Adding a Volume
1. Using the cube-shaped red builder brush, move and resize it
to completely cover the area you want to be water. Basically; everywhere
inside this cube will be water. In the image below, we've 'filled'
our pool with the brush, leaving a small rim at the top for realism.
2. Next, we simply need to add our volume. Simply right-click the
volume button, and click 'WaterVolume'.

The 'Add Volume' button.
Move the red builder brush away, and you should see a pink wireframe
cube, as below (Volumes can be hidden using the 'O' key; if no volume
appears, try hitting the 'O' key).

3. This water volume will be invisible in-game, so we obviously
need to make it look as if there is actually a liquid there. In
previous versions of unreal, this was done by adding a two-sided
translucent sheet brush (usually with a animated texture). In UnrealED
3.0 however, much more realistic liquid can be added using a FluidSurfaceInfo
actor; which is basically an occilating mesh. To add a FluidSurfaceInfo
actor, open your actor browser (Chess Peice button), expand 'Info'
by clicking the plus (+), and click once on FluidSurfaceInfo to
highlight it. Then, right-click the ground near your volume in your
3D view and select "Add FluidSurfaceInfo Here". You should
be left with something like below.

4. Next, we need to resize and configure the FluidSurfaceInfo to
fit our pool of water. Firstly, move the FluidSurfaceInfo over your
water volume in your 2D view, so that the FluidInfo actor is roughly
centered over the pool, and downward so that the mesh is pretty
much level with the top of the volume.
5. Double-click the FluidSurfaceInfo actor to open it's properties.
We need to change the following properties...

Skins - This changes the texture of your fluid. Firstly,
find the texture you want and click on it once to highlight it (A
good water texture is FinalWater1, located in the DefaultFluid package).
Back in the properties, click on 'Skins' then click the'Add' button.
Clock on the row [0] which appears, then click the'Use' button.
XSize / YSize - This is the size of our fluid. Change
these values until it just fits your pool.

Our pool of water is complete! Now we simply need to rebuild (Hit
F8) and test the map in-game (Remember to add a Player Start if
you need to). As you can imagine, volumes and FluidSurfaceInfo can
be very versatile, especially considering we've only just touched
on the basics, which brings us to the next section... |