{H5 ToE} Is there any possibility to make Water invisible ?

[El Chita]

Hi all,
I'm new on CelestialHeavens, I just joined
I am from Germany so please be friendly with my english ^^

I am a Map-Maker and for one of my maps I need to make water invisible, that means no effects, no animations or models, just nothing except the possibility to go boating on it.
And I ask myself if that is possible in the Editor without a Mod, I just want to make a new River Tool.

Does that work ?

[Franzy]

Theoretically you can place water tiles where you need and then place upon them water-based passable objects (which you have to make passable and water-based first, of course) or, better, play some continous visual effects upon them (like fire, smoke, blazing etc).

Either way it won't look very cool. Why do you want to do that anyway?

[El Chita]

I'm doing a new sort of H5-Maps, and for this in need invisible water.
I have placed an Academy-Town on an xxl-map, and I want to have some kind of airships cruising around the town, so that it looks that they are flying. I presented my Map at this adress (It's in German, but you can see the screens)

Your idea I already had , I did it with clouds, but these clouds cost so much working memory that the game gets problems, because of all these effects. So, I thought why not just make water invisible ?

[Franzy]

To my knowledge, water is a texture, and unfortunately all the work with textures is hardcoded in the game core, so it can not be modded at all (you have to edit executables for that).

I think the only way around is by replacing water texture with a translusent texture, but this requires a mod.

[El Chita]

Hey thx, I didn't notice that.
I found the textures, and I think I could change them if I want too, but if I would do that I would change the hole game. Does anyone know how to get into the River-Section where I can create a new River and add my own texture ?

[Franzy]

See if there is a property for the texture in the editor. If so, you can change it the way you create new objects (by typing in new path to your texture). If not, examine the map file itself. There could be a tag for this.

[El Chita]

I hope so ^^

Yeah, the textures I already found, but I don't get in

With 'the file itself' you mean data.pak ?

[Franzy]

No, the MAP file. It's zip archive. Look inside and examine xdb files (they are xhtml actually, view them as text.)

I do not recommend editing these files manually without making a backup copy first.

[Franzy]

I just thought of another soultion for your desired effect.

You can try using dense terrain fog + some clouds effects. this way you will need a lot less clouds, so the map won't be too slow. Fog was descussed a while ago in this forum, just look it up, there were some nice screenshots.

[El Chita]

Thx for the tip, that could work, I must try a bit, can take a while.

The problem I still see is, that I raised the Terrain in the Map, so the Fog would only be seen at the point zero, or am I wrong ?

[Franzy]

As far as I could make it out, you can set the height of the fog, though I'm not sure about this.

[El Chita]

Ah, crap, it doesn't work. Whatever I do, you can still see the Water.
If there is definitive no way to make it complete invinsible, I will just let it be, it's not that important. Anyway, thank you for your great help

I want to present my Map, because it's not that difficult to translate it. Can I do that in this panel or is there an extra place for that ?

[Franzy]

If you need playtesters, post it here. If your map is finished, just send it to the staff (see Submit Map).

[El Chita]

Oh, uhm, so it's not possible to present it before it is totally complete ?
Just because I'm looking for some guys who have some ideas to make the map better.
(I have already playtesters in Germany)

[Franzy]

You should never, never post unfinished map as a finished one. It's a bad, bad thing. For you (reputation) and players (nothing worse than unwinnable map) alike. Post it here in the mapmaking guild if you want opinion of fellow mapmakers.

[El Chita]

Aha, so it is possible to present an unfinished map ?
I mean, I just want to show it, there will be no download link or something like that. It will be more like 'Hey, new map in progress, interested ?' , like they did it in Legends of the Ancients, with screenshots and so on, but just a map and no campaign.

[Franzy]

Yep, of course.

[El Chita]

Ok, thx ^^