waterfalls for in-game

zbrush_newbie · Mar 2013

Hi

Has anyone come across a good way of making waterfalls in maya for in game use. I`m using the tried and tested method of lofting across a few splines that run over the rocks and then scrolling uv`s but its tedious work when you have about 20-30 waterfalls to do.
I can use some particles but not many , just thinking if there is another quicker way?

Thanks

Eric Chadwick · Mar 2013

Look at how other games do it. Typically they make a couple fixed-size waterfall meshes (short falls, wide falls, tall falls), arrange the rocks around it, add the bottom spray particles, put some rocks up top to hide the scrolling end, then save all those pieces as a group (a prefab) to reuse again and again.

For example
http://www.youtube.com/v/aVVAC5SMSag

haiddasalami · Mar 2013

Best example to check out is Skyrim's waterfalls. They use pretty much the same method Eric mentioned. You might be able to add some particles to the mesh depending on the type of waterfall you're going for.

zbrush_newbie · Mar 2013

ok thanks. Actually i`m trying to create a scene with something like 30 very high waterfalls cascading down a rock face that are in the distance. url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&docid=nGikzFQKyVGk_M&tbnid=joaMi4PFN9y3FM:&ved=0CAUQjBwwADgW&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbp3.blogger.com%2F_cAj7__5oWfk%2FSIZgGX8aF-I%2FAAAAAAAAAEU%2Fjk5BqJYthe4%2Fs400%2Figuacu%2Bfalls%2B1.jpg&ei=1x06UeLtJIXi8gTy_YDoBw&psig=AFQjCNE2u9sx_TE598GGnSTbgiTB06966g&ust=1362849623633478

url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&docid=nGikzFQKyVGk_M&tbnid=joaMi4PFN9y3FM:&ved=0CAUQjBwwADgW&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbp3.blogger.com%2F_cAj7__5oWfk%2FSIZgGX8aF-I%2FAAAAAAAAAEU%2Fjk5BqJYthe4%2Fs400%2Figuacu%2Bfalls%2B1.jpg&ei=1x06UeLtJIXi8gTy_YDoBw&psig=AFQjCNE2u9sx_TE598GGnSTbgiTB06966g&ust=1362849623633478

I`ve found i can use a shrinkwrap plugin for maya to snap the waterfalls to the rocks individually. so its not so painful, just have to copy and paste each waterfall and manually adjust it to the rocks structure.

Eric Chadwick · Mar 2013

Reminds me of a map in Panzar: Forged By Chaos, made with CryEngine 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=n5t0LPLS_GU#t=20s

passerby · Mar 2013

you can make just 2 other 3 different ones, and scale them and arrange the rocks around them differently. for variations.

Isaac_Newbton · Mar 2013

check out the falls in Skyrim, they are just a bunch of square particles. you can also do a very long plane with animated texture and alpha.

waterfalls for in-game

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