- Jul 31, 2009
- 1,590
- 410
I'm trying to make the interior of a cooling tower, and I was wondering if anyone had advice, given the hit-and-miss nature of these kinds of effects in TF2.
It's one of those towers everyone associated with nuclear power plants, open to the sky. (Although it's easier to think of it as a tall, straight cylinder.) From the top, fine streams of water are being sprayed, falling down into a pool below.
Right now I'm using env_embers shooting downwards for the fine particulate spray, and somewhat farther down func_precipitation kicks in (supposedly as droplets coalesce.) Later, I may try some env_splash entities with logic_case to make semirandom splashes.
I tried to parent env_embers to func_rotating or a motor-driven physbox, but I can't seem to get a rotating emitter. (But perhaps that's for another topic, and I haven't tried parenting to a func_tracktrain yet.)
____________
Anyway:
1. Is there a better way to get this kind of "raining into water" effect? Right now I'm just planning to hand-tune the func_precipitation volume so that droplets stop at the water surface.
2. Is there a way to give textures a wet shiny specularity without making a new material? Update: Doubt it, and I'd prefer the blending...
3. Is it technically possible to make a blending texture for displacements which smoothly varies its specularity with the alpha channel, so that I could paint dry and wet areas? Update: Docs say you can
It's one of those towers everyone associated with nuclear power plants, open to the sky. (Although it's easier to think of it as a tall, straight cylinder.) From the top, fine streams of water are being sprayed, falling down into a pool below.
Right now I'm using env_embers shooting downwards for the fine particulate spray, and somewhat farther down func_precipitation kicks in (supposedly as droplets coalesce.) Later, I may try some env_splash entities with logic_case to make semirandom splashes.
I tried to parent env_embers to func_rotating or a motor-driven physbox, but I can't seem to get a rotating emitter. (But perhaps that's for another topic, and I haven't tried parenting to a func_tracktrain yet.)
____________
Anyway:
1. Is there a better way to get this kind of "raining into water" effect? Right now I'm just planning to hand-tune the func_precipitation volume so that droplets stop at the water surface.
2. Is there a way to give textures a wet shiny specularity without making a new material? Update: Doubt it, and I'd prefer the blending...
3. Is it technically possible to make a blending texture for displacements which smoothly varies its specularity with the alpha channel, so that I could paint dry and wet areas? Update: Docs say you can
Last edited:
