Jump to content

A Comparison of Water Mods


Recommended Posts

I prefer WATER in almost all cases, though I like the wave motion of the ocean in PW. I prefer the foam and waterfalls in WATER, and find that it looks better more often in game. PW has improved a great deal, but I still think it errs on the side of too much transparency in places - not in the sense that the water is too pure, but that from certain perspectives it allows clearer vision than reflection and refraction would permit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 99
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I'll wait till I'm completely done with the compares to make my final judgment but atm Pure Waters is standing on top for me. I've not found anywhere yet that the transparency looked unrealistic when keeping in mind that the intent of PW calls for unpolluted waters by pollutants such as waste, dirt, sand, decay, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pure Waters already covers Dragonborn with an optional download. I'm going to look into the Troughs though. In all likelihood' date=' the troughs animation isn't going to be a big deal, but I'll do the compares to be thorough.[/quote']

Blacksmith Forge Water fix was previously in STEP and was removed in 2.2.1 (see the first page of the Working Changelog for 2.2.1) . I can't find any posts that say why it was removed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went back and added the Water Optionals (Reduced Splash & Trough Water - Animated) to the end of the texture compare video because I felt it was pointless to make a 30 second video over the two optionals separately. I'll get it posted tomorrow with my thoughts on the video overview.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here it is! The texture and optionals compare:

 

 

[video=youtube]

 

 

As far as the textures go, I prefer the Pure Waters textures. They are more realistic and provide better transitions, IMO.

 

WATER - Reduced Splash is nice, but a bit unrealistic in this example. When you're standing in ankle deep water and jump like that, you're going to have a much bigger splash...though not as big as vanilla's splash.

 

WATER - Trough Water Animated isn't worth it in my opinion. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I provided one of each. It "tries" to work at the Skyforge but just bugs out. When it does work, it's still unrealistics because the animation is a"flow" animation which there should be any flows in a trough.

 

Your thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not quite clear on what's being compared - is this using PW instead of Water in all cases, and then changing out just the textures and optionals?

 

For me, the only really striking difference is at 1:17, where I think the right hand PW Textures shot looks far worse, turning the near shore ghostly pale, with a very sharp line.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, PW is used and the riverbed textures in the optional file for PW is what is being changed out from default STEP. Then the two animated optional files from WATER is at the end with PW as the water mod. There is quite a bit of difference (view full screen). You'll be looking at the textures along the shore and under the water.

 

I'll agree with you that that one instance wasn't very good. All the others (including the shots that didn't make the video because they were redundant) were very nice and PW was better in nearly all cases; providing a smoother transition from shore to water. If need be, I can add more compares to the video.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I viewed in HD - a bit silly to view texture comparisons any other way! My point is that most of the differences are relatively subtle, and I don't have a strong preference on them, but that case is quite major.

 

Is there a reason that you didn't include the texture comparison with WATER as the water mod?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because the texture were made to be used with Pure Waters as it's an optional file for that mod. Using them with WATER would be nearly pointless because of the lack of transparency (WATER uses the same values as vanilla in nearly all instances). The only difference you'd see is the shoreline changing from rocks to more dirt/sand like (like they do in the current compare). You wouldn't see the rest of the textures. However, that particular spot doesn't look very good in the first place with just PW alone. I can expand the compares for the textures if everyone would like to see more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would like to see a comprehensive compare of WATER against PW ... underwater, river/lake/ocean surfaces with and without reflection, texture options (using "best" of former), foam/splash/flow compares. Side-by-side splitscreen compares would be best. Alternatively, short sequence of one followed by same short sequence of the other.

 

Easy to ask I suppose :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Use.