Really weird problem about fluid surface

[Kiwen]

Hey guys i just follow the 3d buzz tutorial and made a simple fluid surface. The problem is: when i build the level and saw into the water, everything went fine, but if i went into the water or just shoot it or made anything interact with it, it disappeared! As u see below:

(sorry about the pictures' size)I went into the water, it disppeared(actually there are still edges around the water square, notice the red arrow), then i stopped, then it showed up again.
So, could anyone plz explain this horrible thing? Thanks in advance.

[Chosker]

typically when you interact with a fluid surface object that has a material that uses the FluidSurface's normalmap on it, it changes, because it's only on interaction that the FluidSurface's normalmap will get initialized
chances are, the way your material uses the FluidSurface's normalmap is wrong. to be sure, try removing it from your material and do some more tests

[Kiwen]

typically when you interact with a fluid surface object that has a material that uses the FluidSurface's normalmap on it, it changes, because it's only on interaction that the FluidSurface's normalmap will get initialized
chances are, the way your material uses the FluidSurface's normalmap is wrong. to be sure, try removing it from your material and do some more tests

I'm sorry but do u mean remove the connection between Fluid Normal and Normal in material editor? I grabbed a pic here:

I've tried but it didn't work , could u plz say it a little more detailed since i've just learned udk for a month...sorry for trouble.

[Kiwen]

Ah...nobody knows? Need help~~

[Chosker]

yes that's the material node I was talking about
what I'm trying to do first, is to actually see if that's what's causing the problem. if it is we'll then see how to remove it
but still finding out if that's the problem:
remove the connection between the FluidNormal node and the Normal output, and instead plug in something else to the Normal output: either a vector node with values (0, 0, 1) or a normal map texture
save your material, try again, post the results

[Kiwen]

yes that's the material node I was talking about
what I'm trying to do first, is to actually see if that's what's causing the problem. if it is we'll then see how to remove it
but still finding out if that's the problem:
remove the connection between the FluidNormal node and the Normal output, and instead plug in something else to the Normal output: either a vector node with values (0, 0, 1) or a normal map texture
save your material, try again, post the results

sorry but it seems i've got no luck on this, i've tried Constant3Vector and other normal map but the results are the same...btw i also used the water material offered by udk and it worked fine but it's just…too complex.So i still didn't figure it out now…

[Kiwen]

i sloved it!i fxxking sloved it!!well…this "Enable Simulation" checkbox under "Fluid" property tab trapped me for 48 hours…by default it is checked and in 3d buzz's tutorial it was also checked, so…i jus unchecked it and made everything go right. According to this "Enable Simulation"'s description, if i check it, the vertex positions in the simulation grid should be animated.Can anyone explain this? Thanks a lot.

[Chosker]

all in all the problem seems to be the same I was suggesting
if you disable the simulation it means the Fluid Normal won't be used. this means your FluidSurfaceActor will only animate and moves along its vertices, but will not generate a normalmap about it. this means the whole thing won't look nearly as good, specially if you're making it have a little amount of polygons

[Kiwen]

all in all the problem seems to be the same I was suggesting
if you disable the simulation it means the Fluid Normal won't be used. this means your FluidSurfaceActor will only animate and moves along its vertices, but will not generate a normalmap about it. this means the whole thing won't look nearly as good, specially if you're making it have a little amount of polygons

Thank u ! If i check this simulation on , is there anyway to also get this water effect? To be honest i'm a little bit confused here:
The FluidSurfaceActor would generate a normal map if i enable this simulation, and the Fluid Normal is also providing a Normal input for the material that attach to the actor, do u mean when these 2 normal map blend with each other then the fluid surface will disappear? But u said if i unchecked simulation then Fluid Normal won't be used and the FluidSurfaceActor will not generate a normalmap about vertices, then i lost both of them, where should i get the normal map information then?
Since now the differences are "worked" and "not worked" instead of "good" and "better".

[Chosker]

that's the weird part, how it goes from 'working' to 'not working at all'
indeed, if you disable simulation it won't generate a normalmap, but you can use your own on the material
if you enable simulation it does generate the normalmap, which is the FluidNormal, then it's up to you to be able to blend it together with your custom normalmaps (I think there's a way on UDN - materialsCompendum but I'm not sure)
but it's all weird because it doesn't work for you

I wonder though, why you have that much of a distortion
could you look at it in wireframe mode to confirm the actual geometry isn't being offset down to its own disappearance?

[Kiwen]

that's the weird part, how it goes from 'working' to 'not working at all'
indeed, if you disable simulation it won't generate a normalmap, but you can use your own on the material
if you enable simulation it does generate the normalmap, which is the FluidNormal, then it's up to you to be able to blend it together with your custom normalmaps (I think there's a way on UDN - materialsCompendum but I'm not sure)
but it's all weird because it doesn't work for you

I wonder though, why you have that much of a distortion
could you look at it in wireframe mode to confirm the actual geometry isn't being offset down to its own disappearance?

Sorry for my bad comprehension, i try to understand ur last sentence do u mean i put my FluidSurfaceActor into my floor? No i put it "far" away from the ground and u can check my original 2 pictures. Now i'm really wondering if this problem has any relationship with my hardware or udk settings because i was exactly following 3d buzz's video(his distortion is that big really)...so if i really cannot find a reasonable answer for it then i have to move on since there are too many other basics to learn first. But i really appreciate for ur help Chosker, thanks a lot.

[Chosker]

what I meant is that from your pictures it seems the FluidSurfaceActor is almost at floor level, or just a few centimeteres above the ground. but I might be wrong because I don't see it moving so I can't tell from that perspective.
so what I'm trying that you find out is, if the geometry is there but is invisible, or if the geometry is actually gone. try looking at it in wireframe mode (press F8 until you find the wireframe mode) and see if the polygons are stil there. that should lead us a little closer to the cause of the problem

[Kiwen]

what I meant is that from your pictures it seems the FluidSurfaceActor is almost at floor level, or just a few centimeteres above the ground. but I might be wrong because I don't see it moving so I can't tell from that perspective.
so what I'm trying that you find out is, if the geometry is there but is invisible, or if the geometry is actually gone. try looking at it in wireframe mode (press F8 until you find the wireframe mode) and see if the polygons are stil there. that should lead us a little closer to the cause of the problem

i 've tried but the only thing i see is a red square...what should i suppose to see? Many polygons damping when stand on water or?Here is the screenshot:

[Chosker]

is that before, or after it's gone invisible?

[Kiwen]

is that before, or after it's gone invisible?

Both...the same