SS2 Vurt's Water

[664b239c64174blaydes99]

Awesome! ...and even better, you LIKE my animation setting?!? Tee hee hee...

[664b239c642cfSilver83]

Water 5.1 is looking GREAT!

[664b239c6466cvurt]

I've added a file called env_map_for_ss2_water, it can be used for all system shock 2 waters (even the default) and adds a subtle environment map which makes the water reflective.

You can tweak terrain_scale 256 (128 might look good on some waters, basicly it will make it look more detailed but you might see a repeating pattern) in blin.mtl (located in fam/waterhw).

[664b239c6480fblaydes99]

Hey vurt, I like your water choices and I'm using them in my install. Any chance you can do a water effect that could best be described by what water looks like in a brightly lit swimming pool?

Kind of like these pics, with sharper angles, bright highlight/contrast at the peaks of the breaks/waves, and nice caustics.

[664b239c649feZylonBane]

"Caustics". I thought someone already did a water mod like that, using this generator.

[664b239c64b45blaydes99]

Well, I don't just want caustics but nice angular ripples that have bright highlights on the edges.

Hmm, I'll try and dig up an animated caustics texture and overlay it with one of the other v1-5 releases, since we can do multiple texture overlays with NewDark now. That might do the trick.

[664b239c64cc6ZylonBane]

Whoops, I missed that you already mentioned caustics. Well, given that the surface of clean, clear water is essentially invisible, caustics are pretty much what you're going to see.

Other than experimentation, you should only use the material overlay system if you're wanting to combine animation cycles of different lengths. Otherwise you're degrading the frame rate and consuming VRAM to accomplish something that could be done with a little simple Photoshop work.

But you probably already knew that. 

[664b239c65056vurt]

"Caustics". I thought someone already did a water mod like that, using this generator.

Yeah me That's what i use to do all the water, and the lava too. I just apply filters over it later to achieve more realistic results.

The first water mod i did for SS2 was basicly just pure water caustics without any filter applied, i did a video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sal3EMIv0NU

[664b239c651cavurt]

Added a pool water resource

First:

Image: http://i.imgur.com/zlk49.jpg

Second version (more highlights)

Image: http://piclair.com/data/0c9ji.jpg

[664b239c652f3blaydes99]

Thanks vurt, I like the caustics and animation of this new water. I'd like to make it less blue (I want it to be only very slightly blue in fact), though I'm not a photoshop/GIMP guy. If you can do it that would be great but I'll give this a shot if you're tired of requests.

[664b239c65518voodoo47]

can't say it really fits - a water leak in a house, factory, or spaceship's living quarters would be quite dirty.

[664b239c6568dvurt]

blaydes: sure, which version did you prefer, the first or the last with more highlights? thank god for batch processing! 

voodoo: you probably missed the part where it says resource, this is obviously not meant to be used as a replacement for the SS2 water. It's also not a leak, it's supposed to be water in a pool (see images from Blaydes)

[664b239c657a0voodoo47]

ah, ok.

[664b239c65bdbRocketMan]

I'd like to re-iterate Blaydes' comment about the blue.  Water pretty much only looks blue because the sky is blue.  In a space station it should be the same hue as the walls/ceiling but since those change depending on where the water is, blue is fine as long as it's significantly desaturated from the shot above, almost to the point where you don't see it.  As for the "caustics?" or the bright features on the water, those will be more crisp (as in the photo above), the brighter the light source is and there will be more of them the more turbulent the water is.  Just something to take into consideration since the water on a space station is presumably more stagnant than it would be in an outdoor lake or river and the fluorescent lighting may (or may not) be less piercing so the bias may be towards, larger, less overbrighted caustics.  In that sense, the ingame screenies 5 posts up are pretty good.

[664b239c65eb2blaydes99]

blaydes: sure, which version did you prefer, the first or the last with more highlights? thank god for batch processing! 

Thanks vurt! The version with "more highlights" was best IMO.

Voodoo, I'm thinking about a leak, and yeah, water might be dirty at first if there is a leak but within a few hours or days the dirt/dust in the water is going to settle and it will clear up.

[664b239c66194ZylonBane]

Water pretty much only looks blue because the sky is blue.

*cough*

[664b239c662d3vurt]

Yeah that is not true. Pool water, even inside a house is usually very blue. Google "why is water blue" The sky is not the only reason.

Blaydes: ok, i'll replace the first version i did with a new version with less saturation (based on second version of the mod).

I have to start removing files now since i've passed what is allowed But it's no problem, i dont like the first versions i did of the SS2 waters.

[664b239c664a2RocketMan]

It is pretty much true... don't be troublemaker zb   The transmissivity of all materials is a function of wavelength which gives even pure water a slight blue colour (since it has an affinity for absorbing longer wavelengths) but that depends on the thickness of water in the given sample.  If you fill up your tub in a white bathroom you can see a little blue but it's fairly insignificant.  If you had purple or red walls, that would have a larger effect on the water colour than the inherent colour of the water itself.  The colour of pure water starts to become significant when you have bright illumination and deep water, as there is more of a cumulative effect for the observer.  Shallow 1 foot pools on the ground in a modestly / dimmly lit space station are not likely to give you that.

[664b239c66594vurt]

Yes that's all true. I didnt know how deep he wanted the pool to be, i based it on his images.

[664b239c6667eRocketMan]

Well there's that swimming pool in Rec level (but isn't it cracked?).  That would appear blue if the surrounding environment had neutral colours.

[664b239c66750ZylonBane]

IIRC, the new material system allows tinting textures.

[664b239c6682avurt]

Tinting textures?

Updated first post with a pic + new, less saturated pool water.

[664b239c66909ZylonBane]

RGB modulation. It might only be available for material passes though. I don't have the documentation handy.

[664b239c669f3vurt]

Yes i remember reading about that, i never did understand why i would want to do that though when i can just adjust the colors on the texures the normal way in Photoshop.