Inland river textures

[Fnerg]

Hi guys, I'm experimenting with a .bmp in scenery/world/texture which is the first water texture in the list. This is the inland rivers and streams texture and I think it is displayed whenever the water body is the shallowest in the sim.

I want to try and create the right balance of brown and green and be able to see rocks and shallows from the air as you do in real life. I find that the topography effect in PSP does this quite effectively.

However I'm curious about how the sim determines the shade of colour based on the cloud cover. I might have the river colour looking correct under cloudy conditions but switch to clear skies and the river turns deep aqua blue. There must be another texture that the sim calls upon for that condition but I'm not able to determine how or what shading textures are used to make that effect happen. I was wondering is anyone had a better understanding of how this works.

I'm attaching the bitmap if you want to try it. Try flying out of CYFD, and head east to see my testing ground. I'm open for suggestions. Right click save image as to a folder of your choice. Back up your original.

Doug

 

[Matt Wynn]

for rocks and things Doug why don't you find a tiled image of stones and shrink it right back and overlay then add colour etc... in fact i'll give that a try, off to test time, will report back soon...

 

[Fnerg]

Hey Smoothie, tried that.The sim really magnifies this texture so the points have to be really small or else it looks like big blotches of colour in the river.

 

[aeromed202]

More power to ya. I tried darkening the two textures I knew of for inland waters but even thought they were almost black I couldn't get a realistic muddier look. I would like it if ponds, small rivers, and lakes didn't look like the ocean. White caps look funny on a creek.
The end effect you seem to be after would be fabulous if you ever figure it out. Does the sim really adjust by depth or does it go by shortest width for a given length of water? As I fly down a narrow river the waves/white caps will form and vanish at particular minimum width points along the way.

 

[Cazzie]

Here are two I made for inland water for FS9, which work for me. One is for brown water and one for green. Enlarge them, save them to a Temp folder and move to your Scenery > World > Texture folder and overwrite. Make a Back-Up of the originals first always.

These were done using very Hi-Res Google Earth images of rivers and color correcting.

Caz

 

[Fnerg]

Does the sim really adjust by depth or does it go by shortest width for a given length of water? As I fly down a narrow river the waves/white caps will form and vanish at particular minimum width points along the way.

This from the Terrain SDK
"To give greater visual control, the water was categorized by depth, plankton concentration, and tropical. The depth of the defined in the table below tends to dictate the darkness of the water color: the deeper the water, the darker the texture. The plankton concentration determines the amount of green in the water color: the more plankton, the greener the water. The tropical waters were highlighted because they tend to have a more vibrant color."

 

[Fnerg]

Here guys, try this and tell me what you think.

 

[Motormouse]

Without wishing to put water on anyone's fire, IIRC Bill Lyon's did a similar set?

Should be at the usual places.

ttfn

Pete

 

[Fnerg]

Not to take anything away from anyone's water replacement textures, they're all great. I'm doing this strictly for my own visual pleasure and sharing with those interested.
I kind of like this one. Maybe a little more shade tweaking, but I think I'm onto something here.

 

[Ranger75]

An interesting attempt at adding some texture to rivers. Your latest would be OK in an area with fast flowing streams and lots of rapids. I prefer one similar to Cazzie's 'brown water', where the rivers blend in better and do not attract undue attention. Good luck with your quest for the 'perfect' inland water!

WS
CYTR

 

[dogknot]

Here guys, try this and tell me what you think.

Very similar, but more exaggerated detail, to the one in Holger's Misty Fjords package. A liitle more tweaking and I think you will have something very nice.

 

[Fnerg]

Ok I really like this. I Google Earthed the Grand River and this is really close to the colors and detail. At least as best as the sim will allow me. lol. Try overcast, mid day clear sky, and different seasons, see if you like. Show me some screenies if you can. I'd like to see how it looks on your rigs.