Creating water above initial sea level

[onionguy92]

I've been searching the forums, and haven't found the answer to my question. Is there any way to create bodies of water reliably that reside above (or below) sea level without manually modelling the body of water? The server could have 3 fields instead of the usual two. Minimum water height (this height or lower is water--useful for setting water tables), sea level (exceptionally large areas of water would be at this height) and maximum water height (no lakes or streams above this point (useful for planets with high-altitude locations where the air may not be dense enough or wet enough for water to stay on the ground for a while). Then the World Editor could have a tool where you click in a depression and it opens a dialog requesting a water height, you set the water height and it fills the depression with water to that height above the lowest point in the depression. Any excess spills over into neighboring plains or depressions to make smaller puddles or lakes. This is totally possible, as it is done in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, as well as all other versions. This may eventually have the potential to make rivers possible.

[fhko]

I don't believe theres currently any way to have bodies of water at two or more different levels...creative modeling would probably be your best bet to accomplish something like that.

[zaroba]

yea, variable water levels would be great.

but as fhko said, its not currently possible unless you use models.
using animated models to replicate streams and ponds above sea level is something i have been considering trying for sabrada and ciroz.

[onionguy92]

dang. Due to a 'nuclear disaster', my planet Emek has been completely leveled, and I am rebuilding it with a grand vision. Every single piece of land is being worked into a specific shape, with many geological features such a very realistic river valley, a continental shelf, a hidden cove in the cliffs, rolling plains, a plateau, a canyon, treacherous mountain ranges, seaside cliffs, beaches, a river delta, etc. I've got the river delta working, where the river widens at the mouth and several sand bars become exposed and hidden as the water level rises and falls with the waves. I had hoped for some loophole that would allow me to create a river going inland from this delta and up in to the mountains to its source. I have also discovered that removing smoothing in the terrain editor gives you remarkable freedom.

[Fooli]

Yes, if you're prepared to spend a fair amount of time smoothing the heightmap manually :)

I've no idea how near or far mit was from completing the rivers code, but it's definitely on the to-do list. For now, unfortunately, it's just not possible without fudging (using models etc, as described above)
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[onionguy92]

now see, the great thing about being a digital artist (I work freelance doing graphic design) is having access to a program like the GIMP (or Photoshop for those who want to spend lots of money), which has cool stuff like gradients. Taa-daa! Manual smoothing. Even better, using gradients for smoothing allows to control how much it's smoothed and in what direction and how steep or gradual the smoothing is. The Emek landscape is now complete (for the most part-- I still occasionally tweak it to accommodate bridges and such, and may blast open a pass through the mountains, because as of now the only way through is by river, which is incredibly treacherous and difficult (thus the names 'Shipwreck River' and 'Skeleton River')). A way through is probably necessary because there are towns or habitable areas on two sides of the map. Visit Emek and check it out if you want. I'll have the server up most of the time now.