Djent on 6/11/2018 at 03:52

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I'm trying to make an island with a surrounding ocean in Dromed, and I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to make it look as if the ocean goes on for a while rather than it just being a small box?

https://i.imgur.com/3hBzxNP.jpg

I could use some distant art to mask some of it such as islands or rock formations, but there will be areas where there is just ocean, and as you can see in the screenshot above at the close side where the camera is located, it is very noticeable that it abruptly ends.

I've noticed in a few FM's this hasn't been hidden; I remember in Pirates Ahoy which had a lot of ocean areas that ended very close to the shore, but is there a way to make it look less abrupt?

PinkDot on 6/11/2018 at 12:05

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These may or may not work, but worth trying:
1) use cylindrical shape for your ocean - not cubical. This way distance to the horizon line will be always more or less constant.
2) going one step further - use an upside-down cone shape for the water (you may flatten the bottom in the center by using another solid brush. But this will eliminate the gap you're seeing now between the water surface and the ocean bottom. You will have to stop player from being able to swim faraway, as this would reveal the the trick.
3) use fog with a large distance. You can use different fog settings for the water volume.

Independent Thief on 6/11/2018 at 18:09

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I wonder if someone could come up with a distant art image of the ocean, something that could be adjusted to cover the gap and give the illusion that the water goes out further as long as you didn't get too close to the edges.

Yandros on 7/11/2018 at 05:32

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You can't go to or above 1000 for any X Y or Z coordinate, if that answers your question.

vfig on 7/11/2018 at 12:48

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The only problem I can see in your screenshot is that I can see the sky through the transparent water. And I assume that, if it's a cube, that the corners will also be visible too, as PinkDot pointed out. Both are easy to fix. Here's an approach that looks decent:

If your air brush is rectangular, replace it with a cylinder. For me, a 512x512 cylinder with 16 sides seems pretty good.

Make sure the water brush is also a cylinder with the same X/Y dimensions. Give it a default texture of whatever you want the ocean floor to look like. Make sure its walls also use the same texture. Go through each of the walls and reduce the texture scale: for me, 15 left the texture a bit too visible through the water, but 14 was perfect.*

(Click through to see the under-the-water screenshot too)
(https://imgur.com/a/sX5LvRI) https://i.imgur.com/Oc0J1VA.png

*If you're using custom textures, then leave the texture scale at 16. Using your favourite image editor, copy the texture you're using for the ocean floor, and either rescale it down to 16x16, or add a strong gaussian blur—the idea is to make the details invisible, leaving just the colour variation. Then use that texture for the side walls of the water brush. You'll get the same visual effect without the lightmaps taking more texture space needlessly.