r/BuildAdvice • u/Stubyy_la_goat • 1d ago
river help
how do i make it look better (medieval/classy vibe)
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u/friendlyFool008 1d ago
The edge and bottom of a river is never neat and flat and all one color. Try mixing in things like: mud, packed mud, course dirt, sand, gravel, even path blocks on the edge. Use stone buttons to add some pebbles. For a more lush look add some azalea bushes, moss, moss carpet, bonemealed grass blocks, sugarcane.
Honestly, just replacing the bottom with mud , adding sand along the edge in a few spots as mini beaches, and bonemealing the remaining grass blocks would do wonders.
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u/kyleknightly 1d ago
Also maybe erode the cliff at the point of the waterfall so that theres an inlet, the flat cliff is a bit awkward
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u/Mother_Pressure_1160 1d ago
Yes I would make it look like the river is gradually flowing down a steady incline, it’s only a few blocks, or I thought first glance it was a water fall.. could also just make that bed of water lower and turn the side of the mountain into a cliff with a cave or some depth behind the actual waterfall
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u/Bubbly-Check-839 1d ago
The stone buttons as pebbles is such a clever little detail, never would've thought of that.
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u/Remarkable-Pin8094 1d ago
Wider deeper more random less uniform 1 block deep 2 blocks all the way along looks to plain therfore dig 1 deeper add variation of depth between 1-3 blocks add foliage mud gravel sand personally id choose gravel go find a river and inspect the dimensions just copy paste and decorate
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u/TygerFrank121 1d ago
Yeah, natural rivers are messy as hell. Making it less symmetrical would help a ton.
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u/astro_1003 1d ago
- Make it wider
- Make it deeper
- Make the edges non-uniform, make curves and stuff
- Add some clay, mud, coarse dirt, gravel, andesite sand etc at the bottom
- Make the edges feel wet using sand or mud
- Add some details inside like kelp, sea pickle, coral, cattails(copper chain and candle)
- Finally, add some huge rocks at the edges using cobble, mossy cobble, cracked bricks, vines etc
- And add some fishes
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u/DdyByrd 1d ago
Use TNT.
Here me out... If you have some resources, one of the easiest ways to get a river that looks somewhat natural is to use TNT to blow out blocks to create the riverbed.
Place 1 and detonate to to see about how deep and wide that cuts... Adjust vertically by pla8 on top of another block or embedding in the ground a block or two to suite the look and depth you want. Then place them 3 to 8 blocks apart to create the general shape you want for the river. Smooth any rough transitions, fill it from the bottom up with water, and terraform as many others have suggested.
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u/Nomnomfromamino 23h ago
I would also like to suggest making the river curve… maybe add a few little “hills” about 1-2 blocks up from the top of the river… not directly touching but as a carved out “channel” showing the water “eroding” the land where you’ve already flattened it (this could also be applied with the thought of tnt… the hill could already be built in
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u/Huge-Personality-641 22h ago edited 8h ago
Remember reality, even when making fantasy. All rivers run downhill and have a source, glacier, snowmelt, rain catchment (often dammed for year round supply) and springs which is where underground water comes to the surface. A spring probably suits your situation best unfortunately a spring would only provide enough for a creek or stream, but often have a small dam downstream that makes a pond or small lake. So I suggest a 4X4 area (not square), of cobble, mossy cobble blocks, slabs, stairs and walls etc. Make it look uneven keeping the top layer dry and waterlogging the lower layers. From this rocky puddle (the spring) a stream feeds a pond a little downhill which can "overflow" to become a larger stream or small river, maybe have more springs feeding the pond so as to "balance" the input to the output. Rivers follow the path of least resistance but will cut through the landscape widening bends expanding outward, this creates a slack current on the inside of the bend that fills with silt, sand and eventually heavier materials. This is how rivers move. Rivers are hard to do well in Minecraft without preparation, you need to get the terrain, including the riverbed sorted first and it looks like you have a few blocks available to shape the slope to the waterfall. Then add the water, plants and other details you want. Google images of streams, creeks and brooks as trying to make a big river picture fit a small area doesn't really work. I used all these tricks a couple of years ago to make a stream that wound through a village that had auto farms underground. I used bubblevators to move items up to the stream which carried them to sorting/ storage systems. Good luck.
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u/No-Today-1533 1d ago
I suggest referencing both IRL examples and Minecraft examples. Right now, it’s all you made it - a stream of water. Add foliage and life around the river, mix in some mud, coarse, and other mixed muddy blocks, and maybe consider a geyser splash (tuts on yt).
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u/NebulaX303 1d ago
The terrain is flat and grassless. Add flowers, stone, buttons, grass, and trees, and create a river randomly by looking at Google.
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u/AdSalt314 1d ago
The river looks too neat I would say to make it curve more and also make it a little wider and deeper with some gravel, sand and mud on the edges with the dirt
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u/rgrambow 1d ago
Its too flat and samey.
if theres gonna be a city around it, add some stone edges and make it deeper, to look more like a canal.
If it’s more naturey, add more depth a little extra width and some varried blocks on the edge and bottom
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u/somerandom995 1d ago
Stone/mossy cobblestone along the sides.
Turn some of the river bed to mud, then bonemeal it to get seagrass.
Put some sugarcane along the sides
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u/Dianaaaaaaa_09 1d ago
Add more texture and colors around it!! I could give you some tips if u want :3
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u/ariosos 1d ago edited 1d ago
Widen the river slightly by putting halfslabs on the blocks bordering the river, and add some transitioning blocks, like coarse dirt, podzol, rooted dirt, etc.. Then, add foliage along side it, like a few firefly bushes, random stone/leaves (and stone buttons), green glass panes+brown candle on top for cattails, reeds (sugercane - I'm old school, I still call them reeds. lol). The cliff needs to be more cobbly and rounded where the water is coming out.
In fact, it might even help to lower the water by one block, too, and fill the riverbed with gravel and patches of smooth soul soil (or whatever it's called) and brown terracotta blocks in places. You could even put some buttons and pressure plates randomly in places, like it's moving pebbles along. If you do deepen it, widen the river by another block or so (using halfslabs along the way, or even exposed stone areas that the river had to go around and is maybe undercutting).
Third, the river should probably come from that hill/mountain to the right, not the front door (?) of the build, unless you wanted that to be a watermill, then the river still has to come from somewhere (or there's whimsical lore, like the wizard's daughter is crying so many tears it created a river). Another option would be a natural spring, so you'd need a rough oval-shaped area in front of the build.
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u/so-dam-bored 23h ago
I would say to add some curva to it and add a sand/ gravel bank, and greenery always helps, I hoped this helped
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u/urmommapeene 21h ago
I mean if u want to make a river and not a stream so like make the river cut through the natural contours and replace like the edges with clay/gravel or coarse dirt to make it look like theres deposited rocks near the river and u cld make it wider and like have a sharp dip or a rounded curve
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u/Dawn_sea 20h ago
If it’s running through your town then you’ll need a slope down to the river because erosion and it can’t start in or near the settlement unless you have it lead from an “underground river” but if it’s a spring the settlement was built around then just make a fountain and some aqueducts take such things into account and look into how river terrain comes to be and how people of the past used those different sources
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u/Wuggers11 19h ago
Ask yourself where the water comes from. It comes from mountains, not from stairs. You don’t have to build an entire mountain, but I’d recommend making the source of the river further away from all of your builds for the sake of realism, unless you can find another way to explain where all the water is coming from.
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u/WindIntelligent9728 17h ago
to tight of a turn before the waterfall, try to make it wide BEFORE the turn not as its turning
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u/Bjorenwonne 13h ago
Put your controller to the side - breath in - scream as loud as you can - go get some dirt and seal the floor up
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u/DJMath16 8h ago
Is definitely should be more than 1 block deep, and they typically aren't perfectly curved or straight, they have those tiny holes that show the erosion
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u/Entity-Valkyrie-2 6h ago
I’ve made a decent amount of rivers in my worlds — yet I don’t seem to mind making it a bit less natural for some reason. But definitely deeper than 1 block
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