Waterfalls - are they possible ???

[delboysim 1]

The one important geological feature thats missing on any SC4 map is ............... waterfalls. Would it be at all possible to design some kind of modification to enable the water table level to be altered in different parts of a region ? At the moment, if you take a river from high mountains down to flat plains, the only way the program can do it is by carving a huge canyon through the mountains. Would it not be a beautiful sight to see a shallow river originating high in the mountains, winding its way down to the plains below ? If one of the experts on ST could make such a mod it would be a spectacular improvement in what is already a superb game :-)

[vester_DK 477]

Try do a search for pegasus and Plopable Water on STEX.

Welcome to Simtropolis. Hope you enjoy your stay.

[delboysim 1]

Thanks for your reply Vester - I found a ploppable water mod and tried it - looks absolutely grotesque. The water colours do not match the ingame river colours .............It made my city look as though a 5 year old had scrawled across them with a giant paintbrush.

[Fred_Ginger 1]

Did you use Peg's ponds and streams or the water mod in mayor mode?  You can make pretty realistic ponds/lakes with waterfalls with Peg's ponds and streams with waterfalls.  True the don't match the in game water but if you want lakes/ponds/rivers/streams there isn't much choice.  There are also mods available that will change the in game water.

[delboysim 1]

Thanks for your reply fred_ginger, I originaly tried the water mod (mayor mode) see above for my opinion on THAT one !! I have now installed the Pegasus ponds streams etc files and they are excellent - as are ALL pegasus BATS Lots textures etc :-)

 

[brtim2 11]

Ah yes, behold the power of straight edged ponds. It's like a team of engineers has been flown into even the most remote of areas in your region.

[joeynymets 19]

hey delboysim I just want to say that all of your maps are great! whats the next map that you are making?

[delboysim 1]

LOL Joey - tell me what you would like and I'll create it for you - or I'll stay up all night trying anyways !!!!

 

Anyways - back to topic ..........

 

 

 

The pegasus streams and ponds, is a lovely addition to any city, but it still doesnt answer my original question. Is it at all possible to modify the water table in such a way that we can build a mountain and then take a river from say 500m elevation down to a flat plain ?

 

Within the confines of the game programming, the only choice we have is to dig down to the existing water table which is consistent throughout the region, which results in huge canyons, and the river effectively is NOT flowing downhill - in fact, in theory it should not flow at all, as it is at a constant level all the way - there is no fall on the river bed.

 

Come on all you modders I think this needs some thought - your feedback as to the feasibility would be much appreciated :-)

[debussyman 1,349]

It appears that maxis intended to make water aviable at different levels (see rain mod) but it was never completed nor applied to the game itself and until now no one has been able to make it work properly.

[Karybdis 34]

I've seen true ones done before using Effect plops

I'm not sure EXACLTY how they were done but it had something to do with adding the effect water_stream, water_cut_fx_stream, stream, or foam_stream to a lot I think

 

you'd have to try it with any of those. I dont do lot editing.

 

This was never released for whatever reason. maybe it killed performance?

 

Before anyone asks, you have to make a prop, and make the effect part of the prop. then you can put the prop on the lot.

[Karybdis 34]

Here's the proof of concept to anyone interested

I just modified gizmo's rainwater collection plant and tested with the effect stream and got this

 

Anyone who's interested can try making river starter lots using the stream effect in a prop if they want. I will NOT be making anything, so if you want it, its up to you.

[jonoboo 6]

100th post!!!

That looks cool
all you need to do is make the lot transparent etc
and see if you can combine it with the rain mod or something

[hamsterTK 93]

whats the rain mod?

[prince_of_sims 0]

it's a mod that puts the rain tool at your use. the rain tool is an unfiinshed tool by Maxis that basically puts surface water in depressions. the water however will not save, and will destroy any existing development. it can be found in the Modding Files section in the Extra Terrain Tools Mod.

[Karybdis 34]

Jono01: as I said, I dont know how to do any of that. I dont work with lots, just decoding files. Putting it on the existing file with an existing effect prop was the absolute best I knew how to do. *sweatdrop*

 

So someone who actually knows how to make lots and props will have to do that work. A few different plops of the stream effect on any lot should have running water working though I would imagine.

[maetoch 0]

where do you get this stream effect? its not in my effects list.

[Karybdis 34]

it wont be listed, but its in the effdir file none the less. Its just called by name (stream) from effect props like other effect props do. For an example, look at the Rainstorm mod that gizmo made (or others in the game I'm sure if you dont have that). That's the one I modified a prop in to get the stream to form.

In other words, in a prop exemplar, you normally have a property Resource Key Type 4 which defines what the physical prop is. The ID of that property in an exemplar is 0x27812824

 

To define an Effect, you delete the Resource Key Type 4, and replace it with property ID 0xC98204B8 which is a single value string property called Visual Effect Name. Then you just put stream as the name in there. In gizmo's mod he uses the effect gizmo_clouds

 

If there's a property called kSC4BuildingModelRotationProperty in there, then delete it. Its not a model. Replace that property with property ID 0xE9822D62 kSC4BuildingNoModelProperty and set it to 1. You may have to create a 0xA977A86B property and create a classID since you're using an effect.

[ldvger 19]

delboysim-

I agree with you 100% and I have decided to basically abandon my SC4 game play in an effort to solve this problem.  I am hoping to create a new God Mode tool that will allow users to create above sea level ground water that conforms to the terrain across which it runs. 

 

While the Mayor Mode water tools are good for developed/developing cities, I'm in many ways more of a map maker than a city grower (check my CJ Apocrypha to get an idea of my terraforming interests) and, like you, I want to be able to create realistic natural water drainage systems in my terrains BEFORE beginning to build a city.  I want tiny little trickles of headwaters at the base of snowfields that combine themselves together to create streams, then creeks, and then rivers, possibly onding or finding basins and creating lakes, along thier journey to the sea, just like water in RL does. 

 

Your idea for altering the water table to conform to the landforms above it has a lot of merit...and one that had not crossed my mind yet.  However, a lot of folks have put in tons of time creating tunnel tools and messing with the game's default water could severely mess up those mods.  I have to admit, I am thinking more along the lines of creating a brush that would paint surface water across existing topography.  The game already has brushes built into many of the God Mode tools, ways to increase/decrease both size and intensity of the effect, so I am thinking it may not be too horribly difficult to create a new above ground water brush along the same basic concepts.  Only huge difference is, the brush I have in mind would be more like a calligraphy brush, able to be fine tuned way down to near zero and widen out to many tile's width.  Finer, narrower used of the brush would barely depress the land below it while wider/heavier touches of the brush would depress the underlying landscape more, creating a simulation of depth similar to actual RL watercourses...the larger the watercourse (very generally), the deeper they are. 

 

I have been playing SimCity since the original game, way back in 1993, and above sea level water existed in all of the earlier versions of the game.  But, other than terraforming using the in-game tools, I have never ventured into creating custom content for the game in any way.  I have a strong background in computers and computing, including a bit of programming, but I am the first to admit I am going to be venturing into totally new territory.  As I am self-employed and semi-retired, I have time I can devote to this project but still I am thinking this task, while do-able (in my opinion), is going to either take one person a very long time or a team of folks slightly less time.  I have downloaded the iLive Reader, along with Tropod's beginner's guide for using the program, so I am on my way.

 

delboysim, have you any interest in joining me in this venture/adventure? 

 

How about anyone else reading along this thread?  So many of the really great game-enhancing tools were developed by folks here on ST by teams...

 

Email or PM me...

 

Lora/LD

[jacqulina 162]

good luck with this idea which is a good idea if it can be done

[ldvger 19]

Hello!

Just a short note to let folks know that I have started a parallel thread on this subject over in the Modding-Open Discussion forum under the subject heading God Mode water tool.  Until such time that such a tool actually begins research and development, it has been suggested to me by the board moderators that perhaps it would be best placed there.  Anyone and everyone interested in the subject is invited to join the discussion!

 

Lora/LD

[Starmanw40 6]

Hello, My name is Steven Whitehouse. I was going to ask the same question on Waterfalls. I also wanted to know if you could create a waterfall from scratch in the God Mode Tool?

[Karybdis 34]

No you can't.

But following this research, qurlix released the waterfall lot for the tech I demo'd in here.

You can get waterfall lots on the STEX which generate a flowing waterfall each time you load a saved game.

[6underground 11]

But so far there is no way of changing the colour of the waterfall in question? (qurlix) i would love for it to be made moddable for the novice user. An example would be to insert a custom .fsh file into the waterfall dat that matched their custom water, or at the least the water matched the ploppable water. That would be unreal. I wish it were possible.

[Karybdis 34]

Its not unfortunately

The water colour effects are scripted into the effects directory. Editing it to any novice usable degree requires tools that haven't been made yet. Sorry..... same idea as with the underwater colour on the side of the map

[6underground 11]

perhaps then, if we have some ploppable water the same colour as the waterfall? Instead of it being featureless like Maxis' generic water, we could have some silverish style ripples/waves. I think it could pan out to be an attractive alternative (even if it is the maxis water colour), Ive been using the quirlix waterfall with the olympus mod on the Stex and i have to say it really looks beautiful.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

The water colour effects are scripted into the effects directory. Editing it to any novice usable degree requires tools that haven't been made yet. Sorry..... same idea as with the underwater colour on the side of the mapquote>

But it can be done, right?

[6underground 11]

If it is possible, i would like to try.

[Karybdis 34]

Oh don't get me wrong, it can certainly be done...... the only problem is the size of the file and the complexity of the data.

I've attached the specification for the effects file below, which contains the location (in hex) of the colour effects for each entry.

The trouble is finding the correct entry.

You need to:

1. Make a backup of the effect file from reader into a new dat.

2. Export it from the dat

3. Edit with a hex editing program looking for the effect "stream"

4. working with the location of the names, trace the data to the appropriate section

5. change the RGB colours for the "stream" effect

6. reimport into your dat, and save to plugins. test...

7. if it dosent work, make sure the file is the same size as before, and that you plugged the new values in the right location

[ardecila 125]

Well, this could be made a lot simpler. Someone find the hex location of the 3 bytes that determine the RGB value (could be more, the EffDir likes to duplicate stuff). The modder changes it in the Reader's hex editor.  I use it all the time to make EffDirs for network pieces.  Then it should be quite easy to change, provided the modder knows what color they want.

[BlasterNT 5]

Ello, just to let you know a tut on creating waterfalls: https://www.sc4devotion.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=35&topic=46.0