Transparent Surface Plopable water ... one step further ?¿

[A Nonny Moose]

  Congratulations.  That solves a huge problem for many CJers.  Very goodl, indeed. 

[jeronij]

Hello to all and thanks for the encouragement 

Of course this will not be the so desired surface water ( that one that Maxis should have provided  ), but I think it will be a nice and useful set for medium/advanced players.

Someone asked about a regional view, so before I forget....

In this picture you can see a regional view showing streams made with the four different PW sizes included in the mod.



I have been testing the mod with sloped terrain ( some adjustements were necessary, but even so the mod is not as terrain conforming as I would desire  ). I have also tested how it fits with the water, but due to the way it is rendered, as soon as it goes under the water, it suddenly dissapears.... the water is there but it can not be seen.....I cant figure out a solution for that, because other worse graphical glitches would happen if I change the actual settings  . I think we will have to live with it, unless someone figures out a solution 

I started another test, this time in a more hilly terrain. There are the pics of the first steps....

Some terraforming the river bed, and placing the water tiles. I also used one of the water effects I released some time ago to make the waves show. I have to say that a  picture does not make justice to the sensation that this really gives you when you see it "alive" 



After some trees I started to add a grass shoreline. Only this extra step gives the water much more deepness and 3D sensation.




This is a small test waterfall I made... the result is not great, but better that with the previous water 



A river junction. Again I say that you have to see this in your cities. The waves give it a great sensation of movement  ¡¡¡¡



However, if you abuse of this effect, and you dont have a powerful computer, your city may start to lag.... 



A rear shoot on the waterfal....



And a final one, wher you can hopefuly notice the terrain slope 



After the first hours playing with this water I have to say that it will not be so easy to place as the original one, but nothing that can not be managed with a bit of practice 

Oh, I forgot to mention, the water colour does not change depending on the water mod you use, but depending on the terrain mod. The darker the terrain, the darker the water. I will also try to release another two neutral colours, brownish and greenish, to give more variety.

[DuskTrooper]

It's a very good direction, it can be an excellent tool 

I think placing models 4 meters up is very important, could you explain what is a purpose of it?

I know this firsthand; you need the water to be 4 M up, or else it will be below any props you place; they won't be below the surface of the water.

I can't wait for more progress! 

[sithlrd98]

This is just another reason that we shouldn't quit SC4 yet!
I love this!

[LoneRanger]

* LoneRanger being the one that asked for a regional picture is more than pleased. 

It seems that it doesn't stand out so much as before but I allready guessed, especialy after your previous pictures.
Besides, it looks excelent on "city-view" so even if it standed out a little on region-view I still would use it. 
I'm verry curious about the ingame water-effect you mentioned.

[RippleJet]

Even I might be plopping some water in the future... this is looking very good, Jeronij!

[jplumbley]

Hey Jeronij,

Is this still a Ploppable LOT?  If so, and the this water plane is a prop on the lot, try playing with the Slope Property in the Prop Exemplar, it should allow the prop to conform to slope.  Im sure you knew this, but I thought Id throw out this idea in case you forgot.

BTW it looks AWESOME!!  Keep up the good work.

[dedgren]

Words fail me...


David

[autoVino]

^^ amen...
This is simply awesome beyond belief. 

[freedo50]

^ Jeronij's real identity has finally been uncovered. Only Chuck Norris could have conceived of something this amazing.

Fred

[cogeo]

jeronij, is it possible to create a variety of lots of varying transparency to transition from shallow to deeper water?  Also would it be possible to create lots with partial water and partial total transparency so we get a more natural edge to our waterways?     Perhaps the edges could have the quality (whatever it's called) that bridge abutments have in the game where the edges disappear into higher terrain thus giving us irregular shorelines.

Could this be done using a simple (or somewhat more sophisticated) opacity map for the alpha, ie a gradient from black to white (or preferably darker gray to lighter gray)? If this works it would make a great difference I think.

[Antoine]

Incredible !!

[figui]

i have no words..
this is awesome

[Pat]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes Pat, and you and me will have to rebuild all our lakes, rivers and waterfalls...  But with he new good stuff I will do it with pleasure, and you too, I suppose

Adam after seeing whats been done since you posted OMG... There is no supposing about cause yes i am willing to start fresh and rebuilding with the new stuff.....

jeroni you cease to amaze me wow my hats are laid down to you sir...............................................................................

[TheTeaCat]

Oh what amazing skills you have Jeroni

Have to give you a   for such amazing work

This is going to change the look of the game forever - Thank you


TTC

[DuskTrooper]

^ Jeronij's real identity has finally been uncovered. Only Chuck Norris could have conceived of something this amazing.

Fred

Now Al Gore claims that he invented the Internet, Chuck Norris, and Jeronij.




EDIT:  And, DT, wouanagaine [linkie] invented Al Gore. -DE

[Pat]

ummm soo not right lol

[dedgren]

A little different approach than Jeroni's.  I was interested in the transition from game to PW, and in stream junctions.

These are extremely quick and dirty.  I note that I was not able to use my lot-based PW effects in the limited amount of time I had to try.  The terrain is "vanilla" Columbus.

#1


Notice the shore of the lake developed square artifacting at this zoom level.  Jeroni mentioned an issue with that.

#2


Upstream into game water.  That's PEG's "Brigantine" surface effect and Timotheus4's Edmonton color.

#3


Out a zoom level.  The transition from downstream.

#5


Back to upstream view.

#6


From one side.

#6


Zooming in.  It's hard (so far) to get the trees to plop uniformly as close to the PW pieces as I would like.

#7


Closer in again.  Looks pretty good for 2-3 minutes of detailing.

#8


From the other side.  This stuff is good!

#9


I'm almost ashamed to show this upstream terraforming...

#10


Here's a small stream entering a larger one.

#11


The test for me is, "can you look at it close up?"  I'd say the answer is yes.

#12


A last view.  This'll be 2:00 a.m. stuff for me for a while until I can master it.

Thanks again, Jeroni!


David

[Pat]

ooooooh wow daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauum david that is wonderful.... The one thing that has now really lost all skeptisum from me is the fact that the transition from PW to Game is almost darn near perfect....  Anther thing i love is that the fact is the props are now underwater so to say instead of sitting on the water...

[Jmouse]

This is a great day to mark on the calendar.

Until next time...
Joan