Water for my harbour

[Fingernail]

Hi, didn't want to take up more posts in the Currently Working on Thread, so I thought I'd spin off to its own thread.

 

I got Arcturus' water shader (but using the alpha depth heat haze shader) and animated md3 meshes working, which look great from some angles. However, the shader lightens objects below the water line, which doesn't look great for the galleon model I have in the harbour.

 

Basically the water looks too clean and transparent, particularly from higher angles. It looks lovely from low down when you can see the light refracting off the bumpmaps and the waves.

 

I tried using a foglight but it causes some weird colour blending when under light. I'll post some screens later.

 

I found this thread where SteveL was trying some different effects for sea water: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18036-messing-with-sea-water/

 

Is it possible to combine one with the other (ie. have the water darken with depth but with the animated mesh and normalmap on top which looks much better than the seawater01 texture)? I haven't had a detailed look at the shaders and am not exactly familiar with the coding involved - I will do so when I have a minute.

 

But just in case anyone here is able to instantly tell me it's possible or not, or what I'd gain or lose.

[Bikerdude]

I found this thread where SteveL was trying some different effects for sea water: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18036-messing-with-sea-water/

We have been hoping Steven would get around to finishing off this killer water shader!

 

Calling Steve!

[Fingernail]

I think this shot shows what I mean... the posts sticking in to the water and the bottom of the ship's hull look unnaturally lightened.

 

I'm not sure if this is a result of having light directly shining at/below the water, negating the fog under it? Anyway, any suggestions on how to make it a lot murkier very welcome. Maybe I need to change the colour of the texture itself?

Edited June 4, 2017 by Fingernail

[Springheel]

I see what you're referring to. It looks like some kind of additive blending to me, but I'm not very familiar with the water shaders. Arcturus or Obsttorte would be the people to ask.

[Fingernail]

It may just be a case of making the shader more opaque? Not sure which value to change where.

[Fingernail]

Ok, edited a stage with less (more?) alpha and got a better result depth wise (less transparent water, which I think is better for sea - I can't see the bottom anymore). However, it also shows up the additive blend stage more. Definitely need a darker/murkier colour diffusemap tint for this eventually.

[nbohr1more]

Hmm, it definitely looks like the shader is doing a fog operation so I would hazard to guess

you might get better results with a blend filter operation than the current blend.

 

You might need to use a white diffuse image to ensure that the starting point isn't completely black.

 

Similar line of investigation:

 

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Making_Semi-transparent_textures

[SteveL]

Is it possible to combine one with the other (ie. have the water darken with depth but with the animated mesh and normalmap on top which looks much better than the seawater01 texture)?

 

Can you link the water shader you are using? Or is it packaged with the mod now? I remember both Arcturus and Obsttorte did clever things with bumpmapped transparent shaders but I'm a bit behind on latest developments I'll have a look how it works and see whether we can get the best of both worlds.

[Fingernail]

Hi Steve!

 

The shaders are from Arcturus, here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwPvgP85AGF1ekxsdnJWakRpVFE/view?usp=sharing

[SteveL]

Is it md3_water_test_refraction you're using?

 

There are a couple of variants in that material file but I think that's the one.... But I can't see (yet) what is causing the brighter posts and hull below the waterline. The only light being added in that material is from the specular highlights on the water. Are you using any other effects in the screenshot above? Like fog lights, or another material on a patch beneath the surface?

[Fingernail]

It's the refraction, reflection AND the colour all together. I copied it straight out of Arcturus' own demo map. I believe the reflection lives at the bottom, then the refraction and color animated textures go on top.

 

Some info here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18643-md3-models/page-2#entry402313 and http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10003-so-what-are-you-working-on-right-now/?p=406615

 

EDIT: and here http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10003-so-what-are-you-working-on-right-now/?p=406647

 

 

But I replaced Heathaze with heathazewithalpha to get rid of the edge distortions on close objects (as far as I understand it).

 

Nothing underneath apart from a patch with a dirt texture.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Fingernail