Animated waterfalls needed

Is there anything close to falling particles in the MSFS SDK that could be used to simulate water? I had fun recreating this Pittsburgh fountain in FSX back in the day, it even came with sound: FSX PITTSBURGH VFR - YouTube

1 Like

@PuffinFlight @mamuDesign @darshonaut

Hey guys. Sorry for the pings but I was interested in this topic and thought you guys would be good to ask, to see if I can get an answer.

Is this even possible?

Not expecting you to want to do it, of course, buuutt it IS a cracking idea. With the procedural generation tricks you employ (well, you know who I mean!) this could be a killer mod!!

With a bit of manual placement for the main world-famous ones. Whaddya think? :heart_eyes:

1 Like

Thanks @Baracus250 for the call of duty :grin:
Actually there are no big issue on placing waterfalls ( or placing anything), although a lot of not proper waterfalls can be found inside the OSM data (like very small river drop/rapids )

The real deal is making proper effects!

Also, most waterfalls are falling from vertical walls/slab/crag, and the rendering of high sloped terrain using sat imagery is
 yeah
awful! So to see the waterfalls you should go near those awful pourly defined mountains
Also lot more of those waterfalls are likely inside woods, making the waterfall difficult to be seen

But yeah, with some spare time availble can give a try

Thanks for the reply! Yes I suppose applying the visual effects in a convincing and appropriate way is the very hard part to do dynamically. Would be great if some of the well known ones were hand crafted though heheh :wink:

Microsoft Flight in 2012 had them.

Yeah, it is possible but not with an automatic approach. With limited OSM data, even knowing the height of the waterfall we would still lack the width. Also, effects for waterfalls would need to be scalable in 3 dimensions, which is not easy. And last but not least, as mamu mentioned, without sculpting the terrain it would just look stupid.

All in all tricky to do, but possible, just not as a global add-on. Waterfalls are just too distinct. Compare Seljalandsfoss, Gullfoss, Skogafoss and Svartifoss. Every one of them is very different, and they all are just in Iceland, not to mention hundreds distinct ones around the World.

5 Likes

I haven’t looked closely into the MSFS2020 Effects SDK yet, but I watched Asobo’s short tutorial on creating them, and it seems it is fairly easy to create effects. They seem to have far more options (editable bezier curves on parameter values) than FSX/P3D had. I have a lot of experience making effects using the *.fx files for FSX and P3D, and if MSFS2020 effects can be attached to scenery objects (not just aircraft), then creating proper waterfalls would be fairly simple. A 3D vertical cliff would have to be created and embedded into the default terrain mesh, and from the top of that cliff, an fx would be fired, emitting (spewing) water cloud particles down below. If there were time of day conditions (as in FSX/P3D) you could switch colored/emissive version during night time for Niagara Falls case.

Or am I missing something?

hey Guys,
I think there is enough wanting this to put it on the Wishlist. I’m stunned after 2 years it’s still not on there.

1 Like

Yes, I just flew to Wells Grey Provincial Park, known for waterfalls, one higher than Niagara Falls, and I was sadly disappointed, no falls in the park were animated. This would be an amazing add-on or upgrade.

1 Like

same sh!t near Milford NZ
waterfalls missing

1 Like

ANIMATED WATER, PERIOD!!! Rivers, lakes, Oceans, waterfalls. We need DYNAMIC water and DYNAMIC natural scenery everywhere (yes I know there is SOME very limited motion on shores at times and certain locations). That would make a beautiful sim even MO (sic) beautiful (or “Moar” for KSP fans)


2 Likes

Hpoefully more realitisc waterfalls/ floating rivers all over the world. not only add ons.

Floating rivers sounds like a new bug :rofl:

Waterfalls yes, another unfortunate oversight is that the entire Caribbean region, including georgious beaches, dunes, Waterfalls, volcanos etc. has never received a world update. Everywhere else, some had 2 updates.

1 Like

No floaters in rivers please. Can do without that kind of realism.

1 Like

haha i mean waves😂