Water reflections are weird

[Snufflegrunt]

They just plain don't look right. Especially after the train crashes and floods the facility, it almost made that section unplayable for me, and definitely not enjoyable.

I want to be able to see what's under the water, not have the entire geometry change every time I dive under. I've tried various different settings, and it seems to be an engine issue. I don't recall anything like this in any other Source game I've played.

Is there a fix, or is this known and being fixed?

Edit: Screenshots on page 2.

[FeepingCreature]

Water reflections also look wrong to me. It's way too reflective, the reflection looks like level geometry. You duck your head under the water and go "oh, so that's the actual room."

[Snufflegrunt]

That's exactly it.

[tdkirb]

Yeah it definitely threw me off on a few occasions.

[Rogue]

Same here. The water looks great on Xen though. You can see the mutant sharkodile things from above the surface, whereas in Black Mesa all water is like a perfect mirror.

[Snufflegrunt]

Originally posted by Rogue:

Same here. The water looks great on Xen though. You can see the mutant sharkodile things from above the surface, whereas in Black Mesa all water is like a perfect mirror.

I noticed this too. I really hope this is fixed for the final release. If I'm completely honest, it kind of ruined the middle chapters for me. (along with repetitive textures but I'm guessing/hoping that's just a symptom of early access)

[Pocket]

That's just how Source water is. You can only see through it if it's very shallow. Ever played Half-Life 2? And to be fair, in the original Half-Life you couldn't see through the water either because it was completely opaque.

The Xen water looks different because it's fake. Source's water reflections only work if there's only one level of water in the area, and they wanted multiple (plus several places where the water level can rise), so I guess they just stuck to using fake water in all of Xen for consistency.

[Snufflegrunt]

Originally posted by Pocket:

That's just how Source water is. You can only see through it if it's very shallow. Ever played Half-Life 2?

I'm playing it right now and the water looks nothing like the water in midgame Black Mesa. I have never, ever, seen Source water work like that.

Originally posted by Pocket:

And to be fair, in the original Half-Life you couldn't see through the water either because it was completely opaque.

It's pretty much completely opaque in midgame BM too. HL1 water has the advantage of not disorienting the player.

Originally posted by Pocket:

The Xen water looks different because it's fake.

Fake is better.

[DIGITAL SPORTS]

Originally posted by Snufflegrunt:

I'm playing it right now and the water looks nothing like the water in midgame Black Mesa. I have never, ever, seen Source water work like that.

Think you're experiencing a bit of a placebo effect here. We literally use the stock source water in the vast majority of earthbound. Once or twice we use a "cheap" variant, which is also done in stock source too.

The water we use in Xen is fake, and isn't something done by any other source games, as far as I'm aware.

[LU-C4]

The weirdest part for me is looking down from the dam at the river. It's like the water is struggling to decide between "reflection" and "cyan texture" kinda like Z-Fighting. It's hard to describe, but you can easily go look for yourself, since it's pretty much at the beginning of the chapter. As far as I know, it has something to do with having different water levels on the same map in the source engine, but I could be wrong on this one.

[Snufflegrunt]

Originally posted by BMS DIGITAL SPORTS:

Originally posted by Snufflegrunt:

I'm playing it right now and the water looks nothing like the water in midgame Black Mesa. I have never, ever, seen Source water work like that.

Think you're experiencing a bit of a placebo effect here. We literally use the stock source water in the vast majority of earthbound. Once or twice we use a "cheap" variant, which is also done in stock source too.

The water we use in Xen is fake, and isn't something done by any other source games, as far as I'm aware.

Thank you for your response. :) It's nothing I've experienced in any Source game before. It's clearly not just me as others are reporting a similar problem.The fake water looks better. Seriously, the end of Blast Pit was so disorientating it almost made me ill. It's nothing to do with placebo effect.

[thray]

Originally posted by Snufflegrunt:

It's clearly not just me as others are reporting a similar problem.

Others?
There are hundreds of thousands of posts in this forum. Yours with 3 people who noticed the same thing is statistically insignificant.

Not one of you posted your computer specs or if you had broken mods installed that could corrupt things.

TLDR
Sorry, but it's you.

[Snufflegrunt]

Originally posted by Jeremy Bearimy:

Originally posted by Snufflegrunt:

It's clearly not just me as others are reporting a similar problem.

Others?
There are hundreds of thousands of posts in this forum. Yours with 3 people who noticed the same thing is statistically insignificant.

Not one of you posted your computer specs or if you had broken mods installed that could corrupt things.

TLDR
Sorry, but it's you.

I lurk on these forums and was wondering when you’d show up lol. No need to get shirty. Read the thread and you will see other people with he same issue. I mentioned no mods or anything so you can assume I had none. Computer specs should not matter with a Source game, but if you must, a Ryzen 2700 and a 1070ti with 32gb RAM. Running off an m.2 SSD and a clean Windows install that’s under a month old.

Have you played the game or do you spend all of that potentially gameplay time telling people off for having problems?

[thray]

Originally posted by Snufflegrunt:

Originally posted by Jeremy Bearimy:

Others?
There are hundreds of thousands of posts in this forum. Yours with 3 people who noticed the same thing is statistically insignificant.

Not one of you posted your computer specs or if you had broken mods installed that could corrupt things.

TLDR
Sorry, but it's you.

Read the thread and you will see other people with he same issue. I mentioned no mods or anything so you can assume I had none. Computer specs should not matter with a Source game,

I read the thread, Very Few People out of hundreds of thousands, once again its insignificant. As for mods, not mentioning them means nothing, maybe the other 3 have mods that they did not mention. I troubleshoot and fix people’s computers for a living, I never assume anything from what a client Does Not Tell Me, same goes for here.

And if you think this Source game is the same as others and specs don’t matter than you may want to start reading posts instead of lurking.

You got the only answer you’re gonna get from a developer of the game.
So your questions “Is there a fix, or is this known and being fixed?” are answered in this order.
No, there is no fix because it ain’t broke.
No, this is not a known issue, even though there have been hundreds of thousands of people playing and reporting issues, what you see is not one of them.
No, it’s not being fixed because it’s not an issue.

[Snufflegrunt]

I don’t reply properly to comments like that. Weird flex btw.

The developer is aware and will likely now fix it, that’s all I need.

[Rogue]

No mods here.


I'll have to download HL2 again to compare but never noticed a hall of mirrors effect in any other source game. Perhaps it's just the way the water is used in Black Mesa that makes it more noticeable - interior areas with lots of geometry, whereas the only water I remember in HL2 tended to be in big open outdoor areas. I think the worst area was around the time you get the crossbow and have to carry the floating barrels under the walkway to lift it up. It was like a kaleidoscope in some rooms. :)