Hey! I've just checked your profile on gaymeboys and I don't think that we ever met IRL, I was in Lausanne only during 2007-2013. I was an active member of plan-queer (the LGBT group on the unil/epfl campus). I mean... "active" :-P
I've never really tried anything with unreal. So far I only used unity (i think it's somewhat friendlier to newcomer). It's possible to make a reflective surface: apparently, you can take the standard bit of code in C# that deals with a water surface and remove some of the effects (to have a "still" water surface) -- but I don't really understand how any of this works xD (I guess I would not bother and just buy one... I've discovered that's, er, a way to solve a lot of problems in game development)
Ahahah browsing mmoboys is a great time-waster ^_^ It's a bit like ImaginaryGayBoners.
I wish I had found your book when I was still in Vienna, I was always looking for gay-themed sci-fi um mein Deutsch zu üben ;-) (There is a gay book shop in Vienna called Löwenherz next to a gay Café (Café Berg) I spent *a lot* of time there ^^ That's basically where I wrote my phd thesis too