Hey all, for the life of me I cannot get water to look realistic in Carrara. Mark, I noticed your latest image in the Gallery has some very nice, realistic-looking, transparent (as it should be) water. Can you give a guy some pointers here? Much appreciated, Headgamer P.S. Sorry I haven't been around much lately, but have gotten busy doing some gametesting for Activision... 8^)

Five things make it 'real': 1. Have an environment that reflects into the water. In the above sample I used the "Wind" from the 'scene' settings. (I like the irregularity of the clouds on the water) However, you should use the 'gradient' background otherwise. 2. Have a 'sea floor'. Really important if you use the 'Wind' function. (Make sure the sea floor is above Z=0) If you don't want to use a floor with the 'Wind' function designate the ground color to a dark blue, green or something for depth. 3. Make sure 'Light through transparency' is turned on in the Render Room. If it's not checked there will not be shadows cast on any of the objects or bump channels underneath. However, render time will be decrease if it is left off. (A good idea if you don't actuall have a sea floor and just want deep water.) 4. Adjust the water Bump Channel for complexity and irregularity. Hopefully the picture above helps out regarding that. 5. Do not 'color' the water. Color the transparency channel of the shader instead. Realistic water is a processor intensive. If your machine is slow (or even if it's fast) be prepared to wait a little bit while it does it's thing. Have fun getting wet. Mark

Let them know at Activision that I'm a gaming fool with 4 different systems in my house from 233 to PIII 600, maybe they'll let me test too...lol

Well, Marque... I think they take referrals from current testers... I will check into it. I have been working on them to allow me to do some of their Playstation testing, but haven't convinced them of that yet. Right now I am testing Vampire: The Redemption... Cool game so far (though they have yet to send me info on all the basic controls, etc.). Kinda like Diablo, but 3D rather than top-down perspective... and ALL the characters are vampires... pretty cool... hehehe... HG...

You lucky bastard! That is one of the games I am going to the E3 to see! :-) If you are allowed to talk, I'd be interested in knowing what you think of it. :-) Aeryk71

Aeryk... There is clearly an NDA that prevents me from talking about it in too much detail... But I will ask them how much I can disclose and get back to you... I can tell you that on an Athlon 600/128mb/Riva TNT2 Ultra machine, it looks awesome! 8^) The Lucky Bastard... aka HG...

Thanks HG! I understand... I've been a beta tester a few times... Not enough money in it to live off... At least not from the companies I beta'd for... Again, Thanks, Aeryk