Section 4 - Creating Water

1. In the PLAN VIEW left click once on the black area representing the door opening. Notice in the EDITOR WINDOW that the ledge is selected but you have an opening through to the bottom room so there are no selected squares in the portal where you want to place water textures.

2. With the portal selected (in PLAN VIEW there will be a green selection line around the black portal area), click on the TOGGLE OPACITY 2 button beneath the EDITOR WINDOW. The entire opening now appears selected and you can see the squares in the portal area.

3. Turn on the TRANSPARENT and DOUBLE SIDED buttons located beneath the EDITOR WINDOW. If the TRANSPARENT button is not turned on, your water will not look like water. If DOUBLE SIDED is not on, you won’t see water textures when you are in the water looking up towards the surface.

4. Scroll down to the water textures on the TEXTURE PANEL. Select the first texture in the group of eight. Do not forget to turn on the FACE EDIT button.

5. Apply the texture to the surface of your water (not the ledge, even though it is red). If everything is working properly, you should now see a square of transparent water and the room below it. Apply water textures to the rest of the water surface.

TIP: It is best to use ALL the textures from the group of eight water textures and apply them randomly. If you use only one of the textures, all your water squares will animate on the same cycle and your water will look less convincing.

6. The animation range for the water textures should already be set, but you should check it just to become familiar with this function, since you will have to do this once you strike out on your own! At the bottom of the TEXTURE PANEL, click on the ANIMATION RANGES button. This will bring up a window with all the textures. The water textures should have a green line around them. If not, select them and click okay. If the animation range is not set, the water will not be animated!

7. If you haven’t already done so, in the room above the water room, you can click on the “R” button located next to the “W” button of the Room Edit buttons. This sets the amount of reflectivity from the water onto the walls above the water room.

8. For the final touch, in your water room, “Stack Pool X”, set the ambient light to 0,52,100 to give your water a more bluish cast!

Creating the Water Tunnel Exit from the Stacked Rooms

You need a water passageway connecting the water room with the next series of rooms you will soon build. Real world physics don’t apply to water in Lara’s world. Water will NOT try to seek an equal level!

Refer to the demo model “Halls 3 and 4” to get an idea of how to construct the passage leading out of the pool at the bottom of the Stacked Rooms. “Hall 4” is 20 clicks in height and has a rounded bottom. If its construction looks intimidating, either copy and paste it from the demo model, or just make it a straight hall, keeping the ceiling elevation at –16. Remember to press the “W” button (from the Room Edit buttons) to assign water characteristics.

“Hall 3” is a small connecting room between “Stack Pool” and “Hall 4”. It also needs to be designated a water room. Place a door (Door_Type4) here to prevent Lara from exiting the Stacked Rooms until she has picked up the first puzzle piece you will soon place there. In other words, you will set up the game play using special triggers so that players will not be allowed to nearly finish the level then discover they must backtrack in search of a missing puzzle piece!