I'm interesting in changing pool water files, namely to match the default pond water files. I know that Targa (I think it was her) changed the pond water files successfully.....I PMed her with requesting information but she never responded. So I guess my only option is to post here.

Has it been done before? How does one go about doing it? Please help. Thanks.

I've been patient so I'm bumping this post again. I'm greatly surprised that not one person has written anything about this, or can atleast point me to some information. I thought this was the "year of the creator"? Can someone not help?

Well I guess things have been slow lately but it isn't a very popular topic if you know what I mean. I had the exact same idea only a few days before your thread. Except I wanted to recolor Targa's mod and my thread may give you an idea about it.here

Sorry you've been waiting a while, just please be patient, you might wanna change your title to specifically what you mean. Now when you mean altering the water files do you mean the same color? or do you want a swimmable lake?

I want a swimable lake, but I don't want to have to go through the huge process of making it everytime, which I've done before but found way too time consuming. I like the sims to swim in actual water, not texture that looks like water. So yeah, I wanted the pool water to be exactly the same as the pond water. I realize that it will probably change all pool water, but that's fine with me.
Thanks for someone finally getting back to me. Although you're thread is different than mine, as we're looking to mod different things.

So if I understand correctly, you were using the fake method of a terrain paint lake? There's 2 different approaches to making a pond swimmable:

1. You can alter a swimming pool - (link)

2. You can place a floor at the bottom of a pond which is complicated but if you use a transparent floor tile (here) it looks really good (link)

But if those still don't help then I'm not sure about turning ponds swimmable. I'm guessing it would be even harder than Targa's water mod because she recolored the pond which altered the codes in the water which is called a material shader but I think it would be more of a matter of getting the terrain vertical to place a ladder.

There're a few things to clear up:

1. The "water" material from the water tool is different from the "water" material from the pool tool.
2. The former is predefined by a terrain material shader while the latter is predefined by the pool shader.
3. The former is actually a hard-coded material projected by its shader while the latter is applied to the pool surface tiling layers (just like floor tiles...)
So, in the scope of material shader modding, one may just copy the terrain water "colouration definition" to the pool shader.

It's effective and easier to alter the corresponding shaders but will affect all pool waters in all lots only in terms of their graphical presentation. The data in the lot files are unaffected theoretically but just how all the pool water are presented.

Beware of that Targa used different ways to alter the codes of the water tool waters. He's amazing to make them.

If using the method mentioned in JustTheBast's tutorial, just beware of the graphical glitch for the blending between the the floor-tile sidings and the water tool water.
I used plants to cover up the ugly sidings as in this lot here
Note, the one shown in my lot has the swim-pool surface when you used a game copy of TS2 or UNI coz I mixed the 3 together in this instance!

As seasons is released, I bet Maxis may further improve the graphical presentation of the water tool and the pool tool. By then, some of my recolours should look even better than ever...:D

sorry, i haven't fooled around as frequently as I used to.



Related linkage:

Changing water colour
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=1831752

Changing Pool Water Files
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=218436

Pond water color modding?
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=217561