Shiny Surfaces

[jamagr]

I have been reading up on texturing with specularity maps but how can i create the floors that have the mirror effect a-la deus ex and unreal. I really dont think that they were done using cube maps and envro-tex maps.

see screenshot! [Floor]

[Twrecks]

Sorry, but we lost mirrored surfaces in UT2kx.
You could possibly do it with a skybox actor looking in a one sided sheet at your player and using the player side of the "glass" checked as a fake backdrop. Pretty complex, but afaik is about the only solution there is ATM.
Biggest prob with that method is a fixed vantage point, as it would not shift with the player.
Alternately you could research the old mirrored surface code and try to hack it into UT2kx

[the_Jester]

umm this is what the UDN says:

You can turn any BSP surface into a mirror. To do so simply select the surface and then bring up the Surface Properties window (Hotkey: F5), and then check the “Mirror” box.

Now that surface will act as a mirror, duplicating everything that is facing it, but with Unreal Ed’s default settings, this effect will only take place in the editor. To have it take place in game you must open up your .ini file and set the “UseStencil” setting to True.

NOTE: Changing this setting may cause your game to not work on some graphics cards (such as a Geforce 1).

[ffejnosliw]

Mirrors can be done in UT200x:

http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/MirrorsAndWarpZones

Cubemaps are much more efficient, though not as accurate. You can also use a security camera setup to make a mirrored surface:

http://angelmapper.com/tutorials/reflections.htm

[Twrecks]

That's funny, all this time all I had to do was turn UseStencil to True!
Pity all the gamers who download the map who haven't.

Using warp zones as mirrors is a bit iffy. UT2kx acually has sides on zone sheets, so if at first it doesn't work, flip your sheet before you add.

[ffejnosliw]

Using warp zones as mirrors is a bit iffy.

Did someone suggest using warp zones as mirrors? The link I provided is to the UDN page stating what ja8t3d posted.

[speedy mapper]

i think he got mixed up? lol

[jamagr]

Like a blockhead, if i had just looked a little I would have found that out....


Thanks,
J

[Twrecks]

I really need to get more sleep :P

Actually, you should be able to make a mirror using a warpzone, if both the source and destination tags (urls) are the same a player would warp back from where they came, and conversly see a mirror. By reckoning, a blocking volume would prevent weapon fire from reflecting (well some kinds of projectiles, not zero trace stuff don't work thru warp portals anyways) A shallow warp zone, as explained in the UDN link, would also prevent players from entering the warp zone as it would be smaller than the player collision. Dunno, I'd have to try it out in UT2kx as this principle did work back in UT99 (by accidentilly setting up URLs wrong).