Halo 2 Water Shaders/water Revealed.....ALMOST

[madworkz]

1111111OK after two days of pounding my head on my desk and waisting countless hours, I have some answers for us fellow mappers!!!.

if you guys recall a certain someone posted this.

Okay, double-checked it. Looks like it goes something like this:

* Make a +media submaterial
* Create a flat plane where you want your water to be
* Apply +media to that plane
* Export and compile the level
* Open scenario_structure_bsp in h2guerrilla
* Down towards the bottom there's a "water definitions" heading. Add one if necessary, and point it to an appropriate shader -- I used tags\scenarios\shaders\multi\zanzibar\water_static .shader
* Close the scenario_structure_bsp and open the .scenario
* Look for "planar fog palette" about halfway down
* Add one if needed and point it to a planar_fog file. I used a custom one called tags\scenarios\multi\needle\needle_water.planar_fo g. (you can set fog depth by editing the planar_fog file)
* Save and you should be set.

From what I gather you can have multiple media layers (+media0, +media1, etc) but I only vaguely understand how they interact. I know that swamp map used a couple different ones, I think to have different fog types inside/outside the different areas.

LOL well ONLY if it was that simple. He forgot to mention a crap load of other stuff. Its like giving someone directions to your house and you leaving out 9 roads in between :P. Not that i dont like figuring stuff out myself. i just hate waisting lots of time on crappy stuff.

ANYWAY, things i have found out about water:

Water will/can act as a stand alone shader that can actually be used as a shader on anything in your map, given you have the exact shader name as a name in your 3dsmax sub material.( example I actually created a water shader then opened my max scene and created a plain about 1 foot off the gound and applyed a material to the plane using the name of my water shader. I opened up sapien and walla water. Ofcourse i used a ! at the end of my materail name in max. ! is for render only. does not need to follow the sealed world laws. THE only down side to this method is the water DOES NOT act correctly. The correct way to add water is by creating a plane and adding a material called +media. Inwhich this case; you give the waters property value by editing the structure_bsp and Scene_bsp(for fog) which i explain below. So really only 1 +media plane will count as your fog and your water plane. OR you can choose to have it stand alone as just fog, or water depending on what water shader you use. I only got 3 water shaders to actually show up in sapien which is a big let down. And the water shader i got to look the best will not animate when i choose to use it on my +media plane. However it will work correctly as a normal shader when i apply it to a plane in max as a submaterail. I wonder if they did this purposly. The only shader that i can get to animate with the +media plain only renders in two colors(blue&white).(but does have depth from the bumpmap.
So what i have done for now is create a +media plane and ONLY apply a fog to it and create my water on geometry planes. It just sucks because it does not look as good nor does it hold true water characteristics.

PLEASE FEEL FREE to tinker around with what ive started with so maybe one of use will totally figure it out.11

OR BETTER YET PI STUDIO'S can shed some light .......

Good Luck and i really hope we can figure this out.

[Lightning]

Interesting. It doesn't seem to have the real time refraction that the Xbox has, however, but it's a start.

*waits for SOMEONE to try to make a tag extractor* =/

[madworkz]

Interesting. It doesn't seem to have the real time refraction that the Xbox has, however, but it's a start.

*waits for SOMEONE to try to make a tag extractor* =/

NO, it does you just need to see it animating. If you look at H3's water in pics it looks like crap. The refraction/reflection maps really come to life when there moving

[Lightning]

Ah, interesting, interesting.

Also, why are you never on AIM anymore D:

[madworkz]

Ah, interesting, interesting.

Also, why are you never on AIM anymore D:

lol i am all the time. does it not show me ? im on right now. hmmmm. ive been wondering about this trillian program im using for my AIM app........deleting dling regular aim

[mR_r0b0to]

trillian has an "invisible" feature, you're online, but no one can see you. maybe you have it on.

looks cool. i still have to get vista ><

[Nick]

Interesting. It doesn't seem to have the real time refraction that the Xbox has, however, but it's a start.

*waits for SOMEONE to try to make a tag extractor* =/

Why do you need a tag extractor? Doesn't the H2EK come with water shaders? What tags could you possibly need related to water?

Nick

[Roostervier]

I have a crappy layer on top that is moving and a crappy static layer underneath it D: I will tinker with it some more, but my results are nothing like yours.

Why do you need a tag extractor? Doesn't the H2EK come with water shaders? What tags could you possibly need related to water?

Nick

No, it does not come with water shaders, despite the fact that it references them in the help file (sure wish it did, though).

[Lightning]

Why do you need a tag extractor? Doesn't the H2EK come with water shaders? What tags could you possibly need related to water?

Nick

Nope, no shaders.

Or scenery.

Or anything NOT in the "example" map.

[DaneO'Roo]

^ lol tbh


Well, seems Mad is on the right track, just sucks that this ediitng kit is even more fucked up and less supported than the last. Though, I spose it will be fun for everyone to figure it all out. It'll be what seperates the shit maps from the "zomg s3x" maps.