How to make a Waterfall

By: John "Deadbolt" Milam

Forward:

The question of how to make a waterfall came up in the UT newbie guild’s forum. And I was the first to step forward and try to tell some one how to build one. Then some how I was given charge over making a tutorial, to honestly tell you the truth I’ve never made a water fall in any of my levels before. But I have a pretty good idea how to do it, so I spend 3 hours of off and on work and I made a small little level that has nothing but a water fall a pool and a player start. Any way on to our show.

Assumptions:

I hope that you have a level design worked out. Depending on your map setting the Waterfall could originate from anywhere. But since most waterfalls come from rocky places. Here goes…

(Another note if you have level with a Waterfall and then waterfall comes from a rocky area that is square and flat: hit your self upside your head. Flat cliff sides look like your not even trying, because rock formations are typically jagged. It is far better to take advantage of brushes that look like rock formations, will give a better sense of place)

Note that in my example that I have a pool (where water can flow to) and crevasse area near the top of the cliffs as a source of the waterfall.

Now this is where things get tricky. If you have a waterfall that is up against the wall and plays no important part of the level other that decoration, I recommend just using a sheet brush. However if you want to be able to stand in the water you need to use a brush that has some thickness. (See below, I have to be complicated)

(Now you’ll notice in my example that the bottom of my waterfall becomes narrow at the bottom I did that in part because of the direction the water comes from. And I’ll add other brushes there later.)

When placing the brush for either type of waterfall use the Add Special tool: this tool as several preset settings use the Water one. Now if your waterfall set up so you can stand under it, you will also want to check the 2-sided attribute. That means it will also act like a separate zone, and when you stand inside you can see the sides of the brush. Brushes that are not 2-sided disappear when if you "enter" them. Also That way you can set zone info in it if you want. Also if you where to stand in the waterfall you would still be able to see the brush itself. When you set the brush you’ll want to also leave it just a little off the cliff wall when you stand under it you will see all sides of the waterfall.

Also you’ll want to set the Waterfall’s surface properties so that it pans downwards.

At this point, the waterfall’s texture doesn’t look right? It is the same texture as the pool and it flows down but it doesn’t look like it is a waterfall. In the surface properties select the Alignment tab, and under scaling there is a U property and a V property. Change this accordingly setting one of the scaling markers at 1 and the other to a number between 5 and 15, these number can change depended on how large your waterfall is.

(Ok that’s better)

But here the next problem when fast moving water hit’s still water there is a mist and wave effect. Thus the question

Is how to do this? You can do it one of two ways either by using sheet textures or actor effects. For and example of the sheet texture look at DM-Arcane Temple:

At a distance the mist effect looks good. But up close it losses it’s appeal.

Also there is a wave texture put in to further the illusion.

Now lets look at the other method and the one I used. In the Actors browser there is a category called: Effects.

And in effects there is an actor called Short Smoke Generator that produces a sprite effect that looks 3D.

oooowww, mist

As for the smoke generator is the settings whish you should try and play with so that they suit your levels needs. There is one setting called "TotalNumPuffs" that sets how many smoke puff that this actor produces. Either way you will have to set a trigger connected to each smoke generator, because when the "puffs" run out a trigger will set off the smoke generator again. You should do this just in case that number runs out (even if you set it at a ridiculously high "TotalNumPuffs", place the trigger in an area of player high traffic.

Also if the waterfall doesn’t match the rest of the pond don’t worry the right lighting can fix that.

Don’t set the smoke puff at too large of a size or they will look blocky

Keep in mind the placement of the smoke generators, too many, too close together and it won’t look right.

Look at the waterfall from all angles

With trial and error you’ll find the right arrangement. Now I’m compelled to finish this as a level

Ok that’s my tutorial, don’t forget to add Ambient Sounds you’ll find some good ones of waterfalls in AmbOutside.uax

Good luck.