Reflective and Mirrored Surfaces
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Tomasz 'Millennium' Jachimczak
tomasz@planetunreal.com

Forward:
This is the third tutorial that I have done, so I guess I still have a hellova lot of work to do :)

Abstract:
This is a reasonably small tutorial (well at least I think it will be) that will show you how to make a surface reflectiveP> 

Assumptions:
I am only assuming that you already know how to create a wall, floor, roof or anything that has a texture and can follow instructions... :) 

Tutorial:
Introduction:
The first thing to decide is where you will have reflective surfaces. I mean, you CAN have them everywhere, but there are a few guidelines to placing mirrors and reflective surfaces. These are simply here to make your level playable on something that does not resemble NASA and so that you will actually be able to see (I will explain this later) 

Where to put Reflective Surfaces:
1. Mirrors are generally best placed on walls, as this means that anyone passing them !Should! see themselves. 
2. Partly Reflective surfaces (not mirrors, but say a marble floor with a high polish) seem to look best when they are used as a floor, as this gives a beautiful effect of reflectiveness - but not a mirror (have you ever seen a mirror on the ground?) 
3. When placing mirrors, make sure you don't place them ALL around a single area with lights in it, as they will all reflect the light, thus amplifying the light to a ridiculas level and generally SLOWING that section of the map to a ridiculas speed (completely unplayable on everything but NASA). 
4. Mirrors and reflective surfaces unfortunatley WILL slow your level down, so I would suggest that you use them sparingly - mainly for eyecandy - rather then using this as a main playing feature. :) 

 
Full Mirrors:
To create a full mirror on a surface, select the surface and go into Surface properties (Right Clicking). Now check the boxes "Mirror" and "Unlit". 
1. "Mirror" will turn the texture into a mirror (Duh!) but this will also cause it to be uneffected by the lights around it, which means that it will be a black surface until something like a Blaster (the first gun, just in case...) is set off next to it. Then and ONLY then will it actually show up as a mirror to the light generated from the blast :( 
2. "Unlit" will make normal lighting effect the surface. I mean, if you have a nicely lit room, the mirror will look like a normal mirror... :) 



Partly Reflective Surfaces:
Now we are talking floors, polished surfaces and dirty mirrors (the cool stuff that is...). Simply follow the same steps as above, but this time ALSO check the "Translucent" box under the Surface Properties. This will make the surface act like a mirror, but also allow you to see the texture that the surface is drawn with. This works VERY well for floor using the "marble" textures. 


Additional Notes on mirrors:
Mirrors will not show up until you are in the actual game - I mean they will not show up as mirrors when looking through the 3D veiw of the editor... Don't worry this is perfectly normal and is there to make your editing life easier. As I said before, mirrors and partly reflective surfaces are best used sparingly, as they DO! Slow down the gameplay. 
