I have been "collecting" different sets of water textures (*b2wa1.bmp) to try to find a color combination I like.Yet everytime I start FS9 and slew around, I am seeing the same sort of skycolor blue; so I am assuming there is an environmental map or something besides the basic texture files.Can someone point in the right direction on this? As the title says, I'm confused.

Hello Ron, I assume you refer to "water classification" or water class. It works basically the same as the land classification (or, land class) except with much less variety. You can find a pretty good explanation in the SDK, and I think that EZ-Landclass by Russel Dirks (which should be in the Avsim library, unless it suffered in the hack) contains a gallery of the different water textures, as well as letting you change them.In FSX, the colors and effects of water textures are modified by using the relevant slider, but I believe that in FS 9 you just basically get the texture, so if you see the same color everywhere, then simply change it to what you want with a water class file.Best regards.Luis

Hello, Luis.Although I don't understand all the details, I believe you are correct.

Two examples of what I am seeing.

Hello Ron,There are dozens of different water textures, classified according to depth and algal content for oceanic water, and according to sediment for inland water.Water class is assigned, just like land class, to different parts of the world in different ways. So, changing one or two textures will only modify display in those places where those textures appear and not at all for all water in the world. To see the water class assignments for that area, or land class for that matter, launch TMFViewer and load either the worldwc.bgl (world water class) or the worldlc.bgl (land class) respectively.Please see the SDK information and get Russel's program which contains a very nice compilation of the water textures in a sole image file. (oops, just looked in the library and could not find EZ-Lanclass, perhaps it is available somewhere else. Or, if you want, I can send it to you. Although, really, SBuilder also does water class, and land class, and you can find it at:http://www.ptsim.com/index.php?option=com_...0&Itemid=18 )Unless you are doing very advanced scenery modification, it is probably preferable to just make a new water class file for the area desired, and not to substitute textures. You can find my tutorial on land class design for FS 9, with a minimal section on water class, in the Avsim library:Simple Instructions for Modifying Land Classhttp://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?&DLID=60908Best regards.Luis