how to make water or fog
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:37 pm
ive had some people asking me how to create water and fog, so heres a little tut on how. please please please if u see something wrong or know more info about this, tell me and ill try to update it. im not the greatest at this but i figured people might like to know how
read sect IV if you just wanna make normal fog.. (im not a very organized writer)
I Creating your water image
1. draw water surface on an image that has power of 2 dimensions (64x64, 128x128...)
2. create alpha map for it
3. save as a .tiff in your levels\test\"mapname"\bitmaps folder
i suggest saving it with a file name of "mapname"_water.tiff (replace "mapname")
4. run tool.exe with the following prompt:
tool bitmap levels\test\"mapname"\bitmaps\"mapname"_water
5. open up the newly created tag for this bitmap in guerilla
6. under format, change "compressed with color-key tra" to compressed with explicit alpha"
7. save and close the tag
II Creating a shader for the water bitmap
1. open up guerilla
2. open up an existing water shader, such as levels\test\deathisland\shaders\distant water.shader_transparent_water
3. click save as... and save it in levels\test\"mapname"\shaders with the same name as the .bitmap file (just to keep things simple)
4. in the shader_transparent_water tag, click the "..." next to base map to find and select the .bitmap tag that will be used
5. right below that, click the blueish colored box next to "view perpenicular tint color" and change it to whatever you want. (not sure what it does yet)
6. save and close the tag
III Creating the fog plane in 3ds for the water
1. open up the desired level in 3dsmax
2. in the material editor, create a new material and name it "mapname"_water!$
the ! makes the plane have no collision, and the $ makes it recognized by halo and sapien as a fog plane
3. click make viewable and whatnot like you usually do for textures
4. create a plane in your level at the desired altitude you want the water to come up to.
make the plane go past the ends of where you want the water to be
5. select your level box and attatch the plane to it with the edit mesh "attatch" button
6. select the plane's faces and apply the water image to it
7. export the map as .jms
8. run tool.exe like usual using the structure command
IV Creating a .fog tag to be used for water or fog
1. open up guerilla
2. open an existing .fog tag, such as levels\test\deathisland\water.fog
3. click save as... and save to your maps main tag folder
i suggest saving it as something like "mapname"_fog.fog or ""_water_fog.fog
4. if the fog is going to be used as water, selest the "is water" box near the top
5. edit the 4 density values to suit your needs. look around for other .fog tags for different levels to see what kind of values you want there
6. under color, click the colored box to chose the color your fog will be
7. i dont really know what the rest of the values in the .fog tag do, but you can fool around with them if you like
8. save and close the tag
V Applying the fog to the water area in sapien
1. open up sapien and select your map's .scenario tag
2. run radiosity
3. in the hierarchy window, go to Mission > Cluster Properties > Palettes > Fog Pallette
4. click "new instance"
5. select this new instance and in the properties window, give it a name something like, water, or fog.
6. click "..." next to fog to find and select the .fog tag you made for the level
7. in hierarchy, open up the Fog folder which is on the same level as Palettes
if you are adding water fog, you will see a red outline on the edges of the area that will contain water
8. in the properties window, select the fog you just added to the fog palette
the red outline should turn green now
9. click save scenario_structure_bsp
10. run tool.exe like normal using build-cache-file prompt
VI What to do differently for adding fog only.
1. do not make a .tiff file or .bitmap tag or shader or anything
2. in 3ds in the material editor, use the name +unused!$ for the material
this way the plane has no image or collision model and is still a fog plane
3. remember that which way you have the faces of the fog plane matters. if you have them facing up, then the fog will be below the plane. if you have the faces facing down, the fog will be above it
4. in guerilla, do not check "is water" (duh)
umm ok i think that is about it...
read sect IV if you just wanna make normal fog.. (im not a very organized writer)
I Creating your water image
1. draw water surface on an image that has power of 2 dimensions (64x64, 128x128...)
2. create alpha map for it
3. save as a .tiff in your levels\test\"mapname"\bitmaps folder
i suggest saving it with a file name of "mapname"_water.tiff (replace "mapname")
4. run tool.exe with the following prompt:
tool bitmap levels\test\"mapname"\bitmaps\"mapname"_water
5. open up the newly created tag for this bitmap in guerilla
6. under format, change "compressed with color-key tra" to compressed with explicit alpha"
7. save and close the tag
II Creating a shader for the water bitmap
1. open up guerilla
2. open up an existing water shader, such as levels\test\deathisland\shaders\distant water.shader_transparent_water
3. click save as... and save it in levels\test\"mapname"\shaders with the same name as the .bitmap file (just to keep things simple)
4. in the shader_transparent_water tag, click the "..." next to base map to find and select the .bitmap tag that will be used
5. right below that, click the blueish colored box next to "view perpenicular tint color" and change it to whatever you want. (not sure what it does yet)
6. save and close the tag
III Creating the fog plane in 3ds for the water
1. open up the desired level in 3dsmax
2. in the material editor, create a new material and name it "mapname"_water!$
the ! makes the plane have no collision, and the $ makes it recognized by halo and sapien as a fog plane
3. click make viewable and whatnot like you usually do for textures
4. create a plane in your level at the desired altitude you want the water to come up to.
make the plane go past the ends of where you want the water to be
5. select your level box and attatch the plane to it with the edit mesh "attatch" button
6. select the plane's faces and apply the water image to it
7. export the map as .jms
8. run tool.exe like usual using the structure command
IV Creating a .fog tag to be used for water or fog
1. open up guerilla
2. open an existing .fog tag, such as levels\test\deathisland\water.fog
3. click save as... and save to your maps main tag folder
i suggest saving it as something like "mapname"_fog.fog or ""_water_fog.fog
4. if the fog is going to be used as water, selest the "is water" box near the top
5. edit the 4 density values to suit your needs. look around for other .fog tags for different levels to see what kind of values you want there
6. under color, click the colored box to chose the color your fog will be
7. i dont really know what the rest of the values in the .fog tag do, but you can fool around with them if you like
8. save and close the tag
V Applying the fog to the water area in sapien
1. open up sapien and select your map's .scenario tag
2. run radiosity
3. in the hierarchy window, go to Mission > Cluster Properties > Palettes > Fog Pallette
4. click "new instance"
5. select this new instance and in the properties window, give it a name something like, water, or fog.
6. click "..." next to fog to find and select the .fog tag you made for the level
7. in hierarchy, open up the Fog folder which is on the same level as Palettes
if you are adding water fog, you will see a red outline on the edges of the area that will contain water
8. in the properties window, select the fog you just added to the fog palette
the red outline should turn green now
9. click save scenario_structure_bsp
10. run tool.exe like normal using build-cache-file prompt
VI What to do differently for adding fog only.
1. do not make a .tiff file or .bitmap tag or shader or anything
2. in 3ds in the material editor, use the name +unused!$ for the material
this way the plane has no image or collision model and is still a fog plane
3. remember that which way you have the faces of the fog plane matters. if you have them facing up, then the fog will be below the plane. if you have the faces facing down, the fog will be above it
4. in guerilla, do not check "is water" (duh)
umm ok i think that is about it...