materials/water/
Place the VMT files in there.
Open all VMT files in a text editor. I recommend using Notepad++.
You will find that these VMTs reference other VMTs. water_well is going to reference water_well_dx80 and water_well_beneath. water_well_beneath is going to reference water_well_beneath_dx80. water_well_dx80 is going to reference water_well_beneath.
Rename these references in the same way you renamed the files.
Now just edit the $fogstart and $fogend parameters. Simple.
Note: Editing the fog for the beneath materials affects visibility while inside the water. The other materials affect how clear the water is from the outside.
You could also just set $fogenable to 0 for all materials. It won't be pretty, but considering your map is 50% water, the visuals aren't gonna be the biggest problem anyways.
 

Oni134

L2: Junior Member
Jul 29, 2018
60
18
@Da Spud Lord That's is not how water works.

Download GCFScape
Go to your installation folder of TF2. Go to Team Fortress 2/tf/
Open tf2_misc_dir.vpk
Go to materials/water/ and extract the water that you want to edit. For example, if you want to edit water_well, you will have to extract water_well.vmt, water_well_beneath.vmt, water_well_beneath_dx80.vmt and water_well_dx80.vmt
Rename these files. Replace the word "well" with anything you like. I will use the word "oni".
So now we have water_oni.vmt, water_oni_beneath.vmt, water_oni_beneath_dx80.vmt and water_oni_dx80.vmt
Go to Team Fortress 2/tf/custom/ and create a new folder with any name you like. I will use "oni water edit".
Inside that folder create a folder called "materials" and inside of that create a folder called "water".
So now we have Team Fortress 2/tf/custom/oni water edit/materials/water/
Place the VMT files in there.
Open all VMT files in a text editor. I recommend using Notepad++.
You will find that these VMTs reference other VMTs. water_well is going to reference water_well_dx80 and water_well_beneath. water_well_beneath is going to reference water_well_beneath_dx80. water_well_dx80 is going to reference water_well_beneath.
Rename these references in the same way you renamed the files.
Now just edit the $fogstart and $fogend parameters. Simple.
Note: Editing the fog for the beneath materials affects visibility while inside the water. The other materials affect how clear the water is from the outside.
You could also just set $fogenable to 0 for all materials. It won't be pretty, but considering your map is 50% water, the visuals aren't gonna be the biggest problem anyways.

Thank you so much