Water changes colour

[TheBoeing738]

Hi everyone,

I have recently experienced another problem in FSX. The water seems to be an odd colour and it changes when I modify the weather conditions.

I first noticed it just after I installed two Airport Scenery add-ons. The colour of the water everywhere is way too light and it looks like any land is just floating on the water because all the lakes are the wrong colour too! Today I adjusted the weather conditions during flight and then the water turned grey!

Edit: I have noticed that only parts of the world have 'grey' water - mainly the southern hemisphere. The rest of the world's water is still a bit to bright.

I have no scenery add-ons other than the two airport updates I mentioned. I have absolutely no idea what the problem could be.

Any help or suggestions would be great, thanks

[CaptainTower]

I am assuming you tried removing the addons. At least temporarily to see if that solves the problem.

Tim

[TheBoeing738]

I am assuming you tried removing the addons. At least temporarily to see if that solves the problem.

Tim

Yes Tim, I removed the files but I still have the same issue.

Now, because it's been a while since I started this thread, I thought I'd post some pictures to show you what I am experiencing. The first ones are a little hard to tell the difference, as you would expect a slight difference in water colour when it's raining.

Here's my 777 at St Maarten in fair weather conditions:


This is what the same area looks like after I have adjusted the weather conditions:

So, it doesn't look so bad but there is a difference.

I also have some screenshots off the coast of Sydney. Firstly, in fair weather conditions:


And the exact same spot with the weather changed:


Sorry about the image quality, they "go bad" when I convert them to JPEG. The bad quality kind of makes it hard to tell the difference between the screenshots but when I change the weather, the water goes grey.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

[ReggieF5421]

In the real world, water does change color when the weather changes in many places.

The most dramatic changes I personally seen where when I lived on Antigua in the Caribbean while in the US Navy back 30 years ago.

That beautiful clear blue water of the Caribbean would turn a dull grey when the sky was overcast from approaching storms.

Water that is not really shallow gets its color from two sources - reflections from the sky or surroundings, and from imbedded sediments.

If the water is not carrying a lot of sediment - reflections from the sky will be the main source of color. A little over a month ago, we were camping at a nice little lake north of Houston Texas. The water was amazingly clear for that area. Apparently spring fed. But it looked green in bright sunlight because of the surrounding green trees (it was a small lake).

Imbedded sediment impacts water color mostly on inland waters. If you've ever flown into KSTL, you might have been lucky enough to see the waters of the Missouri River flowing into the Mississippi. The color difference due to the type if sediment carried is even visible on Google Earth, and at Cairo IL where the Mississippi and Ohio join.

One of the bad things that Google Earth does is artifically tint the colors of oceanic waters. The mud bloom off the coast of Brazil where the Amazon flows into the Atlantic is amazing - extending a couple hundred miles. GE had eliminated that with fake blue colors. (Bing Maps still shows the real imagery in some areas.)

Once a few years ago, we could use GE as a reference for the colors of ocean water, but we can't any longer.

That said - FS tries to make some similar type of changes by changing textures when the weather is changed. Unfortunately, FS has a limited range of colors it can use - unlike the infinite subtle variety in the real world.

Yes, the water in FS does turn grey when there are more clouds in the sky. That is by design and is an attempt to emulate the real world behavior.

[mrzippy]

Here ya go! Make your water look the way you want it to! http://www.strikingsoftware.com/downloads.shtml

[TheBoeing738]

Thanks Reggie, I understand that water changes colour when the weather changes, I tried to mention that in my post but I didn't make it very clear. If that's just the way it is in FSX then so be it, I'll put up with it.

I am still however not sure about lakes and rivers, they have certainly changed when I noticed the grey colours. It looks like they are too light or something and the land surrounding them is "floating". It didn't always look like this, rather odd TBH.

But if that's the way it is then that's okay I guess, sometimes turns an ugly grey, though. Thanks.

[TheBoeing738]

Thanks Mr Zippy, I'll give that a go.

[ReggieF5421]

Colors in FSX are different than the real world - I certainly agree.

FS only has a very small selection of colors/ textures available; and it tries to cover the whole world with the same few textures.

Alternate texture sets tend to do very well in certain areas, and horrible in others.