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zaide_chris
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 25th Aug 2011 at 8:24 AM Last edited by zaide_chris : 5th Feb 2012 at 11:06 AM. Reason: More descriptive title.
Default Tutorial: Adding Water Planes (For Custom Lakes or Rivers)
Before you start it's a good idea to plan where you want to place your water planes and the terrain around them.
Note: The center of the planes can't be under ground.

Tools you should already have and know how to use:Instructions:
  1. Backup your World!
  2. Figure out where you want your Water planes and how many you want. For each water plane you want you need to know the Y, X1, Z1, X2 and Z2 cords, and the Instance.
    • Y is the height.
    • X1 and Z1 are the cords for one corner of the the plane.
    • X2 and Z2 are the cords for the other corner.
    • The X2 needs to be larger then X1, same for Z2 with Z1.
    • X2 minus X1 and Z2 minus Z1 need to be more then 32 or when you make the planes you need to go to advanced and check "Force one Tile".
    • The Instance of the first plane needs to be 0, the second 1 the third 2, ect.
  3. After you have info for all the planes you want go to Sims 3 Water Plane Generator
    • One at a time for each water plane you want enter the Y, X1, Z1, X2, Z2 and Instance then hit download.
    • A file should start downloading save them all togeather in the same folder.
    • DON'T rename them
    • DON'T change any settings other then Y, X1, Z1, X2, Z2 and Instance unless you know what your doing
  4. Open your world in s3pe.
  5. Export the one file with a type of 0x90624C1B to the same folder as the water planes.
  6. Edit byte 0x12 of the 0x90624C1B file with your hex editor to the number of water planes you want to use.
  7. Import all the water planes you downloaded and the 0x90624C1B file back in to your world.
  8. Done.

Frequent Problems
  • The water planes is square but I want another shape.
    You need to "clip" the water plane by having it go under ground on all sides then save and reload. As simsample shows here.
  • Water planes vanish after save.
    The center of your water plane is most likely under ground so the game is "clipping" the whole thing.
  • I extracted a water plane from one world and want to use it in another but it's not working.
    CAW edits water planes whenever you save after making at-least one terrain change, so it's always saver to just make a new plane rather then reusing one from another world.

If you have any questions about how to use S3PE or a hex editer please use the forum search or google.
If they are just about the technical side of water planes ask in Water Levels from Twinbrook and Bridgeport.
If they are about getting water planes in your world feel free to ask here.
22 users say thanks for this. (Who?)
SandrineD
Lab Assistant
#2 Old 25th Aug 2011 at 8:43 AM
WP Generator looks good now but you can confidently roll unk1 and unk2 into one and label it opacity with the warning to keep the range under 00 80 or 32768 in decimal.
You could also label unk3 as scale I guess.
C'est la vie, they say, because they can't change their world, but, we can! That's why we have CAW! :rolleyes:
SandrineD
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 25th Aug 2011 at 9:00 AM Last edited by SandrineD : 25th Aug 2011 at 1:58 PM.
My little version for academic curiosity.
Its a simple html file with javascript to generate the Hex for the file
paste it into an existing 707 file.
Not as automatic as the tool above but I like it.
A lot of extras could be added but...

ps - you only need to bother with the parts between the big groups of ##########'s
change those to what you want
pps - seems to work ok in recent versions of FF, opera, chrome, IE
Attached files:
File Type: rar  707Gen.rar (2.5 KB, 259 downloads) - View custom content
Description: new. ver 0.2 with additional error catching for odd sizes
C'est la vie, they say, because they can't change their world, but, we can! That's why we have CAW! :rolleyes:
SandrineD
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 25th Aug 2011 at 9:16 AM
Here's what the output looks like...
click for larger, readable image
C'est la vie, they say, because they can't change their world, but, we can! That's why we have CAW! :rolleyes:
mikitta
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 25th Aug 2011 at 11:46 AM
Link to a good, free hex editor would be nice

God Bless,
mik
SandrineD
Lab Assistant
#6 Old 25th Aug 2011 at 11:52 AM
http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/
C'est la vie, they say, because they can't change their world, but, we can! That's why we have CAW! :rolleyes:
kiwi_tea
Retired
retired moderator
#7 Old 26th Aug 2011 at 12:39 AM
This is fantastic, and simple enough that with effort I can wrap my head around it! You guys are my heros!
CAW Wiki - A wiki for CAW users. Feel free to edit.

GON OUT, BACKSON, BISY BACKSON
simgelf
Test Subject
#8 Old 26th Aug 2011 at 11:16 PM
Default Water plane coordinates
Okay, I get the basic idea, but how do I figure out the X1 X2 Z1 Z2 coordinates? Are they in CAW, or do I have to do some fancy math? My goal is to make a world with a Crater Lake type volcano. Wish me luck!
zaide_chris
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 26th Aug 2011 at 11:37 PM
They are in game or on your height map or you can do some "fancy math"
If you had a 256x256 town 0,0,256,256 would make a plane that covered your town, 0,0,128,256 would cover half, 128,0,128,256 the other half.
To find the coordinates in game you need to place a object then look at the Z, X, and Z of it in the "Property Browser" window.
To find them on your height map most image editors show the coordinates of your cursor and those will match the in game cords.
simgelf
Test Subject
#10 Old 27th Aug 2011 at 1:03 AM
Quote: Originally posted by zaide_chris
They are in game or on your height map or you can do some "fancy math"
If you had a 256x256 town 0,0,256,256 would make a plane that covered your town, 0,0,128,256 would cover half, 128,0,128,256 the other half.
To find the coordinates in game you need to place a object then look at the Z, X, and Z of it in the "Property Browser" window.
To find them on your height map most image editors show the coordinates of your cursor and those will match the in game cords.


Thank you! I can usually figure these things out after much trial and error not to mention a few migraines, but I'm really glad you could answer my question! You've saved me a LOT of time and wasted effort! :lovestruc
SandrineD
Lab Assistant
#11 Old 27th Aug 2011 at 2:01 AM
cuter version with a form so you dont have to edit the html at all.
put in the number and click create
then click "go again" button to do another...
Attached files:
File Type: rar  707Gen.rar (19.1 KB, 252 downloads) - View custom content
Description: 707 Gen with form input... more friendly
C'est la vie, they say, because they can't change their world, but, we can! That's why we have CAW! :rolleyes:
simgelf
Test Subject
#12 Old 27th Aug 2011 at 3:25 AM
Default I like it! But...
Quote: Originally posted by SandrineD
cuter version with a form so you dont have to edit the html at all.
put in the number and click create
then click "go again" button to do another...


Er... what do I do with it after generating pretty green page of hex numbers?

Wait, um, (stares at description above with sample hex for several minutes) replace all the numbers in the hex editor?
zaide_chris
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#13 Old 27th Aug 2011 at 7:31 AM
SandrineD's tool outputs the hex of a 707CA200 file you have to then copy that hex in to hex editor to make the file. The upside of this is you can download the tool. Mine is a php script that makes a binary file then pushes it to your web browser for download. I could post the code, but not many people have php and a web server on there computer to run it with.
simgelf
Test Subject
#14 Old 28th Aug 2011 at 8:43 AM
Quote: Originally posted by zaide_chris
SandrineD's tool outputs the hex of a 707CA200 file you have to then copy that hex in to hex editor to make the file. The upside of this is you can download the tool. Mine is a php script that makes a binary file then pushes it to your web browser for download. I could post the code, but not many people have php and a web server on there computer to run it with.


Ah, so you and SandrineD are offering different routes to the same goal. Cool. Thanks for being so helpful! Cheers!
simgelf
Test Subject
#15 Old 28th Aug 2011 at 10:23 AM Last edited by simgelf : 28th Aug 2011 at 11:01 AM. Reason: I want to clarify my question.
Quote: Originally posted by zaide_chris
They are in game or on your height map or you can do some "fancy math"
If you had a 256x256 town 0,0,256,256 would make a plane that covered your town, 0,0,128,256 would cover half, 128,0,128,256 the other half.
To find the coordinates in game you need to place a object then look at the Z, X, and Z of it in the "Property Browser" window.
To find them on your height map most image editors show the coordinates of your cursor and those will match the in game cords.


Still need some help, I'm afraid. Hope my stupid question can help someone else who may be struggling. It's the definition of X1 X2 Z1 Z2 that is throwing me. If I place an object in the world to get one set of coordinates, X1 and Z1, and another for X2 and Z2, am I trying to define opposites corners, or a right angle?

Okay, after posting this question, I went back to my world, painted a square in the area I want my water plane. The square has these coordinates (X and Z, Y being irrevelant for the time being)
453, 575
497, 575
450, 619
492, 619

So, which numbers are defined by/as X1 X2 Z1 Z2?
zaide_chris
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#16 Old 28th Aug 2011 at 10:54 AM Last edited by zaide_chris : 28th Aug 2011 at 10:55 AM. Reason: spelling
You need opposite corners where the X2 is larger then X1, and the Z2 is larger then Z1
simgelf
Test Subject
#17 Old 28th Aug 2011 at 11:09 AM
Quote: Originally posted by zaide_chris
You need opposite corners where the X2 is larger then X1, and the Z2 is larger then Z1


So, from my coordinates I posted above, I'd get X1= 453, Z1= 575, X2=492, Z2=619. Okay, the fog is lifting. Phew! I think I sprained my brain, and it's WAY past my bed time. Thanks again! :D
topp
Theorist
#18 Old 28th Aug 2011 at 11:17 AM
Thanks for the great tutorial! I'll definately use it. (Of course, when I buy The Sims 3. )
zaide_chris
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#19 Old 28th Aug 2011 at 11:28 AM
"X1= 453, Z1= 575, X2=492, Z2=619" is right,
simsample
Lost in Natla's mines
retired moderator
#20 Old 31st Aug 2011 at 3:37 PM
SandrineD, I'm still getting the error I mentioned here when trying to use your tool. I'm using the version you attached to post #11 in this thread, my inputs were as follows:

Should I be using integers, perhaps?

zaide_chris, on your generator page today I'm getting a blank page if I click the advanced options. It seems to put the javascript in as a URL for some reason! I tried it in three browsers. It works fine otherwise, but I'd like to try the transparency options.
zaide_chris
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#21 Old 31st Aug 2011 at 8:30 PM
About my page sorry about that I will fix it soon until then it works in Google Chrome, I normally test in IE and Firefox too, but I didn't this last time.

and about the planes you should be using integers as that is what both our tools take for all values other then Y as the files use ints in most places. My tool mine floors all the Floats to integers that the user inputs. SandrineD's tool doesn't have as many sanity checks.
simsample
Lost in Natla's mines
retired moderator
#22 Old 3rd Sep 2011 at 9:40 PM
See, I knew I was doing something wrong! Thanks zaide_chris.


Here are some images of water planes in my game, in this case made with Zaide_Chris' tool, although I have found that Sandrine's works wonderfully too.


The upper level of the stream is the water plane, the lower level is sea level. As you can see, water colours imposed by changing the world INI files work just as well for the water planes as for the sea.


I set the water to be slightly transparent, so that the ground texture shows through. When I first imported the water planes to my world, the edges were harsh and the appearance more opaque, as in my image here. However, after saving my world the water planes get edited by CAW, and fit my land contours much better. The filesize of the resources is smaller, too! So, if your water planes do not appear as you imagined, save and reload the world to see the effect.

If your water planes vanish when you save, it is usually an indication that the centre of the water plane is beneath terrain, and so CAW crops the entire plane. This was described by Zaide_Chris here.
In that case you need to edit your world design, or the size of the water plane, so that the centre is not covered.

Thanks again to zaide_chris and SandrineD, for all of the research and the tools to allow us to do this!
Screenshots
SandrineD
Lab Assistant
#23 Old 4th Sep 2011 at 2:47 AM Last edited by SandrineD : 4th Sep 2011 at 3:20 PM.
Nice images there.
I did mention a more user friendly version with a form.
So busy with non S3 project I forgot to ul it.
Ironically I think it adjusts for non integer stuff

Other things are possible too...

Attached files:
File Type: rar  707.rar (37.5 KB, 148 downloads) - View custom content
Description: the right one now
C'est la vie, they say, because they can't change their world, but, we can! That's why we have CAW! :rolleyes:
zaide_chris
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#24 Old 4th Sep 2011 at 10:00 AM
simsample: that looks very nice.

SandrineD: you uploaded that exact html file and signature.jpg in post 11, and not to tell you how to code, but if you add a Math.floor() to lines 258,259 and 261 it should fix all the need a int but got a float stuff.

I have made a java program that can make water planes, but all the settings are hard coded as I don't yet know how to make a GUI. Give me 3-4 weeks and I'll get a working GUI . Class started up 2 weeks ago so I have stuff I need to do other then sims/wow/starcraft .
SandrineD
Lab Assistant
#25 Old 4th Sep 2011 at 3:30 PM
Okay thats kinda silly.
Good spot chris... in fact when I re-uploaded for some reason I attached the old one.
The risk of working on two computers???? [my excuse]

I've changed the attachment to prior post and will also add it here.

Some notes: M.floor the x2 z2 was already done although it is largely redundant as calculations made using them are subsequently rounded or floored. I had done it anyway just to be obs-comp.

In fact the error ss was having was bec. I didn't have something to cover for a tile size that was odd.
So in that case such as his inputs when midpoint was calc it gave something .5
That was the main thing corrected in this revision which you hopefully should have, actually have this time

Tell me it works now :P
Attached files:
File Type: rar  707.rar (37.5 KB, 407 downloads) - View custom content
Description: IT better be the new one this time
C'est la vie, they say, because they can't change their world, but, we can! That's why we have CAW! :rolleyes:
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