Possible to make better looking water?

So the question is...

Is it possible to mod something into PA with this level of water quality? (obviously it wont look this good, this is GPU simulated)

???

The current water is just veryyyyyyyyy boring. It doesn't go well with the beauty of Naval Trails

I'd say if the uberteam think their game is fully moddable, then yes! someone will be able to improve water quality.
However, I'd like to point out that it's more the naval units interaction with and navigation through water that needs a higher priority

I hope the water isn't locked in the engine because then it would not be moddable.

Step one: Find the files that control the appearance of water.
Step two: Replace them with the old ones of Alpha and Early Beta.

That sounds easy... So now we just need to vote on who harasses Uberteam if the files are locked.

I think I found the files. Although I have absolutely no idea how they make the water look like it does.

"C:\...Planetary Annihilation\media\shaders\liquid_flow.fs"
"C:\...Planetary Annihilation\media\shaders\liquid_flow.vs"

You absolutely can mod the water. The shader effect and textures used are listed in the biome. However what makes water look good is the ability to reflect and refract the scene... Neither of which can be done in our engine.

Aww well that's a bummer but I guess I can try to make it look as good as possible.

And, those paths mentioned earlier are not the ones that control the look of water?
Nevermind I found the path

I foresee another rainbow mod incoming...

Still, would be cool to have different coloured "water" (pretend it is some other liquid compound) like that big circular lake map in SupCom with green water.

@bgolus Could you explain to me why the water is all black with this mod?

You might try checking the game log to see if there are any errors. It'll show up as soon as the game starts.

I just got it working, apparently it needed the old shaders as well as the old textures.

Ho ly crap.

HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING ASDKL;FJI;KLASDJF;LKAS

pics or fake

I'VE GOT BETER, GO ON PAMM NUB

So, I think it looks even worse, but here's some pictures. It looks like the gas giant texture.



It's wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too solid looking, and is basically the gas from the gas giant.

@bgolus is there an explanation for why the water from alpha was removed? That looked so amazing compared to the current water.

Well, it's invisible on my laptop for one ;^)

There is also the shore ambiguity issue, but that could probably be separated.

Art director didn't like it because it was too busy, design didn't like it because it was too opaque.

As if current water is less opaque...

NOPE!

In alpha units at the ocean floor could not be seen at all, now they can be.

Do you know why the water looks better (IMO obviously) when we zoom out far enough so the metal spots disappear? It looks less jelly-like at least and you can see a lot more of the ocean floor

Also as far as reflections not working, you could try to pull the trick where you duplicate the model upside down under itself to fake the reflection, and then mess with it's opacity until it looks like a reflection