EDIT by MTS2 Staff: Please note that this mod is NOT compatible with Seasons.
Seasons owners might want to download the Seasons-compliant version from Post # 80, instead.

-------------------------------------------------------------

This is a mod I made in response to a request from Inge Jones back in September...although now that I go look at the original request, it doesn't seem that I've addressed all the issues. :sorry: I'll look again and see if I can come up with something different.

The request was "Is there any chance you can make the garden ponds reflective and not so transparent so you can see plants and lights reflected in them? They shouldn't have that eerie blue glow night and day". Unfortunately I forgot what was said and it came to my memory as "Fix the purple-blue" color of pond water. Ah well. After four days of non-stop work to finish this, I'm going to go ahead and post what I have.

At any rate, I've made several different pond water colors for you if you're interested. Check out the attached screenshots to see the available colors.

You can only have one water color for the game at a time, therefore I've kept all of the file names exactly the same. To distinguish between each (so you know what color you're using), I've archived each color separately and named the archive the appropriate name (for example: "Pond_Water_Aquamarine.zip" contains the aquamarine colored water). The attached downloads each contain 7 separate archives inside them. The idea is to extract them somewhere, then extract the color you want to use. When you want to change colors, simply extract a different archive and overwrite the existing file.

Important Note
Due to the way lot water is displayed, and my non-expertise at doing this, only the Ice color will display properly when in Neighborhood View. All colors display properly when you're in Live Mode, but the other colors appear black in the N-Hood View. Currently, there is no way for me to fix or change this.

Also, there was no way for me to change the fact that pond water seems to have its own light source at night. Lot water is not rendered with standard lighting, and therefore doesn't get dark when 7 o'clock rolls around. Again, there's nothing I can do about this. I believe that if it was possible and didn't consume too much computing-power, Maxis would have made it work the "correct" way. That being said, at night these colors at least do not appear to "glow a radioactive purple-blue".

If for any reason (perhaps a very old video card) the water does not display properly in Live Mode, simply delete the file from your Downloads directory and the default water color will be restored.

Edit: Just wanted to mention that the Neighborhood Imposters (N-Hood images) are only updated when you make and save changes to a lot. So if you change your lot water and are wondering why the Neighborhood view is the same, that's why.


Enjoy!

-Targa