creating realistic water

hi, i would like to know how its possible to create realistic water like at the sea or lakes.
i thought its possible with the terrain editor too but no way. i cant find the right option for that.
is it just a linden thing to build lakes or is it possible for me too? thx

Hi Javiar!

The way to create lakes and such with the Linden water is to terraform and use the Lower Land option and set the land down below water level (I believe it's 20 meters).

Best,
~Ari

yea ty, its 40 meters. i saw it at the knowledge base but i saw a lake at 72m over water level ^^ thats why im asking. there must be a way i think. any ideas?

if it's in a private sim, private sim owners can change the water height at will

Most private sims use 20m as Sea Level.

99% of the time when you see lakes and water above 20m, its done using a PRIM with a 'water' texture. Often the texture is animated. Usually the Prim is nearly transparent. and the texture has lots of alpha.

Check your Inventory for Water. I believe its in the Library.

Also, check the Freebie boxes for 'Splashable Water'!!! Makes a great splash noise and ripples when you jump up and down in it!

You might also pick up a freebie 'fountain' or 'waterfall' and take it apart to see how its done.

If you can't lower your land enought to make a lake using the sim water, you can make a prim based one by denting in the ground enough. I find it best to keep the size to something that can be done with a 10x10 prim because it is next to impossible to get clean lines with joined prims to make larger bodies of water - it depends on your tolerance for prim edges showing.

There are a number of techniques to make your water look more realistic -

*make sure your edges are textured to clear if you are going to go larger than 10x10

*use the script "Anim Smooth" to make the water move, I think it is a Library script so it might already be in your inventory, if not I'm positive it is in one of the freebie script boxes at Yadni's

*for a lake, I would probably use the script set to .05 or even .03 for movement speed

*for best results, use two or three prims stacked on top of each other set something like this:

Bottom prim - transparent to 12, rotate texture 90 degrees

Middle prim - transparent to 22, rotate texture to 180 degrees

Top prim - transparent to 34, rotate textures to 270 degrees

(these are just starting points, adjust to your personal preference.)

Set all your water prims to phantom......

I can show you in world, just give me an IM....

The only way to have "Real Linden Water" like the seas around islands is to terraform to the depth that the waterpland for the sim is set to.

As others mentioned, the common practice is to set cosatal sims to 20M for the water table. This ensures that adjacent sims have the seal levels matching. Inland sims on the Mainland (or on really large private mini-continents), can and sometimes do have higher water tables. You'll find that near the center of the original two mainland continents the lowest elevations are far higher than the highest ones in some costal sims.

Above the water table, prim water is the ticket. You can follow the advice offered above for the basic forms, or there are advanced scripted prim water available from several merchants that will allow you to swim and splash around in it realisticly (while using a HUD or an AO). I rather like the "Prim Swim Water" that Siggy Romulus sells, and his Swimmer HUD. I am making a build right now that will have a large mountain lake, 90 M wide, surfaced entirely in Prim Swim Water.

nice. thank you all a lot for your replies it was really helpfull.

Ceera, I would love to see this when its done. Sounds awesome. I love Siggy's water and swimmer 1.1 too.

Go to Amarin Island, and you can see the huge prim-swim lake that I just built. The lake itself is in the sim just West of Amarin Island. The moat's done, and the lake just needs to have a few prims fine-tuned for position. The client and I spent a few hours today "filling the lake", as well as filling the moat around the palace. *grins* I'm still building the palace beside the lake... I designed and am building the entire 5 sim island, and most of the content in all 5 sims.

Amarin Island and the 4 low-prim sims attached to it are a private estate being built for my client's residence in SL. But polite guests are welcome while I am building it. I am there on and off throughout the day, mostly working right now in the main Amarin Island sim.