Mirror Water
[Update 20090601: Added settings page setup]
Opensim and Second Life have no mirrors. Oracolo Janus found a way to tweak the Windlight parameters of water to get a near-mirror effect, which I’ve been using creatively.
(See my “Trompe l’oeil” set in Flickr for more examples)
I published Oracolo’s preset in my Flickr stream to help other people that wanted to try it, but Oracolo’s preset, as I published it, has two problems: 1) not everybody knows how to create an .xml file in Windows, and 2) this only works for Second Life, not for the Opensim-based grids (since it is using the UUID of the image, and this UUID can’t be the same on the Opensim grids). Therefore, I’m writing this step-by-step guide to install and use Oracolo’s original “Still Water” preset. This guide can be used both by Opensim and Second Life users.
Mirror Water – Step-by-step guide
1. Download the following image (the “normal map”) using your browser (Windows: right click on the image and select “Download image”). Rename the downloaded image “Mirror Water” (“Mirror Water.jpg” if you are showing file extensions — if you don’t know what this is, this doesn’t affect you).
2. Open your Second Life/Opensim client, and upload the image you just downloaded.
3. Now go to World -> Environment Settings -> Environment editor, a panel will appear, press the “Advanced water” button. You’ll get a panel similar to the following one.
4. Press the “New” button. You’ll be asked to enter a name. Enter a name you’ll remember (“Mirror water”, or “Still water”; in the example figure, it’s “StillWater”). Move all the sliders so that they show exactly the values shown in the image.
5. Now select the “Image” tab, and press the “Normal map” image. Select the image you uploaded in step 2 (i.e., “Mirror Water”). Move all the sliders so that they show exactly the same values as in the image.
6. Now press the “Save” button.
7. Go to “Edit -> Preferences -> Graphics”, check “Custom”, check all shaders, set “Reflection Detail” to “Everything”.
8. You’re done! Your “Advanced water” button (in World -> Environment Settings -> Environment Editor) will show a new preset called “Mirror Water” (or the name you’ve used in step 4). Enjoy!
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Flickr Photos
Zonja Capalini 
Thank you Zonja, for sharing this precious piece of knowledge. I was looking for a mirror in SL, now I have it.
Greetz, Jim
wonderful, I’ve been waiting for this for so long…. THANK YOU!!!
Jim, Eidur: Thanks! :-) All the merit should go to Oracolo Janus, who first informed me of this wonder and created the preset. I’m publishing it because I get a lot of inquiries about it, and many people are not comfortable managing .xml files. :-)
I am trying to do that.
Am thrilled.
/me waves to Mikil
I realized that the previous method I had published, based on an .xml file, was too difficult for most people :-)
[…] pictures I found the blog posting telling you how to make Linden water into a mirror surface (here https://zonjacapalini.wordpress.com/guides/mirror-water/) – a really amazing […]
thank you so much for sharing…. oh, talented one!!
[…] SLED post to discover blog entry which explains how to make the Linden water reflect like a mirror: https://zonjacapalini.wordpress.com/guides/mirror-water/. Was immediately bewitched since Infolit island looks v.v. cool, with all the trees, bays, hills […]
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My pleasure hvx :-)
Finally I followed up my original enquiry for more help and found this here. Thanks so much, this was easy to do.
Question..I did all these settings. And the water looks mirror. But how do you make a mirror for your house? I dont quite understand that part of it.
Hi Cmdr — you simply cannot. All the shots using this technique are done in the following way: the room is rotated 90 degrees so that one of the walls faces water, and the avatar is also rotated so that it appears to be ‘standing’ in the rotated room. Then the shots are taken from above :-)
Hi Zonja,
I read on your blog that read “I found the blog posting telling you how to make Linden water into a mirror surface”. But when I click on that link I didn’t find any information. Can you tell me where to find that blog posting, thanks in advance.
Well it’s that very same post in which you made the comment :-)
Hi Zpnja,
Sorry for the confusion. Actually my question is where to find and how to apply a “Liden Water” surface to something that I had made. Thanks in advance.
Oh, I see. You simply can’t apply water to a surface. The first shots you see here uses the following trick: the mirror *is* water, the avie is rotated, and the photo is taken “from above”. You can only count on “real” water giving you a mirror effect, and you have to adapt the rest of the photo accordingly.
So, in other words…. you build a room “around” the water, rotating it for whatever the circumstances of the picture are?
Exactly. In optical terms, I build the real room, rotated so that the “mirror” (which is nothing more than water) faces down (obviously, since that has to be water :)); then the virtual room is a reflection of the real room (as it should be, produced by the reflection in the water).
There’s another way to create reflections in SL, but it’s still more involved: you have to use two avatars and poses which are symmetrical, like in http://www.flickr.com/photos/zonja/2300035117/in/set-72157604137306864/ — here’s a video using this technique: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zonja/2525176986/in/set-72157605194470169/
This is more perfect than water reflections (the reflection mechanism of SL is poor, it performs erratically, and some objects flicker or disappear from the reflection), but regretfully it works only for poses, not for animations — unless you’re capable to get symmetrical and synched animations; this should not be difficult to build if you had the original .bvh files, but of course you don’t have them when the anims are commercial :-/
Tried this. Did not work for me, the slider settings do not get saved, nor does the new image get saved in the in the Env editor. Any ideas. I have made several attempts :(
Fran
If you are using Imprudence there seems to be a problem with saving new settings in water. contact me in world i have the setting i can pass you … it works that way.
Thanks for commenting, Gala! I was not aware of this problem in Imprudence myself.
Welcome…. and anyone who wants the setting is welcome to IM me inworld and I can pass it to them… It seems to work good that way (and saves you some time from going thru the set up yourself). :)
I am using the bog standard LL V1 browser, have sent Gala an IM anyway.
There is a bug in LL’s SL viewer 1 where the advanced water and sky settings are not being saved. The workaround for this, if you can, is to email me at francinebrnd@googlemail.com
with the following file
C:\Program Files\SecondLife\app_settings\windlight\water\whatever you called the setting.xml
e.g. C:\Program Files\SecondLife\app_settings\windlight\water\water_reflect.xml
This is only a 2kb file so email is np, zipped if u wish.
The file may be in a slightly differant place.
I put the file in, start SL and hopefully it will be there.
Fran
Thanks for this, it works great, my only issue is that the reflection looks very pixelly, but the avi on top of the water is very sharp, is this something I’m doing wrong ? my settings are the same as yours. Thanks.
Thank you :-) Afaik there’s nothing to do about that. Reflections are not perfect in SL — I assume this is by design. You’ll also notice that in certain circumstances some reflected objects flickr in and out of existence in the reflection; this is bad design, but it doesn’t seem that they are going to fix it.
[…] this super nifty tutorial for making reflective water in Second Life. I followed the directions posted here by Zonja Capalini, and wonder of all wonders- it […]
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WOOT! i followed the instructions in Inworldz and this is the result. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wizzy_gynoid/6920476650/in/photostream
Yay! Cool that it worked for you :)
[…] night, Chestnut Rau led me, by way of Whiskey Day to a year-old post from Zonja Capalini on using Linden Water as a mirror. As old as the post may be, it has considerable relevance given how LL and TPVs are striving to […]
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we have that down, it s so very cool! is there a way to make a standing mirror using that effect?
[…] Janus and documented (as his blog is now no longer available due to the closure of My Opera) by Zonja Capalini. I found Zonja’s tutorial through Inara Pey, who had often used it in the past to great […]
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I know this post is a gazillion years old, but thank you so much for this!
You’re very welcome :) It’s great that after so much time has passed this article still helps people like you…
Just saw this fossil xD
Any updates to the procedure for new FS EEP viewers?
Thanks so much ❤
Sorry, I seldom log in any more, and I’m not up to date with the latest viewers… :/