Water Texture

[Androo]

Hey guys,

I modded the original water texture to more suit what I want for a particular kind of river seen in summer light. Here are the before and after pics. I also modded the sky a bit, but that is a lot more subtle. I'll upload the water over the weekend just in case someone else wants it as an alternate.

[Jaguar]

Nice. :) You can also find tons of new sky textures and also some new water textures in the download section. Check under mods, miscellaneous.

[Androo]

Thanks. :) Yes, I am definitely going to d/l some of those sky textures. They are tremendous, completely changing the whole mood of the game.

[Topo]

Nice work, but the water appear a bit too dark for me...

Saluti :)

[Androo]

Roger, Topo.

The work that was done on the night mod did show that different monitors and set-ups do produce very different levels of brightness. For some people the mod was ok, for others it was pitch black.

Having said that, you may be right about this texture. I wanted water which appeared deep and clear. To get that effect it needed to be very dark in some places. On the other hand, where water is thin or is reflecting, ie the tops of waves, it should be bright. This texture has the greatest contrast between light and dark areas I could achieve without actually painting the tops of each wave individually. I plan on doing that some time in the future, actually making a sort-of template, and then I will be able to brighten the texture up and also do different reflective effects.

Thanks for the comments- constructive criticism is always helpful!

Cheers :)

[Androo]

Yup, it was definitely too dark. Version 1.1 below. (Probably more like 0.01 :P ) It will do me for now, though it probably still needs a bit of tuning. If anybody wants it, PM me with your email and I will zip to ya.

[Jaguar]

I think for a river there is too much blue in it. Here is what I came up for some time ago.

Btw, you don't need to send people files by email. You can either post attachements in the forums like you do with screen shots, or upload your file in the download section.

[Androo]

For me there is too much green in that river... I guess it is a matter of personal taste! :P

Now it is important to note the very different light conditions in the two screenshots: mine was taken in the middle of the day, yours at sunset. It is kind of like comparing apples and oranges... My river might be too blue for sunset; and it definitely would be too bright.

Also, even seen at the same time of day, rivers come in many colours of course! The blue river, seen in daylight, which I am trying to depict is one with clear, deep water. I would say that your river is one with a fair amount of grey silt or mud in it. In the city I grew up in on the prairies of Canada, there are two rivers and they are both very muddy and brown....etc. etc.

I knew about uploading stuff to the downloads section, but not about putting it in attachments here- thanks for the tip.

Sort-of the type of river I had in mind:

[congo]

Androo,

You are absolutely correst about water colors being a personal preference. Most of the blues we see is reflected light from the sky. Here in the Mid-Atlantic states the water looks green to brown probably because of the haze layer, anyway this is the color I usefor the rivers and such my stream colors are more towards the brown.

[Androo]

Roger Congo.

Yeah I think about 50% of the colour of water is reflection and about 50% is what is in the water itself, silt, algae etc. But I also think that the water which is purest has a very faint blue / turquoise colour to it if light passes through enough of it (ie if it is deep). I don't know why that would be and I don't know it for a fact, but it's my impression... For instance, in that photo above, that river (in the Rockies) would have a similar colour even on an overcast day. (I'll see if I can find a photo to back that up, but it's difficult because all the tour ads feature sunny days. :lol: ) I don't know why blue... could be minerals in the water. Yeah, maybe it is minerals: I'm familiar with a river in Yorkshire which is very pure and clear, but in its deeper places has a definite brownish / rust tint to it, even under a blue sky.

So anyway, there is almost no right or wrong, I think. I like your water and, despite what I said about it being too green (sorry Jaguar :P), I like Jaguar's too; I'll definitely be using 'em for different rivers and different times of day.

I spent way too much time last night trying to get the sim to accept the "stream" tile, a .tga file complete with alpha, as the "water" tile, with the idea that maybe we could have transparent or semi-transparent water. But no go. I haven't given up yet, but really don't have much experience working with .tga and .dds files. Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions? (Yeah, pure eye candy, I know, but I think it would help with immersion. Pun intended. :P )

[Jaguar]

Well Androo, your pic above certainly has a lot of blue in it. I can't remember seeing anything like that. :shock: Rivers around here normally have a greyish-brown colour. Rivers in Western Europe normally look about the same.

Looking forward for more work from you! :)

[Androo]

Rivers around here normally have a greyish-brown colour. Rivers in Western Europe normally look about the same....Yup, absolutely.

The photo is of a Rocky mountain river. There are thousands of them. It is close to its source and would be the product of melting snow and glaciers. Some North American breweries advertise that their beers are brewed with this kind of water because of its purity. (The only problem is, sometimes their beers don't have any more flavour than water. :lol:) As the river pictured above flows closer and closer to the ocean I am sure it will pick up more and more particles, natural and man-made, and it will change colour.

I don't know it for a fact, but I am guessing that there are many, many rivers in Scandinavia and Finland and close to the Alps that look a lot like that one in the photo. One example I can think of is Lake Lucerne and the Reuss river which flows into it, which are famous for their clear blue / turquoise waters.

...Looking forward for more work from you! :) Cheers mate, I appreciate the encouragement. I know I've got a lot to learn!

[Topo]

I like the contrast in your watermod V. 1.1; if it's possible a version with less blue and a bit of green, for me it's perfect!
...just my opinion.

Saluti

[congo]

The brownish rust color you refer to is caused by tanin in the water that is quite common in the south because of all the oak leaves in the water.

[Androo]

Topo

I'm afraid that 1.1 is about as far as I will be taking it right now, though there are lots if things I would like to do with water textures in the future. Ya know, altering .jpg terrain textures is about the easiest kind of modding there is. If I can do it, anyone can. All you need is a basic graphics or photo editing program. I just use Microsoft Picture It, which came bundled with XP. Have a go yourself! It is a lot of fun and it is really satisfying to see a texture in the sim which you think improves the look of it and think "I did that".

The brownish rust color you refer to is caused by tanin in the water that is quite common in the south because of all the oak leaves in the water. Interesting. That makes perfect sense: the river I was talking about runs through a small forest with many oaks.

If you did a water texture of it I bet a lot of people would say 'that isn't realistic, water doesn't have those rust / brown tones'. I think a lot of people, spending most of their lives in cities, really have no idea of the incredible variety to nature. For instance, I believe the Canadian Inuit have different names for fifty different kinds of snow...

I've got about a dozen total landscape mods in mind, to try and depict different light and climate conditions. I'm getting so into this I have to keep reminding myself to make time to write and play some missions... :P

[Jaguar]

I'm getting so into this I have to keep reminding myself to make time to write and play some missions... :P
Oh yes, it's sooo easy to get lost once you start modding. As a matter of fact, I haven't played much for the last couple of weeks because of modding :shock: .....

[Androo]

Yeah Jaguar, it is actually kind of addictive, isn't it? Once you change one thing, you get ideas for a couple of other things...