» Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:28 am http://youtu.be/iLJ0f3HHQzs?hd=1
Overview:
This is Realistic Water Textures revived and remade from scratch. New water surface textures were carefully crafted in an attempt to imitate the fluid motion of water. Lake, pond, river and ocean water are now visually and aurally distinct from each other. Various water effects have also been modified.
Water - Visual:
Rivers and creeks are the only bodies of water with an obvious flow direction. It was strange seeing lake, pond and ocean water flowing only in one direction and by definition lakes and ponds don't flow. Instead, they will appear to ripple and bob in place to emulate the vertical movement of real life, standing water.
Lake, pond, river and ocean water are a bit more blue. In a mountainous region like Skyrim, water should be fairly cold. Colder water limits the growth of freshwater algae and other plant particles, which tends to give water its greenish hue. Ocean and lake water are now bluest followed by river, pond then marsh water. Keep in mind this mod was balanced with vanilla lighting so other lighting mods will affect the color.
In addition, I've gone through almost every interior and exterior cell with water and made cell edits when appropriate to allow unique water types for the four major bodies of water in Skyrim: oceans, lakes, rivers and marshes/ponds. Without cell edits, lakes and ponds would share the same texture and settings as the ocean. I've also used cell edits to correct the flow of rivers if possible. Regardless, I had already attempted to craft river water in such a way that multiple flow directions could be interpreted depending on the angle of view.
Water - Audio:
Now that lake, pond and ocean water are separated, it's possible to give them unique, ambient sound effects. Ponds are silent. Lakes have gentle, gurgling, steady waves while the ocean is louder and composed of choppier water sound effects. To match the quality and volume of the new sounds, the river ambient sound effect was replaced as well. If RealisticWaterTwo - Waves.esp is installed, all waves from Dragonborn will now have a crashing water sound effect (unfortunately not perfectly synced). Finally, the volume of waterfalls and rapids has been increased.
Waves:
All wave plugins require Dragonborn installed. The waves from the Dragonborn DLC were slowed down and retextured. In particular, the splash and foam effects were made more visible. All done via mesh and texture edits.
The logic I mostly followed in placing them is simple: is there a large expanse of primarily open, deep water where wind-powered waves can build up before breaking towards the shore? If yes, then there will most likely be a large wave there. Looking at the waves already on Solstheim, it appears Bethesda followed the same logic. RealisticWaterTwo - Waves.esp is required for the wave sound effect to apply to all waves.
Waterfalls:
Large waterfalls have been sped up animation-wise, retextured and more splash particles have been added. Waterfall mists have more volume. All done via mesh and texture edits.
Boats:
Rowboats floating in the water are now animated and gently bob around. An optional file for longboats is provided but static objects such as crates and barrels will not move with the boat.
Other:
Foam effects have been retextured.
Rain ripples will no longer slide across the surface of the water. Rain and water drop ripples have been retextured and transparency has been increased.
Small "fake water" rapids and the foamy streams in Whiterun and Markarth have been sped up animation-wise.
"Shiny" rocks near bodies of water now look wetter.
More info and download at the link: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/41076//?
