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Feeding water to Hydro Dams

Started by Unassigned, June 08, 2008, 02:52:06 AM

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Unassigned

So I decided to use nothing but clean power on some city tiles but stick to fairly realistic (IMO) power sources. One such source is the hydro dam, very attractive @ 5GW per plop and negligible environmental impact.

As my terraforming skills are execrable (I'll get better with time!) I wanted to place the hydro dams and the water which goes with them with minimal terraforming. It was unavoidable to flatten terrain where the dams would be placed and also for reservoir lakes...which were kept small and then fed by water rushing down from the mountains.

The first try, the Schnabelträger Dam, named after the local mayor:


The rivers1are made using "JRJ Water Drop" from the jeronij's Rural Culvert and Water Effects set. These Water Drops can be placed without first flattening the terrain, and the water flow follows the land, conveniently eliminating risk of making rivers which go uphill. A few tiles have been flattened at the middle of the topmost branch in the pic.

Next, on another tile, the water flows for almost half a large tile's length before it reaches the reservoir.


I am particularly happy with the way the water foams and churns when it hits the reservoir.


A lot of JRJ water Drops were used to feed water to these dams...way too many (as discussed here). I have to lose most of these Water Drops and would like comments, suggestions, input as to how I could keep the feel of these streams or perhaps even make them more realistic.

At the moment I'm concerned about getting the water right, adding vegetation and other eye-candyfying is for later.


(1)Would "rivers" be the appropriate English term for such streams?
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klaascornelis

Well they say you have to run a fast processor to use the waterdrop.
In real time its i think more realistic to flatten out the terrain a little bit. Thats what a river does with land right? It carves his way the sea  :P

You should also take a look here:

Very nice tutorial with a lot of images
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=46.0

And heres something that i made a wile a go. The idea behind this is that the watersource is in fact in the mountain in caves




Ennedi

#2
Creating rapids and waterfalls is a job for very patient people  :), but results can be worth of all this work.
A few advices:

1. You can use two kinds of lots creating a waterfall effect: Jeronij's Water Drop and Wave3 Freestream MOd available on STEX. These lots work in different ways.
1.1. Wave3 Freestream Mod produces more foam and it's distance is not limited. It flows downhill till it meets ingame water or (enough big) terrain depression.
You can use only a few of Wave3 lots to create a nice looking waterfall or long rapids, so using it is not too hard for most CPUs (although it's a resource-consuming effect!)
But if you want to stop the white stream on the land, you must create a cavity at the bottom of your waterfall.
Waterfalls and rapids created using Wave3 Freestream Mod look better if you set "Visual Effects" to "middle" in game graphic options.
Here is a little waterfall:

Visual effects set to middle:


Visual effects set to high:


Looking at the picture above you can see two interesting things:
- Foam producing lots are visible, there are three of them and it is enough to create a nice looking waterfall. Even a large one usually doesn't need more than 5. The best position for Wave3 lots should be adjusted during the trials and errors process (not necessary all lots at the top!  :))
- You can see a whirlpool in the cavity at the bottom of the waterfall. This way we stop the stream Creating such cavity also needs a few experiments.
Now look at the cavity:


Looking from the bigger distance we can also see a canyon carved in the moraine to direct our waterfall when we want. There is an important principle: Steeper slope = more problems with controlling the stream and deeper canyon is needed. So try to avoid steep slopes, you can always feel a steepness illusion having the waterfall in the fron of you.


1.2. Jeronij's Water Drop produces a smaller amount of foam. It's distance is limited. It is much more useful for smaller streams and rapids.
It needs Visual Effects set to High. So it's not a good idea to use it together with Wave3 lots in one city.

Here are examples of the stream where Water Drops were used:

Frontal view (an illusion of steepness which I said about earlier). As you see we don't need to use any special methods to stop the stream, even on a slope.


A view from the top (look carefully at the terraforming and the way it is used to control the stream)


...And the view from the side (here you can see the real steepness). Most of the stream is hidden in the canyon, it is necessary at such slope.


Now a closeup, you can see how stones and plants were used to hide foam splashes outside of the stream. In fact the graphical representation of foam is very primitive, includes straight lines and we must work not only with terraforming, but also with background and foreground.




2. You don't need to create a continous stretch of white foam on the relatively flat surface. You can use (for example) Jeronij's TPW (Transparent Ploppable Water) and make some rapids. This way you will not be forced to use too many Water Drop lots.





3. The first step to success is careful terraforming. The stream bed can be less or more steep, but it must be soft. Curves should be soft too. The stream bed's depth depends on the slope steepnes. Bigger angle = deeper canyon and more problems.
It is possible some white foam will be visible outside of your stream. Use stones and trees to hide it.

If you have any further questions, please ask!

Adam

Edit: You can see more waterfalls and streams pictures in my MD (Shosaloza) - updates 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 14.
New Horizons Productions
Berethor - beskhu3epnm - blade2k5 - dmscopio - dedgren - Emilin - Ennedi
jplumbley - moganite - M4346 - nichter85 - papab2000 - Shadow Assassin - Tarkus - wouanagaine

Pat

I will have to get back here later for sure... I do have something in the works with the waterfalls as in such in my MD... I am currently trying to see how a modified version of the Wave 3 free flowing stream mod works well in a full plugins.... Wave 3 is on the stex and Im sorry I dont have the link handy now as Im working - pat

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Unassigned

Here's a link to the Wave3 FreeFlowing Stream Mod.

So far I used it to redo the water source for the 2nd, still unnamed Hydro Dam. I'll add to Ennedi's advice by saying the water flows most forcefully when the sim is running - I just spent 1½ hour attempting to gracefully terraform a slight bump away with the game paused, uneccesarily as it turned out. This is what I got when I ran the sim:


Only one Wave3 lot is used.

Thanks to all who commented both in this thread and the one I linked above. I have a feeling more questions will pop up later, from me or others.

And Ennedi, may I call it the Adam Dam?
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klaascornelis

Thanks for the tip  on wave 3, I'm defenetly going to try that one on following creations.

Ennedi

@Unassigned: I'm very glad my advices were useful!
Your stream looks really good, now you can think about it's sides arrangement (and of course the rest of this nice terrain! :))

Quote from: Unassigned on June 08, 2008, 09:57:33 AM
And Ennedi, may I call it the Adam Dam?

Hmmm... :-\ OK, it will be a pleasure!  ;D
(but the work and idea are yours! :thumbsup:)
New Horizons Productions
Berethor - beskhu3epnm - blade2k5 - dmscopio - dedgren - Emilin - Ennedi
jplumbley - moganite - M4346 - nichter85 - papab2000 - Shadow Assassin - Tarkus - wouanagaine

Unassigned

Well, the mayor of this tile is Ms. Petra Peinlich, who has this irrational aversion to having stuff named after her, so a proper name for the dam was required.

Quote from: Ennedi on June 08, 2008, 12:49:31 PM
now you can think about it's sides arrangement (and of course the rest of this nice terrain! :))

Will do and perhaps show the river here if I'm happy with the result. As for the terrain it's Columbia Delta with Italia Terrain Mod, credit goes to the creators of those works!

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jacqulina

hi there im impressed by what your doing here,very nice work.great terraforming.the countryside is excellent my friend. &apls &apls

Ennedi

@Jacqulina: I don't know if you are saying about my pictures, but I'd like to say that this waterfall showed by me is from special place  ;) About 9 months ago I prepared a little present for you (it is in update No. 2 in my MD), but you probably didn't see it - so here is it:



Adam
New Horizons Productions
Berethor - beskhu3epnm - blade2k5 - dmscopio - dedgren - Emilin - Ennedi
jplumbley - moganite - M4346 - nichter85 - papab2000 - Shadow Assassin - Tarkus - wouanagaine

jacqulina

yes Ennedi sorry,awwwww thankyou so much a beautifull valley indeed and very nicely done thanks my friend

Pat

simply lovely there Adam!! BTW unassinged as promissed I got my watefall uploaded to the STEX's here [linkie]

Don't forget the SC4D Podcast is back and live on Saturdays @ 12 noon CST!! -- The Podcast soon to Return Here Linkie

Unassigned

Thanks Pat, I'll check your waterfall out when I can access the STEX (seems unavailable atm). I joined the Grand River Valley CJ project @ Simtropolis and will certainly post some waterfall shots there in due course.
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