@Hans and Urfisch ,
the editing of reflection maps in skycolor.dat is an old story ,it is not a new 'discovery' ! almost all env mods have made some (or many) edits on the reflection maps .
the main (and most serious) problem of sh3's env is the 'polygon effect' (the sh3's engine ,for some reason, is screwing up the 'look' of reflections maps on water and make them appearing like little squares of lights).
why this is the most serious problem ? becuase this prevents the modders (i believe that OLC -the 'teacher' on env mods- faced the same problem) for using high contrast colors between light reflections colors and water colors.it is very easy(can be done in an afternoon) to create fantastic colors for environment but when the 'polygon effect' appears ....the env is becoming absolutely discusting ! so...the compromise is to use low,as possible, difference between reflection's colors and water's color and this is just reducing the quality of final environment's look.
given the limitations of sh3's engine (the lack of sh4's or sh5's shaders in code) i can garantee that the solving of 'polygon effect' is the best that can be done for sh3's water. if 'polygon effect' is solved then we could use high contrast colors on water-reflections and we will be able to create a 'convincing' sea ...not as good as sh4 or sh5 but very very nice seas with very beutyfull and full colors .
the 'polygon effect's solution is 'hiding' somewhere in executables (myguess). there is an error (my guess) at the algorithm that is rendering the light's reflection on sea's surface . (the strange thing is that the 'polygon effect' is not happening all the time but it shows up ...probably when the weather changes.if weather is constant ...'polygon effect' will not appear).
look at these pics ,are totaly unedited with some quick high contrast colors and some quick edits on reflection maps but have in mind this: as beutyfull these screens may look to you ....when 'polygon effect' appears ...you can't even look at them . here :
