Waterfall Tutorial
Replies:
kelistmac: Many thanks!
Damastius: Cheers! I loved the little rural section you did on your CJ too!
_marsh_: A vast quantity! The smell is legendary and travels for miles 
Thanks for the compliment, really appreciated when a CJ legend approves!
heitomat: Thank you! Get out there and enjoy it! You can't really play SC4 ALL the time!
TheMentalist: Many thanks!
Jetty Jockey: Thanks a lot! Rural areas are my preferred choice too, but I love any well crafted CJ whatever the style.
And so to business!
After one or two people asked how I made my waterfalls, I thought I'd show how I do it. As mentioned before, these type of falls have been done before (notably by Jaquelina), but this is to show how I make them.
Tools and Resources:
Essential for building waterfalls:
Jeronij's Culverts and Effects - Contains the water effect we use to create the cascading water
Mayor Mode God Terraforming Tools: - Lets you use the God mode tools in Mayor mode. My favourite plugin of all time!
For beautifying your landscapes I recommend: Chris Adams Pasture Flora, Peg Pond Rock Mod, Hemblem's Rock Mod, Peg Pond Terrain Props and Cycledogg's God Mode Tree Mod
Let's Get Started:
First step start a new city and to try and keep the game's performance acceptable, I turn the Shadow setting to low in the graphics options:
#1
Next I access the God mode tools in the Mayor Menu (see the plugin download above) and select the 'Mesa' tool:
#2
#3
I use the Mesa tool to create a small plateau, roughly in the centre of where I want the water fall to be:
#4
I then use the God mode Quick Level Tool to create the base of the waterfall:
#5
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The finished base:
#7
Now using the same technique, I'll create a second tier:
#8
And a third:
#9
I HIGHLY recommend a save now! In fact I'd use the quick save (ctrl + alt + s) after nearly every adjustment, as it's really easy to muck up all of this work and have to start again!
Select the 'Steep Valley' tool from the God mode menu:
#10
Gently (and I really mean GENTLY) draw a crevice into the hill side; It doesn't need to be precise or level, you can always touch up later:
#11
SAVE! Now continue downwards:
#12
For a more natural look, I'll add a little fork into the proposed route for the water. Feel free to leave it with just one stream until you are comfortable with these techniques. Then use the the God mode 'Shallow Valley' tool to make a lake or river for the waterfall to flow into:
#13
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It all looks pretty ugly and blocky right now so we will employ the God Mode 'Plain Smoothing' tool:
#15
And using a small brush, GENTLY smooth all those sharp edges:
#16
#17
Much nicer! Normally I'd spend a bit longer doing this, but for the purposes of this tutorial, that'll do.
Now for the interesting part; Go to the Mayor mode/ Parks section and select the 'JrJ Water Drop' plop. Thankfully it's near the very top of the parks menu:
#18
Now plop the water, with the white arrow pointing in the direction you want the water to flow (downhill of course!):
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Water is flowing!
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You may find the water hits a bump and stops flowing; Simply use the Mayor Mode Valley tool to make tiny adjustments to the offending section or plop more water drops on the other side of small bumps if it is difficult to terraform. When the flow makes it to the 'real' water it will stop and look something like this:
#21
All being well, you should have a waterfall!
After this I'll delete the water drops and start adding various flora and trees around the water. When I'm happy with that I add the water drops back. I remove them because on big falls on big maps the water can really dent the performance of the game, even on my machine which runs Crysis at a fair pace! After a very quick run over with rocks, trees and flora, I turned shadows back on and produced the two below shots, which I touched up with GIMP for maximum effect. Even spending much less time than I would for a CJ update, the end result still looks pretty good I say!
#22
#23
Best of luck and if anyone does make a fall, please show me!
All viewings, comments & ratings appreciated!
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