I downloaded the FS2004 water textures here http://www.simviation.com/fs2004scenery11.htm and I have had trouble installing them and getting it to work.  I read the tutorials and found where it is a problem.  I put the texture and scenery folders into a main folder and move that main folder into ADDON SCENERY.  I then start up FS2004 and go 2 scenery library, then click 'add area'  I then click the main folder holding texture and scenery and it just directs me through the folders... never being able to add the scenery in... What am i doing wrong!! i need help. Thanx! 

Heya High Flyer,

Oops--sorry Gary you must have posted right before I did.  From what I saw in High Flyer's post he tried to add the Waterzone in the Add-On Scenery.  According to the Waterzone Readme.txt it doesn't go there.

I followed the instructions in the Readme.txt and my Waterzone works fine.

The waterzone water Add-On is an excellent scenery upgrade.  When you get them fully installed try flying over the ocean at night.  The view is truly spectacular.

The first thing to do when installing the Waterzone Scenery Upgrade is to remove what you tried already and start out from scratch.

Download the waterzone.zip file again if you need to.  Unzip it to a temporary folder.  I unzipped mine to the Addon Scenery folder.  I called my temp folder Waterzone Install.

I am assuming that you have a large capacity hard disk on your computer.  It's absolutely critical to do this next step.  Don't skip it!!

Using the Windows Explorer go to your Main FS 2004 directory (i.e. C:\Flight Simulator 2004).  Create a New Folder and name it Backups.  Highlight click the Scenery and Texture folders both in the Main FS 2004 directory.
Right click on one or the other of them and left click Copy.  Open the Backups Folder and Paste these two folders inside.

Next open up the waterzone temp folder that you just unzipped.  You'll see two folders, Scenery and Texture.  Highlight both of these, right click on one or the other and left click Copy.  Go to your main FS 2004 Folder again.  Right click on any free space and then left click on Paste.  A window will appear saying that there is already a folder called Scenery.  The files in this folder will be overwritten.  Click the Yes to All button.  This will overwrite both Scenery and Texture folders in the main FS 2004 directory.

That's it!  You can now pull up your default flight and look around at the lakes and ocean effects.  Now for any reason that you don't like the changes you can open your Backups folder then Copy and Paste the Scenery and Texture folders back into the Main FS 2004 directory, overwriting all files.  Your water effects will now be back to the way they were before.

Once the Waterzone Scenery is working OK then you can go back into the Addon Scenery folder and delete the Waterzone.zip and the Waterzone Install folder.

I hope that this helps !!

Heya again High Flyer,

Did you re-download the waterzone.zip from the link that you supplied in your original post?

Just to check I downloaded the waterzone.zip and used the Windows XP unzip to de-compress the files into a Temp folder.  I came up with 102 *.bmp files in the Scenery\World\Texture folder.  In the Texture folder there was a single file called OceanHeightField.bmp.  This is correct.

Now if memory serves, a *.RAR was an old compression utility file primarily used in the early to mid 1980's.  This brings two questions to mind --

Are you using Windows XP as your operating system? 

If so, are you using the Unzip archiver supplied with Windows XP or another Unzip utility such as Winzip?

I would strongly recommend that if you are using the Windows XP OS that you use the Unzip archiver supplied with Windows XP.

Let me know and maybe we can troubleshoot this further.

Good High Flyer now we're making some progress.  You did a good thing by uninstalling WinRAR.  In my opinion it's a bit outmoded and obsolete.  You didn't answer one of my questions, however.  Do you use Windows XP as your operating system?

If so, go to the folder where you downloaded the waterzone.zip file.  Right click on it.  Left click on Properties.  A description window will appear.  Make sure that the General Tab is selected at the top (usually it is selected by default -- but it's good to make sure).

Next look on the third line down.  It should read "Opens With:..."  to the right you should see "Compressed (Zipped) Folders".  If not (or if it is blank) click the button on the right named "Change". 

"Compressed (Zipped) Folders" should appear at the top of the Recommended Programs list.  If not, look for it under "Other Programs".  Left click and highlight the "Compressed (Zipped) Folders" and then click a check into the small box that's labeled "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" underneath the big window.  Next click OK at the bottom of the window.  Close the Properties window for the waterzone.zip file.

Now locate the waterzone.zip file again and double click it.  The Windows XP Unzip Utility will then appear.  Follow the directions that I outlined above to install the new Waterzone Add-on.

Hopefully now it will work.

That is a real good question.  According to the Readme.txt file supplied with the Waterzone Add-On it "works best with water slider set to high".  It works fine on my machine and I have my FS 2004 settings configured for:

Terrain Detail -- Land Only
Water Effects -- High

You may wish to check your FS 2004 settings again, set them as I have them, and see if this works.  If not, then the Waterzone Add-On may not have been installed properly.

OK High Flyer try this--

Go to the Settings>Display and reset the sliders as I outlined above.  Exit FS 2004.  When you exit it should save your settings in the FS9.cfg file.

Fire up FS 2004 again and see if the Settings>Display items are at Land Only and High or if they're once again at Medium.

Geesh.  You've got me stumped.  The only thing that I can think of is your PC's Video Graphics Card.  Maybe it cannot support any FS 2004 effects preference settings above Medium.  Maybe also check and make sure that you have the latest upgraded AGP Card drivers.