Cori's Side Water Alternate Paint Scheme (Tutorial)

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

13 hours ago, simcitynate said:

I have to ask, has anyone already made these changes to any water and made it available somewhere?

I'm not aware of any such published ones.

I made a set for the water mod I use, added the new FSH directly into that .dat file, and then wrote the tutorial. I don't really know if anyone made some to use or if peeps just read this and say to themselves: That's nice without actually using the technique.

A key thing is the FSH which are created with this method do not need to be in the same .dat as the water mod. They can be a standalone file that is loaded in the same folder. As such, peeps could certainly make these for the various water mods and post them without violating anyone's creative rights.

[simcitynate 134]

At 53 steps, my reaction wasn't so much "that's nice" as "that's daunting". It does look like you've made the steps as clear as possible though, so I suppose it's just a matter of rolling up one's sleeves. As is always the case, it's better when someone else has already done the work, so just thought I'd ask. Side water is an unfortunate oversight that's been all too common, so I'm really hoping more and more people come across your tutorial.    

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

17 minutes ago, simcitynate said:

It does look like you've made the steps as clear as possible though, so I suppose it's just a matter of rolling up one's sleeves.

One thing to note is they have changed the appearance/arrangement of GIMP subsequent to my writing of this tutorial. If you do follow along, you'll need to understand the concepts so you can find them in the later interface. (Or just install an older version of GIMP before they made the drastic layout changes.)

 

17 minutes ago, simcitynate said:

I'm really hoping more and more people come across your tutorial. 

It'll likely remain a do it for yourself thing as there are very few, if any new water mods being created. Also, once getting into the swing of the steps it's really not that hard. 53 steps sounds like a lot, but really isn't. As an example, we could say your post required 446 steps for all the characters typed.

And, should peeps feel like creating the side waters and posting them as a post attachment or a STEX entry, that would be one way to accumulate some of them. Linkys could be added to my water shoppe if so.

[simcitynate 134]

Yeah, I've noticed that when it comes to new water mods, things seemed to have really...dried up 😀 From what I've seen though, there's already more than enough variety. 

Anyway, thanks for your encouragement. If I am to ever take up such a task, I'll certainly be happy to share my work here.      

 

[simcitynate 134]

Will it matter if there's 4 files like in the OceanRiver water mod as opposed to the 1 in your tutorial?  

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

The number of files in the folder won't matter.

With that one being a more comprehensive mod, it has textures for different depths of the water. My guess is you want to open the WaterSurface_256.dat file. What you are looking for is the 7AB50E44-891B0E1A-09187300 FSH entry.

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

@simcitynate

I've been working on this concept some more and have it greatly simplified now.

As one of the tests, I've installed the Ocean River MOD final 1.1 with the same selections shown in your pic above.

This is how it looks with the side water mod I made:

 

Here's the file if you'd like to try it: Ocean River Mod Final 1.1 - Side Water v2.0 by Cori.dat

I'm saying the side water is version 2.0 since I used a different method compared to the tutorial in this topic. You can toss my file in the same folder that has your water mod. It's not overriding any of those files, but just a good place to put it.

And, ofc, please let me know how it looks in your game.

[simcitynate 134]

Oh wow, looks beautiful! Thanks so much Cori. Not only have you taught a man to FSH, you have provided the side water in which to do it. Not sure if that even makes sense, but hopefully you get the idea. 

[simcitynate 134]

On 3/2/2022 at 3:40 PM, CorinaMarie said:

I've been working on this concept some more and have it greatly simplified now.

So are you going to revise your tutorial or make a new one?

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

1 minute ago, simcitynate said:

So are you going to revise your tutorial or make a new one?

I believe a completely new tutorial would be the way to go since my new method is different (and significantly less steps).

However, CB and I've been creating side waters for all known water mods and plan to post a new shoppe where peeps can simply download them. After posting that, there wouldn't be any need for peeps to make their own side waters.

[simcitynate 134]

That would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much to you both. 

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

Btw, is there another water mod that you use? If it's one we've already created side waters for, I could attach it here as a pre-release you could test.

[simcitynate 134]

I also use Emerald Isles, Caribbean Dream, Black Sea and Icy Arctic. If none are available though I'd be happy to try any of the others you have to offer.    

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

On 2/9/2022 at 11:43 PM, simcitynate said:

I have to ask, has anyone already made these changes to any water and made it available somewhere?

We can now answer: Yes!

See here:

 

[simcitynate 134]

I'm so grateful for your efforts, and I know many others will be too. Thanks so much Cori and CB!