Is there a tutorial on making rivers?

[City Builder]

I've been browsing the mayors diaries and have loved seeing all the rivers tht people make in their landscape, is there a tutorial or guide on how to create these types of rivers and what plugins are necessary to accomplish it somewhere around here or elsewhere?

Thanks

[Pat]

Hey CB what type of rivers are you talking about? some like this....................

[City Builder]

Yup, I think those are the kind.  The type of rivers that Can't be made using the normal god mode terraforming tools are the kind that I'd like to try to do on my own landscapes.

[Toichus Maximus]

Check out ennedi's shosalaza, in particular THIS post. Essentially, he uses ploppable rocks to clearly define the borders of the transparent ploppable water with a water drop tile underneath it all. This gives extra versatility when running over slopes. Just remember--when it comes to rivers, don't ever FORCE anything. Make large bends on flat land, and on steep land, paint the water on flattened tiles (use roads to flatten the tiles) and flatten from the bottom up. Use water drop inbetween the flat tiles. Rivers always look best in between two hills to make a sort of small valley for it to flow downhill. Keep these ideas in mind, and you cannot fail.

[City Builder]

Thanks for the suggestions, links etc.  Much appreciated.

I've been toying with some stuff before doing some serious reading so as to see if I can develop my own style so that I don't just pick up someone else style when trying to make lakes, streams etc and this one is my first half hearted attempt at a mountain lake.


This was with trying out my new Wacom tablet and pen which for me seems to make landscaping a world easier and I feel that it allows me to make some ploppables a bit more on the realistic side then the when I try to use my mouse.

Things that I don't care much for is the different colors of the flora, using items from different sets has such stark color differences as to make them look very un-natural in my opinion, I guess I'll have to stick with one particular persons set in the future.

[Pat]

actualy CB i think you got yourself a real good looking mountain lake there!!!

[sithlrd98]

Looking good City Builder!
Just outta curiosity , how much did that Wacom cost?
I've been thinking about getting one.

[City Builder]

Thank you for the compliments, it is appreciated.

The wacom was bought locally at the Best Buy store near me for $99.00 plus taxes.  They've certainly improved these tablets since my last purchase.  My last tablet with pen and mouse is about 18" by 18" (it's massively large) and hooks up through the serial port, where as this new one hooks up with the USB ports, and is only about 8x8 or so.

I opted to buy the Wacom Bamboo model which only has a 4x6 tablet area which at first I thought was going to be too small to be effectively worked with but which turned out fantastic in size, it takes up the space where my mouse normally sits when Im using it and they work really great in my opinion.  On my old tablet the tablet part didn't really represent the screen, so if you put you pen down in the upper right corner of the screen the cursor still might appear in the middle of the screen or where ever it was prior to using the tablet and pen but these new ones are just like the screen so when I put the pen in the upper right corner of the tablet, the cursor appears in the upper right corner of my screen.

Im not one for graphics artistry though I do some graphics work for my websites and this is even great for that once you get use to it.

So with all that greatness, what could possibly be the downside?  Well, if you've ever been to college in the pre computer era and had to write out a disertation by pen and paper for the first draft you will understand the cramps that you might have gotten from using a pen for any really long length of time, it's really no different here.  But the blessing is that the wacom comes with a mouse as well so when my hand cramps up too badly (and I've got bad arthrititis so it probably affects my hands worse than others) I just switch to the mouse and do something else for a while to give my hand a little rest.  All in all, probably one of the best $99 I've spent in a long time.

[dedgren]

These are a pond I made in 3RR using jeronij's ploppable water.







I agree with our friend projectadam, the colors of most of the water-associated flora is way too bright.  The stuff is also generally way out of scale- too large.  A BAT challenge for someone, perhaps?  I am working on ploppable seasonal water flora that appears in the warmer months and disappears in the cold months- but it's like #44 on a 50 item to-do list.


David

[City Builder]

That's very nice David,
What is that algae growth in the water?  And is the land under the pond completely flat for that pond?  And lastly Im wondering how you get the edges of the pond to make such an even shorline all the way around the pond.  All the ploppable semi transparent waters that I have, seem to leave odd shapes around the edges that then need to be covered with bushes, or rocks to hide the odd shapes that protrude away from what should be a smooth shoreline what you've got in your pond.

Thanks,

[dedgren]

Hey, thank you, CB.  I'm at work, so I'll give you the short answer- I actually think I've got a short tutorial I PMd somebody once on the HD at home- I'll look this evening and post it here if I can find it.

I create a shallow depression using the usual tools where I want the pond.  Then I use the "single gridsquare plop road" technique to flatten out a basic bottom.  Then I randomly drag some of the road tiles across the "bank" up to grade to smooth things out.  Careful placement of jeroni's 1/2x size plop water does the rest.  The overlapping water tiles create random areas of darker and lighter "water," which creates a nice effect.  A little bit of gizmo's underwater flora, a few plop rocks (I'm using these much more sparingly than I used to and like the effect, although Adam's (ennedi) continuous rock bank effect, linked to below, is mind-bogglingly realistic in the right setting) and some of Steve's (sorchin) rock cliff plops complete the scene.

I've done these for so long, they're just second nature- they don't take long once you get the hang of it, and can really add to any city or countryside.


David

[Pat]

CB I'm sorry I haven't gotten back in here sooner, as some RL has hit me but if you listen to David you will be on the right path and I learned from him in how to work with plop water...  I hate to say this but check out my MD as I mainly work with PW or TPW now a day's and that should give you some great thoughts on what to do,  Ive done some mini tuts in there as well....

Ive been contemplating in making a full force tut in the tut section here on TPW and how to create realistic water formations.... I do good with pics but far as explaing David has me beet hands down lol....