Hello,

I think I have a problem with the colour of the water ponds and seas... It really seems "insipid", and gray... I tested it in several worlds (I know it's like that in Bridgeport but I'm not playing in this world) : Isla Paradiso, Sunset Valley, Hidden Springs, but in all the worlds the water looks gray.
In the map view, it looks blue fine, nothing unusual, but in the sims view... well here are some photos :

Hidden Springs Map View


Hidden Springs Sims View


Isla Paradiso Map View


Isla Paradiso Sims View


Ponds



First can you confirm it is not normal ? (maybe it is o/)
I thought that maybe it was the reflection and mirrors settings, but it is to the maximum/utmost so...
I recently changed my computer and I don't remember the water having this colour, I checked older screenshots... Even in videos I can see that when people are creating ponds the colour is much more blue...
Maybe I missed something simple but I don't see what...

Thanks in advance ^^

Maybe it's because of the weather? I've noticed the world water looking more grayish when it's overcast outside.
People may also have been using environmental mods in the videos you've watched

Thanks for the answer o/

I thought about the weather too, so I made rain and sunny weather to see if there was a difference, but no... even in Summer with 30°C, water is gray as if there were clouds...
Yes, I found out that there were mods to change the colours but I don't thinks they were all using it in the videos (but we never know xD)

I found a photo taken on my previous computer :



The water is really better I find, I don't understand what it is not anymore...

EDIT : And I took the same screenshots on the other computer :

Hidden Springs Map View


Hidden Springs Sims View


Pond


There is clearly a difference, no ?

Have you installed a lighting mod at all? They will affect the water colour.
modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=459198

No I didn't use any of those mods, I just tried one (not on this thread) to change the water colour in more turquoise to see if it would change something : it was fine in Map View but I had the same problem when zooming so it didn't change...

I found a old thread that concerns my problem :

http://modthesims.info/t/418252

For this person, it was a "rendering" problem which was solved by changing the videocard... can it be the same thing for me ? I recently changed my computer so...

That looks like a completely different issue to me, as your pictures are showing water transparency.

Could you do a quick test? Drag your Documents/ Electronic Arts/ The Sims 3 folder to the desktop and run the game. Do your ponds look normal now?

I did the test, and in the main menu I got a message I'll try to translate accurately :

"Warning : videocard not recognized
Your videocard has not been found in our database. Your graphic parameters/configuration have been adjusted to the higher possible level/rate, but you can lower it if your performances are reduced".

So maybe this is the reason ? I went into a world and there is the same problem.

To be honest I had a LOT of problems with my new computer to play the Sims : it was always crashing and I always had a bluescreen that was restarting my computer... It was quite annoying. A friend helped me a lot to resolve the issues I met and it finally seems I can play normally.
But this friend touched a lot of things with graphic cards, Ndivia, and a lot of things I am not familiarized with... and maybe he did something that causes this issue with water ?

Any other idea ?

I can still play the game, but it really looks like they are falling in an endless hole while swimming...

First you need to make sure your graphics card is correctly identified:
Game Help:Getting new graphics cards recognized by the game^wiki

Thanks for the link ^^

I did what they told to do if I had "Found:0" and indeed I had this.
And I managed to correct it, and now I have "Found:1".

When I went in the game, I clicked the Restaure Defaults button, and I had my blue water back o/
But when I tried to change some other options, the white water came back again... But with a lot of graphic options manipulations, I discovered that the water was white ONLY if the Draw Distance was not put to High...

So now I have the option put to High and I have the blue water as I want... so well it seems to be fixed now xD

In conclusion : I have the blue water when I put the Draw Distance option to max o/

So thank you very much, your link was really helpful ^^

Ahh, well done! Yes, if the draw distance is not high then distant objects will be 'fogged out', and this will also affect the water opacity. Glad you fixed it, nice work!