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- Mar 2, 2008
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- 180
Easy Waterfalls
Do you like waterfalls?
I sure do, but Warcraft 3's terrain doesn't allow a great deal of complexity. So, we must resort to trickery. You may now be thinking: "omg haxx lol". There will be none of that. This is a quick, easy way of making a waterfall, that won't involve anything complicated.
NOTE:Height adjustment is your friend. It'll be very important in the positioning of doodads. Just press control-pageup/down to move it. For us laptoppers, it's function-control-up/down arrow.
To start with...
We need to set up the actual terrain upon which we will create our waterfall. For the purpose of this tutorial, I'm going to use a difference of 2 between the two levels of terrain. You can use less, or more distance as you see fit.
Yes, it's ugly, but that's not the focus, here.
Now, we need rocks.
Despite its somewhat lacking terrain engine, Warcraft 3 has some very impressive options with its doodads, allowing workarounds such as this (you could make a waterfall upside-down if you wanted to).
But back to the rocks. They'll form pretty much the entire cliff face for our waterfall, eschewing a simple flat wall, with a lump in it. However, we run into a minor problem. The rocks require a certain amount of spacing in between them. This won't do!
So, open the object editor, and in the doodads tab, find the desired rocks, and create a custom version. Select the "Pathing - Pathing Texture" option. We'll need something with no collision, so let's go to "doodads" in the drop down menu, and select "Vines Thorny...".
Now, let's take our new doodad, and apply it liberally to the cliff face (ensure that all the randomness options are on, for best effect).
But don't waterfalls have water?... Falling?
An astute observation! The next step is quite simple: placing the waterfall doodads, which can be found in the water tab of the doodads palette. Only having one colour, though, it looks out of place in some tilesets.
Though the basic idea of this step is quite simple, the execution can be the object of your attention for quite a while. Using different sizes, you can get a real sense of flow between the rocks you've placed. You needn't completely cover the cliff!
But it's so lifeless!
Then let there be life! Using all the various plants Blizzard has so kindly left at our disposal, we can add that extra bit of detail to the scene. Be sure to make use of floating plants as well. In mine, I added a couple of rocks near the base of the waterfall for a bit of asymmetry, making it look somewhat more natural.
And there we have it!
That's fairly complete, but you don't have to stop there. If you're going for a bigger, faster waterfall, try using the "Bubbles Steam" water doodad. Its steam effect is very similar to the spray that a waterfall might create. Or, you could add a wrecked boat at the base for a little accent, or some fish. Get creative, and add your own personal touch.
Happy terraining!
Do you like waterfalls?
I sure do, but Warcraft 3's terrain doesn't allow a great deal of complexity. So, we must resort to trickery. You may now be thinking: "omg haxx lol". There will be none of that. This is a quick, easy way of making a waterfall, that won't involve anything complicated.
NOTE:Height adjustment is your friend. It'll be very important in the positioning of doodads. Just press control-pageup/down to move it. For us laptoppers, it's function-control-up/down arrow.
To start with...
We need to set up the actual terrain upon which we will create our waterfall. For the purpose of this tutorial, I'm going to use a difference of 2 between the two levels of terrain. You can use less, or more distance as you see fit.
Yes, it's ugly, but that's not the focus, here.
Now, we need rocks.
Despite its somewhat lacking terrain engine, Warcraft 3 has some very impressive options with its doodads, allowing workarounds such as this (you could make a waterfall upside-down if you wanted to).
But back to the rocks. They'll form pretty much the entire cliff face for our waterfall, eschewing a simple flat wall, with a lump in it. However, we run into a minor problem. The rocks require a certain amount of spacing in between them. This won't do!
So, open the object editor, and in the doodads tab, find the desired rocks, and create a custom version. Select the "Pathing - Pathing Texture" option. We'll need something with no collision, so let's go to "doodads" in the drop down menu, and select "Vines Thorny...".
Now, let's take our new doodad, and apply it liberally to the cliff face (ensure that all the randomness options are on, for best effect).
But don't waterfalls have water?... Falling?
An astute observation! The next step is quite simple: placing the waterfall doodads, which can be found in the water tab of the doodads palette. Only having one colour, though, it looks out of place in some tilesets.
Though the basic idea of this step is quite simple, the execution can be the object of your attention for quite a while. Using different sizes, you can get a real sense of flow between the rocks you've placed. You needn't completely cover the cliff!
But it's so lifeless!
Then let there be life! Using all the various plants Blizzard has so kindly left at our disposal, we can add that extra bit of detail to the scene. Be sure to make use of floating plants as well. In mine, I added a couple of rocks near the base of the waterfall for a bit of asymmetry, making it look somewhat more natural.
And there we have it!
That's fairly complete, but you don't have to stop there. If you're going for a bigger, faster waterfall, try using the "Bubbles Steam" water doodad. Its steam effect is very similar to the spray that a waterfall might create. Or, you could add a wrecked boat at the base for a little accent, or some fish. Get creative, and add your own personal touch.
Happy terraining!
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