MapEd: failed to register water level for uid xxxxxxx

[RootlessAgrarian]

Ummm... I see this error message. I don't know what it means. I do have 2 terrains with water texture, being used to build 2 ponds/lakes.
Does the game auto-detect a water texture being used on a terrain and impose some special water rules?
How should I respond to this error? is it safe to ignore it?

[ETS2-User]

It occurs if you have several bodies of water of different height levels nearby. Reflections may start glitching, but other than that it's harmless.

[RootlessAgrarian]

@ETS2User so, even though IRL you can have a pond that is higher than another pond, the game complains about it? OK, noted.

So, when I instantiate a Terrain and use one of the Water textures for it, the game "notices" which texture was used and adds it to a special "water plane" list?

[Vøytek]

If this material "calls" the water reflection effect, then the game notices it obviously

[RootlessAgrarian]

Ah. So it's about the reflection algorithm really? I was interested to discover that reflection was an attribute not of the water plane but of the surrounding objects -- that each object (road segment, model, etc) had a "reflection" property that had to be invoked individually for realistic reflection. Guessing this is for efficiency, so that the engine doesn't try to reflect enormously complex scenery?

It also seemed to me, in my tutorial map, that some objects (Building types only) did not reflect even when this property was turned on. I'll have to try this again to verify.

Theoretical question: if I turned off reflectivity of all objects surrounding both water planes, would the error message then go away?

[MandelSoft]

Ah. So it's about the reflection algorithm really? I was interested to discover that reflection was an attribute not of the water plane but of the surrounding objects -- that each object (road segment, model, etc) had a "reflection" property that had to be invoked individually for realistic reflection. Guessing this is for efficiency, so that the engine doesn't try to reflect enormously complex scenery?

Or details that you don't see in the reflection. So yes, it's for efficiency.

Theoretical question: if I turned off reflectivity of all objects surrounding both water planes, would the error message then go away?

No; the game still registers a water plane and it will set a reflection setup for any object that could be reflected, regardless of if there are any.