Hello,

I've been having this problem for a while and I don't know how to fix this. When I try to build a pool or a pond, they look normal on the lot view, but when I move to NHood view or to another nearby lot, the water disappears. If it's a pool, the terrain will look flat with this ugly blue paint where the water should be, and for the pond, it'll just appear as an empty hole with no water.

I've already moved all my downloads folder out and tested it with none of my custom content (including Voeille's water overhaul and my lighting mod - they don't seem to be the problem), tried disabling the RPC Launcher settings, starting the game with the usual launcher, un-applying GRM, and even reinstalled the whole thing to test it in vanilla game. No matter what I do, the water will still have that same problem.

Are there any settings I have to change or any cheats I can apply to fix this?

Just to check. You do have it on the highest graphics setting?

Yes, I'll link some pics from my current settings in game

If the lot view is fine, then maybe this might help. https://modthesims.info/t/479610

I'd almost guess GraphicRules was set to display lots at the lowest settings. Do you have any issues with sea water, too? If you have similar issues to the ones in the link above, try to only change those things in the GraphicRules settings (not via GRM!) and see if it helps.

Could also be an issue with the graphic card/chip settings, or you may need to update it (I had CAS act up with lines going across it until I updated mine - my computer was relatively new at the time). Make sure your game is using the card/chip.

Seems you've already tested most of the things I'd normally suggest you look for (a complete reinstall would usually remove any leftover issues with these):
- Edits in the wrong places of the Graphic Rules file could potentially cause issues with NH appearance.
- Some cheats added to the "UserStartup.CHEAT" file (in relation to your lighting mod or Voeille's pond mod) could affect NH appearance.
- Installing more than one lighting mod, pond mod, flavor pack of any of these, or mix'n'matching two that don't go together could potentially cause conflicts, such as water showing up strange.
- The RPC can affect how lot imposters (and anything on the lot including ponds/pools) show up.

That looks normal to me; lot imposters are low res (you can get mods to upscale them a bit, but the models are low poly) and the lot imposter is what you are seeing from a neighbouring lot.
Ponds always look like an empty hole from hood view, and pools are just a flat texture.

I don't currently have a NH pic of a pool (I'd have to open my game to take one), but my ponds have always looked like the pic below (before installing a pond mod, so now they look slightly different but still not like OP's pic).

If you use the pond mods, remember to add a pool square in each corner of the lot, or the ponds will act up (it's not enough with just one, they need to cover the full area of the pond. Could possibly affect the NH view, but I'm not sure. I had some issues with mine showing up with black water and/or glitchy reflections until I added a second square - I knew you needed to add one since some tutorials had mentioned it before, but I'd completely missed the line about two in the added tutorial of the mod I was installing ).

There's a few cheats that affect water. Make sure they're not causing the issues, in for instance userProps, userStartup or GraphicRules. Can occasionally toggle off if the game goes to low settings.
boolprop lotWater true/false
(False removes water on the lot. Does not affect swimming pools.).
boolprop displayNeighborhoodWater true/false
(Toggles the display of water in the neighborhood. False removes water)
boolprop nhoodWaterReflection true/false
(Toggles the display of reflections in the water in the neighborhood)

@simmer22 The colour of the 'hole' for the pond imposters depends upon a few things- pond depth, pond ground cover, other items on the lot, lot orientation, custom shaders. But there is no water in the pond or pool at all- it's just textures, even with water mods. This is what it looks like from one of my lots:

Looks very similar from hood view. The hood grass texture on RheaIvy's image looks different from mine, but I'm just using the Maxis default.

Shows how often I check stuff in hood view. Mine is the same. Looks like it's normal.

SOLVED!

First I tried applying all those fixes, and nothing changed. I've also never noticed it's like that even in an unmodded game, but it's as @simsample said

Still, I could swear I've seen real water in the ponds before. So I tried leveling the neighborhood terrain to be closer to sea level... And here it is!!

Thank you all for helping me figure it out! This has been troubling me for months!

Oh I see- you were seeing the hood water showing through the lot, due to low terrain elevation. Glad you figured it out!