What color is your water in Fly!2?

[Guest]

Ihave just made a water mask for my new London scenery and when I previewed it on my work computer the water areas were a 'tastful' light blue. However back on my home computer I get a mid-gray.There are different video cards on each machine one, 32mb the other 64mb. I have not changed any water values in the 'ini'files although I have looked up previous posts regarding changing water transparency. Before I 'play that game' I thought I'd find out what others see as the water value.This is a screenshot (if I can attach it ok) of the home machines gray version.

[Guest captbulldog]

1, you're doing London?!? :-eek 2, that color seems to be the right color or an inland river actually, even if you did it by accident ;)

[Guest]

PrestonWell yes I guess this dirty gray is almost the right color-the river color in the original pic is even greener though.I feel that I do need to make use of a 'water mask' because I wish to continue the scenery (eventually) on to the sea beyond the Thames Estuary and that it will need to blend with Fly!2's 'sea'.I'm going to try bringing back some 'background color' behind the river and reservoirs to make them 'live' a bit more.By the way your EGLL scenery looks really great with this scenery, however I do have a bit of a 'thing' about the house models that appear on your (and others) airports sceneries.I know what the idea is behind placing them but I think you'll see my point when I get this scenery uploaded that the houses are 'too few' and 'in the wrong places'.I can't post a picture because I've started getting 'Primitive Vertex' messages (on the 32Mb machine) when EGLL is installed so I still haven't got the graphic slots correct I guess.I may try editing the txt files to see if I can just get your airport buildings, model aircraft and taxiways because they are so good.DaveT

[Guest]

Continuing on from before...I've returned to the 64Mb machine and this is the very blue water I get.I still would like to know what others see as their 'water color' when the fly out over the sea or large inland lakes.DaveT

[dkohl 0]

"Pure" water reflects the sky colors. It should change depending on the time of day, cloud cover, etc. -DK----David KohlFly! II v230Dell 8200 P4/1.8G, 1024MB RAM, Nvidia GF4 Ti4600 v29.42, WinXP Home Edition.CH Pro Pedals and Yoke USB.

[Guest]

DavidThanks for the reply.Both these sets of illustrations have no clouds set in the sim and they are from the same scenery pods-they don't seem to change much with time of day either. I'm surprised to see how different the water is rendered on two different machines and I don't know what I should be aiming for in the scenery I'm making.DaveT

[Guest ba747heavy]

Hey all --Would the different H20 colorings have anything to do with how the 'scenery options' are set? On the 64 Mg comptuer, could he have the waer details all the way up, and on the 32 mg computer the water could be all the way down?Just my thoughts

[Guest lawyerpilot]

at the top of this forum.. It shows you how to adjust the water color based on reflectivity or transparency values in fly.ini.P4 1.8768 ram 80 gig hardriveVisiontek Ti4 4600CH yoke/pedals19" inch monitor-Soundblaster PCI 512Win XPPrivate PilotAOPALawyerPilots Bar Association"Men without dreams are never free, twas thus this way and thus will ever be."

[Guest Dean]

>David >Thanks for the reply. >Both these sets of illustrations have no clouds set in the >sim and they are from the same scenery pods-they don't seem >to change much with time of day either. Dave,I have had all the colors you've shown depending on the time of day. The color of the water changes significantly from dawn to dusk. Try changing the time from dawn to dusk while watching a water area and see if you that might be the explanation.

[Guest]

Thanks, just tried that and I only get a slight lightening of color around mid-day, no real change of overall color. This was on the 32Mb Ge-Gorce with 'more than 32Mb' set in the Graphics options.I'll see what the render.ini changes to 'water reflectivity' do but I wished to find out how others will see the water areas.I have discovered that the 'water mask' doesn't require corresponding 'transparent' areas in the 'main scenery TGA' and also that changing the 'water mask' TGA to have some 'gray scale' variations introduces more believable water-ie not just one color.

[Guest]

I dont know the full reason but I have been able to try many computers Im able to lay my hands on and find different outcomes with them all, if its video card, driver settings or the way the motherboard is working,,,who knows. I have been building computers for a while now and Im always shocked at the changes from 1 computer to another.Steve Brown

[Guest Henri W]

David,This is what I get with Marc's skies.ini and waterTransparency=185.Best regards,Henri

[Guest ben_]

DavidThe fastest way to see the effect of time/sun position on your water, is to hit SHIFT-T to go back half an hlour and T to go forward an hour. The effect is virtually instantaneous so you should be abe to see the whole of the daylight changes in a couple of minutes.Ben

[Guest]

Thanks Henri for the picture.That looks like my 32Mb machines rendering of water- a gray color.I have heard that others get the 'light blue' that my 64Mb machine gives.I do find it interesting that there are variations in the basic color we get so I guess I'll try my 'improved versions' out on both my machines before settling on a final rendition.I've read Andy Dales 'transparant coastlines' addition to 'SaltyDog's Scenery Guide' (www.theSalters.orgFly2) and he also mentions that the water mask can be 'softened' to reveal some of the underlying textures from the 'main scenery TGA'. I'll do this over the next couple of days to improve the water.

[Guest Henri W]

Good luck, David.I will be looking forward to your scenery.Best regards,Henri