How can I get varying water levels?

[Serjourn Daxter]

I have one sim, Adult Hub, where I have raised water level to 40 meters and raised surrounding sims to "tuck in" the water at the sim edges. All looks reasonably OK and works OK (Linden waters look a whopping lot better than prim water), except that the view from the sim is mildly confusing as it assumes that the water level in any unoccupied surrounding sim should also be 40 meters, even vacant sims next to sims that have 20 meter as water level. If this is unclear, please have a look at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Adult%20Hub/128/128/57. Moving to the surrounding sims, water level in all sims seem to be 20 meters, and this is also the case in vacant map plots that are shown with water level 40 from the sim with Linden waters at 40 meters.

 

Another "funny" effect is that if I cam out past the sim border into a 20 meter water level sim and move my camera down, I go "under water" when passing 40 meters, even if the sim my camera is in has a 20 meter water level.

 

I WISH there was some sort of variable to set in the sim, like (the imaginary) "ll$water_level_in_unoccupied_spots_surrounding_this_sim" that could be set to an appropriate value, say 20 meters :) Linden waters is so much better than prim waters. Anyone out there with different ideas? Suggestions? Any Lindens that can fix this? Anyone?

 

Serjourn Daxter

[Rolig Loon]

You are trying to fight nature, Linden Lab style.  It can't be done.  There is only one water level per sim, and the default is 20m.  The way to get your sim's water level to match the ones around you is to set yours to match theirs, not the other way around.    When you view a sim with your cam, the view you see should show the water level relative to the sim you are standing in.  That is, when you put your cam position in a neighboring sim but are standing on your own, your camera should see your sim's water level (in your example, 40m).

It's all very confusing, but almost impossible to work around.  We are messing with the world here.  In RL, there is normally only one water table in an area the size of a sim, so we don't see this sort of contradiction.  We don't see it in SL either if we are on isolated islands.  It only happens when we try to do something "unnatural" by setting different water tables on adjacent sims.