A FEW WORDS TO BEGIN WITH

This was going to be the big graphical change in Kingpin. In the demo you saw the super looking reflective bike. But I read somewhere that there was some compatibility problem with that so in the full version the reflecting bike was gone. 

But in a few places reflections have been preserved. One place are the weapons - there are many custom weapon skins which are chromed and look cool. 

But anyway, in the game you can also find normal textures which show slight reflective qualities. This is done using reflection maps. They are located in the 'env' directory along with the environment maps. So just like env maps are named in the format skyname + direction, the reflection maps are named skyname + 'winrefl'. So if the skies of skid row are 'srrt',' srlf' etc. the reflection map would be 'srwinrefl'. Now the simplest reason why most people don't know this because the actual reflection map of skid row is practically not visible if the map isn't pitch dark. The easiest way to see some results is to change the sky to 'pv' or 'ty'. There are basically three refl maps in the game so it don't matter much cause....you can put your own:) I recommend taking one from games like SoF or Quake 3.

MAKING YOUR OWN

Now this is real simple. You have a choice between two intensities of reflection. They are applied in the brush's surface properties - just click on window33 or window66 like you would make transparent stuff. The only other thing which is required is putting the right sky in the worldspawn entity. This is where people should at last stop using that boring old default sky...

Now as far as lighting is concerned the darker your map is the better you will see your reflection map. That makes a white reflection map look really crap on a brush which is dark...especially if the texture is also not well chosen.

Reflections look best on:
- Metals (mostly simple or no pattern)
- Non-transparent glass (it doesn't work otherwise)
- On mainly large tile marble floors or walls

TRICK OR NO TRICK

You will rarely succeed in tricking it completely in search of something different. You can't have reflecting entities. Warping water is also out of the question although still water may work. No trans33 or trans66 surfaces as I mentioned earlier. The only thing that worked to some extent is making a normal alpha texture reflective but with one down side : you can't see any other entities through it so it would only be useful at the edge of maps or something. You can even try to create reflecting glass by applying the ever helpful 'alfa' texture which is invisible (or black). 

I'm going to continue to explore different things and if I find something useful I will update this tutorial.

Suggestions and comments, etc. to :
oggie_k@yahoo.com