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that impressive liquid shader from Half-Life: Alyx has seemingly inspired various devs to create their own versions

Arthands

Arthands

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
8,039
Somewhere late last month, Valve released an update for Half-Life: Alyx which set the benchmark of liquid shader for video game.

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Since the update, various youtubers has go in depth into the game to examine the effect, and needless to say it is rather impressive. The fluid shader includes foam and bubble when you shake them, just like in real life, and also behave differently depending on the liquid (eg oil and liquor). The translucency and the light casting, every factor has been catered for and implemented.

www.youtube.com

Half-Life Alyx Update - The Booze Shader

Half-Life Alyx V1.4 introduces a booze shader, so that bottles of alcohol and kegs of water slosh about convincingly. BUT IT'S ALL AN ILLUSION!0:00 - Booze1:...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com

New Bottle Liquid Physics - Half-Life: Alyx

The new update came out and it had an unexpected feature!Music: https://youtu.be/Z-_TSTy0H78Go support their content ^^^
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com

Half-Life:Alyx Liquid Physics

www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com

Half-Life: Alyx Bottled Liquid Physics

'Bottles now appear to have liquid inside them that sloshes around as you shake them.' ----Half-Life: Alyx Update 1.4
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

Since then, various devs has challenge themselves to create one of their own after checking out the effect. Of course they ain't as realistic, but its interesting to see how this game has helped inspire the devs to improve their skill this way.




There are lots more, but I couldn't really link here as there is a limit.
 
Lant_War

Lant_War

Classic Anus Game
Banned
Jul 14, 2018
23,601
Might be because of it being showcased on a proper environment but the Alyx one still looks the best.
 
low-G

low-G

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,144
The funny thing is on my first run through Alyx, before they added that effect, I looked at the bottles, expecting something and was kind of disappointed.

Probably was influenced by the fact that the game prompts you to use bottles often.
 
Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

Banned
Apr 25, 2020
3,418
We should go back to being impressed with liquid visuals. I remember way back in the day shortly before Bioshock first came out, people couldn't believe what they were seeing with the water effects. And they are still good to this day.
 
Zaimokuza

Zaimokuza

Member
May 14, 2020
961
I understand that this shader isn't particularly taxing in performance, right? Could we see some version of it in most next-gen games, now that developers have learned this trick or am I missing something?
 
Gestault

Gestault

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,404
Zaimokuza said:
I understand that this shader isn't particularly taxing in performance, right? Could we see some version of it in most next-gen games, now that developers have learned this trick or am I missing something?
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It's feasible current-gen as well. I think the first commercial game I was aware of that used an similar version of it was Sea of Thieves, which still runs beautifully on a base Xbox One.
 
Zaimokuza

Zaimokuza

Member
May 14, 2020
961
Gestault said:
It's feasible current-gen as well. I think the first commercial game I was aware of that used an similar version of it was Sea of Thieves, which still runs beautifully on a base Xbox One.
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Yeah, I said next-gen because it's starting soon, but what I meant to ask is if this feature is easy to add and with (almost) no impact on performance
 
Ionic

Ionic

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,735
Valve needs to have at least a dozen full time developers who only add interesting tiny visual flourishes like this to games.
 
ILikeFeet

ILikeFeet

DF Deet Master
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
61,987
Zaimokuza said:
I understand that this shader isn't particularly taxing in performance, right? Could we see some version of it in most next-gen games, now that developers have learned this trick or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
from what I seen it's not a "new" trick, just one devs didn't do. probably out of lack of necessity. the fact that many people were able to replicate it in various engines in a small amount of time tells me this isn't particularly arcane
 

Deleted member 8468

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
9,109
I love when some random thing grabs people's attention like this. Especially when it's based on a clever solution rather than an actual advancement in tech.
 
Team_Feisar

Team_Feisar

Member
Jan 16, 2018
5,355
ILikeFeet said:
from what I seen it's not a "new" trick, just one devs didn't do. probably out of lack of necessity. the fact that many people were able to replicate it in various engines in a small amount of time tells me this isn't particularly arcane
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Yup, i guess this kind of water-in-a-bottle-shader only makes sense in a VR-Game, where you are up close with the bottles and can manipulate them directly.

And Yakuza.
 
Hibiki

Hibiki

The Wise Ones
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,105
This is really cool. I love seeing people replicate stuff from games and it always inspires myself. There's a youtube channel (Mix and Jam) that's dedicated to replicating features from games such as Kratos's axe throw from God of War and Noctis's warp strike from Final Fantasy XV. Really cool stuff!
 
ILikeFeet

ILikeFeet

DF Deet Master
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
61,987
Flousn said:
Yup, i guess this kind of water-in-a-bottle-shader only makes sense in a VR-Game, where you are up close with the bottles and can manipulate them directly.

And Yakuza.
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and games where you can inspect items. would be great for an immersive sim since you can literally pour out fluids and change the states of the bottles. or pouring alcohol on the floor and setting it on fire as a trap
 
Fezan

Fezan

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,274
this looks very impressive. I remember being impresses by TLOU Molotov having physics for liquids
 
shnitzel

shnitzel

Member
Dec 3, 2017
733
I just played through Metro Exodus and it has something similar, altough not as good and only in glasses if i remember right.
 

nitewulf

Member
Nov 29, 2017
7,208
This is really cool, now games with telekinetic abilities (Control 2?) can have the protagonist shape liquid weapons and projectiles on the go. Come to think of it, more games should have Jedi type powers in general.
 
Black_Stride

Black_Stride

Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
7,390
Alexandros said:
It's so cool that a Half-Life game is still pushing technology forward. It feels fitting.
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Its always nice when a game comes out that gives devs a kick in the butt to do better.
These cheap liquid effects of which so many artists have come up with their own take should feature more prominently.

TLOU2 motion matching likely going to be included in more third person games.

Cyberpunks civilian simulation likely to drive other open world games to do better.
 
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