Cori's Side Water Alternate Paint Scheme (Tutorial)

[CorinaMarie 29,895]

Cori's Side Water Alternate Paint Scheme (Tutorial) aka C.SWAPS

^ Image created by @Cyclone Boom

Many of the water mods for SimCity 4 re-color the surface, but leave the sides as Maxis nuclear blue. Here's a sample from SHK Brigantine 2.0 shown using the SHK_Peg_BrigantineHD_Orig.dat file. (And I intend to show how to create compatibly colored sides.)

Before:

 

After:

 

Following up on the guidance provided by @rivit in this post, here are the steps in detail:

Tools Needed:

1. iLive - Reader 0.9.3
2. GoFSH - FSH Texture Editor (version 3.6.1 or later)
3. GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program

 

01.  For simplicity, we begin with an empty Plugins folder in which we have created a Side Water folder and dropped in the water mod. The Side Water folder will be where we export and then manipulate two specific textures.

 

02.  Open Reader, load SimCity_2.dat, sort by the Instance column, and find IID 69EFB6F8. It's a narrow 1x128 pixel FSH file. I've zoomed it a bit in this pic so you can see it.

 

03.  Right click on that line and select Add to patch.

 

04.  Now find IID C9EFB727.

 

05.  Right click and Add to patch.

 

06.  Click the Patch button.

 

07.  Click the Create DAT button.

 

08.  Select the Side Water folder and name the file. (The .dat extension will be appended automatically.) Then click Save.

 

09.  Open the file you just created, click the File menu, then click Export all files.

 

10.  Save them into the Side Water folder.

 

11.  Go to the Side Water folder, highlight all .TGI files and the one .dir file and delete them, leaving the two .fsh and one .dat.

 

12.  Now it looks like this with two .fsh and the .dat we made.

 

13.  Open your water mod in Reader. Select the File menu, Export all files, and Save into Plugins.

 

14.  Highlight all the .TGI files (and the .dir if one is present) and Delete them, leaving the .fsh and .dat.

 

15.  So now we have only .fsh and the water mod .dat in Plugins.

 

16.  Open GoFSH. You need version 3.6.1 or later. Click the lower left " ... " to load FSH.

 

17.  Select one of the water mod .fsh in the Plugins folder. Then click Open.

 

18.  Check that Batch Mode is set to Decode then click the GoFSH button.

 

19.  Back in your Plugins folder, highlight all the files that end with -A0.bmp and delete them, leaving the -C0.bmp, .fsh, and .dat files.

 

20.  In GoFSH, click the lower left " ... " button to load more FSH. This time navigate to the Side Water folder and select one of them. Then click Open.

 

21.  Click the GoFSH button. (Decode in Batch Mode should still be selected.)

 

22.  Back in the Side Water folder, Delete the -A0.bmp files, leaving the .-C0.bmp, .txt, .fsh, and .dat files.

 

23.  In GIMP load the 7AB50E44-891B0E1A-69EFB6F8-C0.bmp file (located in the Side Water folder), zoom in five clicks (550%), select the Image menu, and then click Scale Image...

 

24.  In that pop up window, click the chain to break it then enter 128 for the width and click the Scale button.

 

25.  Select the File menu and then click the Overwrite option.

 

26.  Open the 7AB50E44-891B0E1A-C9EFB727-C0.bmp file (located in the Side Water folder), zoom (to 550%) and Scale Image.

 

27.  Same routine. Break the chain then set width to 128 and click the Scale button.

 

28.  Select the File menu and then click Overwrite.

If you will be fixing the side water for more than one water mod, you can save a copy of the above two BMP files to a separate location. This way you need not repeat the above steps later on. (These two BMPs are also attached at the bottom of this post.)

 

29.  Now open 7AB50E44-891B0E1A-09187300-C0.bmp from Plugins. This is the zoom 1 texture. Make note of the image size.

 

30.  Now, we want to get the average of all colors. There may be more logical ways to obtain that, but the following method works. Select the Filters menu, mouse down to Blur, then over and click Gaussian Blur...

 

31.  In that pop up window, enter double of whatever number you noted for the file dimension. If it was 256 (for SD texture) then use 512 here. For HD it was 1024 so we double that and put in 2048 for the Horizontal and GIMP automatically makes the Vertical match. Then click OK.

(This can take roughly 10 seconds on a 1024x1024 texture.)

 

32.  Just for curiosity we can use the Color Picker tool to see what color we have now. After clicking the eyedropper in the image you can click the foreground box to see the codes.

 

33.  Select the Colors menu and click on Brightness-Contrast...

 

34.  Adjust the Brightness to -42 making it darker. Click OK to set.

 

35.  This time it's important to click the Color Sampler Tool in the image to set the foreground color. And again we can take a peek at what color the image is now.

 

36.  Go back to (or reload) 7AB50E44-891B0E1A-C9EFB727-C0.bmp from the Side Water folder. Zoom in again if reloading it. It's important now to be sure you have the correct side color file as different positions within the image control different aspects of where said colors are applied in the game.

Select the Pencil tool, set Opacity to 80%, set the Size to 512, and click somewhere near the middle of the image. You need not be precise on the location as we've made the pencil size significantly larger than the entire image.

 

37.  Select the File menu and click to Overwrite.

 

38.  Go to (or reload) 7AB50E44-891B0E1A-69EFB6F8-C0.bmp from the Side Water folder.  Zoom in again if reloading it. Do the same as above with the Pencil set to 80% opacity and size 512. Click somewhere near the middle of the image.

 

39.  The 69EFB6F8 texture has a secondary function inasmuch that the top row (technically the top pixel in the 1x128 version) controls an additive color to the surface water. Since all water mods were made with that being applied in the background we want to set the top row back to the default Maxis color so the color of the surface water will stay exactly the same color you are used to seeing in the game.

Click the <- -> button beside the Foreground/Background selector boxes then click within the foreground box there to bring up the color selector box. Type in 55638E for the color. This is a dull blue.

 

40.  Set the Pencil to 100% Opacity with a Size of 1 pixel. Click once (not click and hold) in the upper left corner (where pixel 0,0 is located) then hold down your Shift Key and drag a line over to the far upper right corner and click once there. This will paint the whole upper row to the Maxis default dull blue color.

 

41.  Zoomed in so you can see that top row.

 

42.  Select the File menu and click Overwrite.

 

43.  Back in GoFSH click the upper left " ... " to load a BMP file.

 

44.  Select one of your modified side textures in the Side Water folder and click Open.

 

45.  Select as A8R8G8B8 for Encoding Settings, set Batch Mode to Encode, then click the GoFSH button.

 

46.  Now click the FSH x DAT button.

 

47.  In the pop up box, click the Create .dat from LoadList button.

 

48.  Navigate to the Side Water folder and select the _ReaderLoadList.txt file then click Open.

 

49.  Give the file a Name and Save.

(I use the whole first part of the original water mod name and then add my text after that so they will group together alphabetically in File Explorer.)

 

50.  And now some basic clean up. In the Plugins folder, highlight the .txt, .fsh, and .bmp files and Delete them.

 

51.  Do the same in the Side Water folder leaving only the .dat file you just created.

 

52.  Copy your new .dat file to the root of Plugins then highlight and Delete the now unneeded Side Water folder.

 

53.  And here's what's left in Plugins. The original Water Mod and the new Side Water mod you created. From here you can Copy these to your main Plugins, Delete this temporary one, and Rename your original folder back to Plugins.

 

54.  And here it is again shown in the game:

 

For convenience, here are the two original Maxis side water BMPs already expanded to 128x128. If using these you can skip the steps related to creating them.

Both Original Side Water BMPs Expanded to 128x.zip

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Superbly explained Cori. This is truly excellent!

Water mods for SC4 play such an integral part in improving the realism of our cities. While there are numerous ones available to pick and choose based on personal preference, only a select few include the sides texture as a custom complementary shade. This might not be a newly discovered modding technique, but it's a rare one which for the vast majority of water mods was never implemented. Maybe it was only pioneered in more recent years, and so many were created before it ever became a done thing. This meant while the surface water would be a specially designed texture, the sides still remain fully Nuclear Blue. For all those water mods which didn't include them, many people (myself included) have been forced to accept they couldn't be modified, and that's just a limitation with what's technically feasible.

Your tutorial here is a comprehensively thorough explanation which documents the complete process to achieve this. Just reading through with the images shown at each step, it's so easy to follow and will be immensely useful for anyone interested. I'll certainly be giving it a go myself.

What's particularly nice is the sampling gives consistency in how it matches up to the surface texture. It's an easily repeatable method, and even if values like the brightness and opacity could be worth experimenting with for certain more abstract textures. Those who wish to develop their own water mods too, it can be a process taken on board which provides a major visual enhancement. Having them properly coloured is such an improvement, and it just seems way more natural.

Now with a clear-cut process for creating the water sides, it opens up new potential to how we can view the deeper depths of dihydrogen monoxide in our cities.

[rivit 3,402]

Lovely explanation Cori - very clear and complete. The role of the top pixel is something I hadn't discovered myself so I've learned something new too.

[Toby66 155]

On 5/6/2019 at 2:43 AM, CorinaMarie said:

Cori's Side Water Alternate Paint Scheme

Just to pick the color for the first letter in those words and i think a lot of time went into that comment.

I think Corina's comment was purty and good now.

[rsc204 21,866]

Great tutorial, very clear and concise instructions. It's one of those things I didn't really care about until I saw it was fixable.

Since this came to my attention, I've been curious and digging into some of my mods. The water textures seem much more complex than first though. Perhaps it would be interesting to look at some of the Gobias water mods on the LEX. These seem to be among the most comprehensive in terms of what textures are included:

• 0x0918730#
  The base Water mod
• 0x00000#13
  I'm not sure exactly what this set of textures does
• 0x00000#14
  InShore Water textures

• 0x69EFB6F8*
• 0xC9EFB727*
  * - These are the textures dealt with by this tutorial
• 0x69EFB7DA
  Again, this is another texture who's function is unclear

In-short, it would be nice if anyone knows the function of the 0x00000#13 set of textures and 0x69EFB7DA. I'm just thinking how it might be nice if we could document the complete set of water textures in one place.

[Barroco Hispano 26,944]

Once I changed the color of the sides but I do not remember how:

[Toby66 155]

1 hour ago, Goldman Sachs said:

Once I changed the color of the sides but I do not remember how:

Seems like REALLY shallow water there, duck pond depth, like 2 inches. Then comes Jura, Mesodont, and i think i see a Tyranosaurus Rex buried there as well.

Corina knows, do like she's doing it.

I play Civilization 2 now but i started to scream at the game and quit.

Everybody's taking notes hehe, just talking a little.

[CorinaMarie 29,895]

5 hours ago, rsc204 said:

In-short, it would be nice if anyone knows the function of the 0x00000#13 set of textures and 0x69EFB7DA.

In the Readme.html included with the Ocean River MOD final 1.1 there is an excellent explanation for #13 & #14:

Quote

>> ShallowWater_[ColourCode].dat providing the textures for shallow water FSHs 00000014 to 00000414.
>> DeepSea_[ColourCode].dat providing the textures for deep water FSHs 00000013 to 00000413.

^ Along with pictures to illustrate different coloring of those.

 

0x69EFB7DA is the Sun Overlay which can been seen pictured in @rivit's post here.

[rsc204 21,866]

Thanks for the link, I recall seeing that post at the time, but never digging into it. So much useful information buried around the place.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

Dear Cori, Thank you for your splendid tutorials, I just want to know more details about the 0x69EFB6F8,0xC9EFB727.

I modified them like these screen-shots below:

Then the in-game's effect is here

So I want to know what the connection between two of them. I guess the 69EFB6F8 texture is the shallow water and C9EFB727 is the deep water. and when I used the terrain tools to lower the earth to make the ocean more deeper, My sunlight's effect had disappeared. And furthermore may I know when we expanded the Maxis's textures from 1x128 to 128x128, what is the transformations in the sidewater that the changes have brought.

I think if it's possible to create a Undersea World with bubbles or some plants or corals on the seafloor, It's just a newbie's fantasy, Please forgive my rudeness. Thank you!

Yours Sincerely,

-- Raymond

 

[CorinaMarie 29,895]

Hiya, @Raymond7cn.

For both 69EFB6F8 and C9EFB727 textures, they are the 1 x 128 pixels originally from Maxis and only the left column is read by the game. The reason I expanded them to 128 x 128 is so I could visually see them while tweaking and testing. So, to start with, all those pretty sunbeams you have penetrating the water are not being read by the game, but only the leftmost column which does then still give the effect in your city picture. And that looks quite nice, btw.

Once I'd finally figured out that the very top pixel in 69EFB6F8 was an additive to the surface, I set it back to its original color and then began my testing by making the second pixel from the top red like this:

 

Then in the game it looked like:

 

I didn't take screenshots of all the tests I performed, but the next screenshot from the game I have is this one:

^ So I suspect I set the 3rd pixel as green then the 4th as red.

I'm not certain what I tweaked next. It might've then been the C9EFB727 texture. Here's the next picture in sequence I have:

 

And the next two soon afterwards are these:

^ But again, I don't recall which pixels of which texture cause the effects shown here.

I do know that by testing in small stages at a time I was able to figure out what would work as a generic principle to write the above tutorial. So while I don't have any exact answers for you, this should give you a good indication of how to test and make sense of it.

Just remember, only the 1 x 128 down the left side is read by the game. The other 127 x 128 are simply to make the colors easier to see while in one's image editing program.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

I strongly recommend that I can give more emotions as 'Like! Thanks! Wow! ' with one expressing.

Thank you Cori, Your tips is very helpful, I really appreciate it, Now I understand only the 1 x 128 down the left side is read by the game. And by your tips and pics I have some interesting thoughts and I will give them a try later.

Meanwhile I understand why somebody call you 'Sherlock', I think if you can play a chinese chess ' Go ', You must can be a master of it. Thank you very much!

Best Regards,

-- Raymond

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

I got troubles when I want to create a 1x128 fsh file. when encoding my C0.bmp to fsh, The Gofsh changed 1x128 to 4x128 with an approximation colour(maybe black) even I selected the as A8R8G8B8. then I found rivit's statements in this thread below. 

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/72204-gone-fshin/?do=findComment&comment=1712671

Actually It's not a big deal with my test, I just take a note of that. and then I create a 4x128 with every row had the same colour as before(128x128), Then you can see from the screen-shot below(the third was the failed with 1x128 one), they had the same effect. So I guess It proved the words had said by Cori before, 

7 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

only the 1 x 128 down the left side is read by the game.

Then I changed the 69EFB6F8 to this one as below,

here is the in-game effect

I used the terrain tools to made some changes with the depth of the ocean. With every time I changed the depth. Conespondingly the colour changed by my texture.(the second pic matches the top colour 'red')

then I changed the 69EFB6F8 again.

the in-game effect

by now, I guess I get some clues with 0x69EFB6F8 and 0xC9EFB727

1) the 0x69EFB6F8 decides the ocean's depth colour, Which means from the very bottom of the sea to the shallowest part, if the depth changes on Earth were gradual, The colour will  be matched with the texture's(0x69EFB6F8) row's colour(maybe every pixels). That explained why when I reduced the earth's height, My effect disappeared, It's just became to the same depth of the sea, so those area only had one colour.

2) At the bottom of the sea, It matches one colour(I still don't know which one it is). when lift or drop the terrain, the colour don't change anymore, I guess it maybe depends on some terrain mod's parameters.

3) I assume that the texture 0xC9EFB727 maybe decide the transparency of every depth's colour from up to down(you can tell from the screen-shots).

Today's tests pause awhile by now, since it's too late in china now. I will prove the point 3 or other thoughts tomorrow. Thanks.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

 

[CorinaMarie 29,895]

@Raymond7cn

Wow! That is a very thorough investigation. You now know way more about this than I do. (I only went as far as to create a simple version that was better than the Maxis original blue side water color.)

I look forward to more of your testing.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

Dear All,

Today I have some tests which continue with yesterday. I put each time 's textures and screen-shots together, the left side is 69EFB6F8 and right side is C9EFB727.

You can tell from the screen-shots above, I want test C9EFB727 first. Then It seems like this texture only decides the very top colour of the sea with the first row and first column's pixel, Then maybe gradually turn to transparence by the game.

After that I wanted to know which colour decided the very bottom of the sea's colour, The results showed that the last row's colour of 69EFB6F8 made that.

I have to say, It seemed like I couldn't or hard to add something into the sidewater with 69EFB6F8 and C9EFB727, but as Cori's splendid tutorial I could make the sidewater more beautiful like these.

I just can add some sunshine into the ocean by my imagination. But I really hope and believe there are some Artists can do better than me someday.

11 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

That is a very thorough investigation. You now know way more about this than I do.

Dear Cori, I'm so sorry that I couldn't agree with you in this point, I almost have been learning from you with everything of SimCity, inspiring by you, and you help not only me but others in many places. I think we are all very fortunate that the Simtropolis has you here, and also whatever we do now benefits from stuff other people have done before us. We are really standing on the shoulders of giants (Cyclone , rsc204, Mr rivit, and many other experts) ,Without your great works (tools tutorials bats etc) I guess I even couldn't go forward with one inch. I mean it, The more I learn and study, the more I feel grateful to you. Thank you Cori.

Yours Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

Dear All, I just want to leave a record of it here, l still have a bit of a question about C9EFB727, If only one pixel specifies the very top colour of the sea, why its original size is 1x128? I hope someone can go further with this someday, that's all, Thank you.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[CorinaMarie 29,895]

7 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

l still have a bit of a question about C9EFB727, If only one pixel specifies the very top colour of the sea, why its original size is 1x128?

I believe the top pixel is an additive to the surface water itself in the form of a slight alteration to the shading whereas the other pixels are parts of the side water itself. The images from your tests above seem to show that the other pixels are applied based on the depth of the water.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

On 2020/1/5 at 9:29 AM, CorinaMarie said:

The images from your tests above seem to show that the other pixels are applied based on the depth of the water.

Dear Cori, Apologize for missing you reply, I'm just busy with learning recently. And also sorry for a bit misunderstanding your words, since I guess what you refered to is 69EFB6F8. Maybe It's my fault of careless. My test's screenshot included two parts, And the left part divided into 69EFB6F8(left) and C9EFB727(right). So this one below,

At the very beginning I want to make clear every pixels of C9EFB727's function. however it seems like only the first pixel(red) decides the top of sidewater's color. You can tell that whatever I changed the sidewater's colour is still the same(red from up to down). and also the next picture of test, the C9EFB727 is 128x128 and full of colours, but still no change. Please forgive me if I misunderstood you. Thank you!

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

BTW, It's exactly the kind of thing your tutorial mentioned, the 69EFB6F8's first colour decides the surface water, From pic 1 you can see, when I changed the 69EFB6F8 from white to blue, the surface water's colour chnaged. and as you said before, the 69EFB6F8

On 2020/1/5 at 9:29 AM, CorinaMarie said:

other pixels are applied based on the depth of the water.

You can tell also from other screenshots

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

Dear Cori, @CorinaMarie

Recently, I studied some Terrain Mods due to want to make one by myself, (sounds like a dream) Then I found out some relevant exemplars of Terrain, Since I still rememberd I have a question about sidewater's texture:

On 2020/1/5 at 1:31 AM, Raymond7cn said:

Dear All, I just want to leave a record of it here, l still have a bit of a question about C9EFB727, If only one pixel specifies the very top colour of the sea, why its original size is 1x128? I hope someone can go further with this someday, that's all, Thank you.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

Then I thought that is there any settings of exemplar about that? so I found out this info of sc4wiki exemplar properties, I'm curious about this property:

0x29ab15c2 Float32 WaterDepthToColorGradientFactor

Number of pixels in the gradient corresponding to each meter of water depth

I don't know yet if it is relevant to sidewater, Furthermore, I also found out CityEdgeLayerHeights Heights amd CityEdgeBrightnessKludgeFactor etc, I thought maybe there are some of them influence on the Cutaway.

I will do some tests to see what happen, Anyway, I just want to talk about this with you, In case you maybe interested in them too, Thank you.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

 

[CorinaMarie 29,895]

14 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

l still have a bit of a question about C9EFB727, If only one pixel specifies the very top colour of the sea, why its original size is 1x128?

I believe the top pixel is an additive to the surface water itself in the form of a slight alteration to the shading. The full color of the sea would be from the textures found in a water mod.

 

14 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

0x29ab15c2 Float32 WaterDepthToColorGradientFactor

That certainly looks interesting. (I confess I've never tried anything with it.)

 

14 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

Anyway, I just want to talk about this with you, In case you maybe interested in them too,

I am interested in the results of your tests. You are exploring deeper into this than I did so what you find will be new to me.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

Hiya Cori, Sorry for the late reply, It just took some time with tidying up the pictures and my cluttered mind. I made tons of tests by tweaking the terrain parameters and FSHs, Anyway, the pictures speaks for themself:

The first phase of test, I just continued with the prior tests, I have no idea if it's precise, For instance, I still don't know what the function of other pixels of C9EFB727(except the first pixel), Maybe there are other parameters or maps? perhaps there are more to it, but i haven't figured it out yet. So I just wrote those i could make sure as above. 

Regarding of the WaterDepthToColorGradientFactor, At the beginning, I changed it a bit:

From 0.75 to 2

From 0.75 to 0

Then I had a randon thought, I change the SeaLevet from 250 to 128, since I thought that's the amount of pixels of 69EFB6F8, Then when I set it to 0.1, show up 11/128 pixels,when I set it to 0.3, show up 33/128 pixels, when I set it to 1.3, All pixels show up and with a biger area of the last pixel. So I guess you also get it, It's just as the Reader says: "Desc: Number of pixels in the gradient corresponding to each meter of water depth." 

Meantime, there're also other interesting paramaters during testing:

WaterDepthForMaxAlpha=0 (Default = 25)

WaterDepthForMaxAlpha=200 (Default = 25)

DisplayWaterSurface=false (Default = True)

Acturally, there were still other terrain water's parameters, But most of them are tough to see from picture, I would do more tests when plan to make terrain mods someday.

Furthermore, I changed the surface water's textures to total white for a better comparison:

Vanilla:

No change when set C9EFB727's all pixels to the same as the first pixels:

set C9EFB727's all pixels to the same as the first pixels + first pixel of 69EFB6F8 = White(255,255,255)

set C9EFB727's all pixels to White(255,255,255)  + first pixel of 69EFB6F8 = White(255,255,255):

set C9EFB727's all pixels to White(255,255,255)  + first pixel of 69EFB6F8 = White(255,255,255) + the surface water = entire White(255,255,255):

set C9EFB727's all pixels to White(255,255,255)  + first pixel of 69EFB6F8 = Red(255,0,0) + the surface water = entire White(255,255,255):

set C9EFB727's all pixels to White(255,255,255)  + first pixel of 69EFB6F8 = Red(255,0,0) + the surface water = entire Green(0,255,0):

By now I thought it becomes more interesting, I thought if i set first pixel of 69EFB6F8 = Red(255,0,0) + the surface water = entire Green(0,255,0), it will be a color of yellow, but it's not, I thought when the surface water blend with the first color of 69EFB6F8, It changed just as i adjust hue or brightness of a picture with photoshop or gimp. And also i was aware that when i set the first pixel of 69EFB6F8 to white, the color of surface water is hard to see gradient, but it has gradient when i set it to others, I guessed it maybe relevent to the sunshine map that you have mentioned, Or other reasons, I need to put some thought into it a bit. Anyways, I'm so excited when doing these, I mean the terrain mod it's way more hard than i thought before,(the ini and parameters and maps) and interesting! Thank you Cori, I will report at here again when i make other interesting discoveries.

Yours Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[CorinaMarie 29,895]

@Raymond7cn

This is fascinating. You are digging into this research way beyond anything I did with it. Thank you for posting the results of your tests.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

3 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

@Raymond7cn

This is fascinating. You are digging into this research way beyond anything I did with it. Thank you for posting the results of your tests.

Thank you Cori, To be honest, I thought CoriBoom™ or master @rivit would be the most suitable researcher of this, I really don't know much more deeper theory of that, such as colour or computer graphics, all i have just passion.

Really miss those great terrain mod makers, If they're still here i could consult them some, but never mind, We still have @Barroco Hispano, I guess i may could follow his steps when he finish his mod. I still got stuck in cliff's textures but haven't given up it.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

BTW, Sorry that i forgot to say, The C9EFB727 and 69EFB6F8 seem couldn't be alpha, I tried then the game treated them as black IMO.

[Barroco Hispano 26,944]

@Raymond7cn I am quite interested in your research. I once read in the gobias thread that you can get interesting results using gradient maps.

[Barroco Hispano 26,944]

BTW, this is how my terrain mod, water mod and beach mod look so far.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

Thank you @Barroco Hispano, Really don't want to ruin the moment of Cori's thread here with my tangential words, But have to say a bit, I'm sorry that i may had mistake with you name before, Just know that Goldman Sachs is a name of Company, Sorry, Sir!

Concerning Terrain mod, Don't intend to do it by now, it's too complicate to me, Especially those numbers which I'm not good at, Cori does, not me. I still need to focus on the learning of modelling, but meanwhile, I thought i could make some textures, Or learn the related knowledge one by one, I could be helpful by sharing those stuffs here, Then maybe one day, I could make one mod myself.

Always shocked by your impressive works, I often watch them carefully, just feel that man is kind of lonely,  Looking forward more of yours.

Yours Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

Hiya Cori, @CorinaMarie Today i make a seamless sea texture (even used 3ds max), but it was awful, so finally I still prefer Rivit's sea.

After that I want to make side water with something more suited to my needs, You may have noticed that there were unpleasant lines which obviously appeared when somewhere had different depth of water, E.g. The right of front side from the deepest to higher.

Then according to my finding, I set those two maps as below:

Then I got a result like these:

Frankly and IMO, it's quite so nice according to my taste now!  I have kept a note of this along with other interesting parameters and will paused and let it be a while, Have to go to finish those depots, Thank you Cori and CB, @Cyclone Boom Without you helped me with Loting, I couldn't do this.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[simcitynate 134]

Thanks for all this info, but I have to ask, has anyone already made these changes to any water and made it available somewhere? Presumably if someone has they'd want to save others the trouble by sharing it.