Cheap/ expensive water and PVS.

[Belli]

So, cheap and expensive water cannot be in the same PVS. What's the minimum requirement to separate them? Just splitting the visleaves with a hint brush, or does it literally require the brushes not to be visible at the same time?

 

[colacan]

Both brushes may not be visible from any position at any given time.

 

[fubarFX]

you can use mat_wireframe 3 to see what's in your current pvs. then you'll be able to perform the necessary edits to make sure you can't render both brushes at the same time.

 

[Pocket]

FYI all of the water textures used by default maps are cheap. Whether by design or a bug they never bothered to fix. So I wouldn't worry about it.

EDIT: Wait, cheap doesn't just mean reflects cubemaps, does it. There's something else... how it looks when you're under it, maybe?

 

[grazr]

Wow, i wasn't aware you couldn't render cheap and expensive at the same time, only that you could render expensive on a single plane.

But yes, in multiplayer it is wise to only utilise cheap water. The excessive action not only contributes to system loads but the additional combat distractions... distract... from aesthetics of a level design. The last thing people will be complaining about is the quality of a water shader/reflection.