Waterfall

Is there a way to make a waterfall in WB?

Not with the water tool, as far as I know.

Maybe that you can find something in the fx, I saw a map called water.

You can create a waterfall type feature in WorldBuilder using the terrain and water tools. You will also use a few objects and action markers to decorate them. This is how the waterfalls will appear in game:





The trick is that water is rendered with a vertical drop on all sides that you can't see due to the waters edges being hidden below the terrain. But you can make it clip through and ontop of the terrain if you place water beside a steep and sudden drop.

Water as seen from above (what you normally see):


Water as seen from below (moving the camera as close to the ground as possible you can see the water's vertical drop edges):


Our goal is to get the water edges to appear above the terrain.

How to set up the terrain:

You can see that there is a sharp edge of terrain. The terrain must have that jagged edge. You should be using the "Set Value" mode of the terrain tool to be as precise as possible.

Add water:

If the value of your highest point of terrain was for example "15", then set the water level value to "14.9". Once you add water you can see that the water clips through the terrain and extends past that sharp edge before it starts its vertical drop. You now have a basic waterfall.

Lower terrain at the bottom of the falls and add water and decorations:

Now to add the final details. You can lower the terrain at the bottom of the falls and add more water to continue your river/lake/stream. You must also add some kind of object to cover up that jagged edge at the top of the falls. The best ones to use are cliff rocks, and dead trees. Position them creatively so that they cover the jagged edge. You can use the "R" key to rotate the objects. You must also set the water direction to go with your waterfall (in the terrain settings) and set the water normal map to an appropriate wave (I tend to use water_shader_nrm). And as a final touch you need to add Action Markers with FX for the misty splashes at the bottom of the falls. I use "fx_ambient\smoke_fog\smoke_nis_beach_fog_combo_lrg_02_nowind" for the mist and "fx_ambient\water\fountain_water_spray" for the splashes.


There are 2 small problems with waterfalls:

1. You should only have waterfalls facing one direction on your map. This is because the water direction setting in the Terrain Properties can only be set once for all water on the map. If you make another waterfall at a 90 degree angle to your first waterfall, then one of your waterfalls will appear to have the water flowing sideways instead of down since the water direction will be set to the wrong direction.

2. The higher the waterfall, the easier it is to spot a cosmetic issue. There is a horizontal line that cuts through the falls the lower you move your camera to the ground. I believe it's caused by how the water is trying to render the reflection of the horizon. You can see that in the screenshot here.



If you want a closer look you can download my map from the screenshots above in Steam Workshop Here and use Janne252's map extractor tool to open it in world builder and take a look.

Wow that looks seriously awesome

This link has a tutorial they made for CoH1 and how to add waterfalls. I never used the CoH1 worldbuilder, but from the screenshots it doesn't appear they weren't able to have the same vertical drop effect but that it is made the same way, so I'm not sure if this is only something that can be done in 2 and not 1. But this is where I got the idea from originally.

This link has a tutorial they made for CoH1 and how to add waterfalls. I never used the CoH1 worldbuilder, but from the screenshots it doesn't appear they were able to have the same vertical drop effect, so I'm not sure if this is only something that can be done in 2 and not 1. But this is where I got the idea from originally.

Man that looks great! Thank You!

PureBunk, you should publish this as a WB tutorial. I'll if I can pass this along. or contact MonolithicBacon or OnkelSam about it.

yeah that waterfall looks nice.

Should I just make a "How to:" post here in the mapping discussion sub and message them to add it to the tutorial list?

Awesome tutorial!

Should I just make a "How to:" post here in the mapping discussion sub and message them to add it to the tutorial list?

yes, yes you should.
This is awesome!

Thats the absolutly best way to create a Waterfal and the only way i i did it on all of my Maps with Waterfalls
Nice Tutorial !

Thats the absolutly best way to create a Waterfal and the only way i i did it on all of my Maps with Waterfalls
Nice Tutorial !

Hi Orklord,

look at the Map "Heidelberg_crossings" ( British-Map), there you will see how Relic made a Waterfall.

Action markers are the Solution ;o))


Mappergreetings
-ernst-