After posting some screenshots and hearing multiple people say how they can't make great exhibits like mine, I have decided to help these people out with a couple tips. I will begin by showing how most people make exhibits for their African elephants, then how they can make them better. Things like toys and housing is not included in this.
This is the beginning of an exhibit. A flat, featureless area of savannah grass and dirt.
Later, grasses and flowers are put in. These can just be scattered around the entire area of the exhibit, randomly.
Now the killer. Up until now both types of exhibits, plain and beautiful, are the same. Until trees are added. Here we have trees that are not so well placed and simply scattered everywhere with no real rhyme or reason. I will get back to the beautiful exhibits later.
Then, food is placed, as well as water. In this example, the food and water are fairly far apart. And, as you can see, the elephants are forced to retreat far from the viewing area of the guests to feed.
And here a pic from the guest's point of view. Clearly, the elephants are far away from the guest's view, and if they would get even farther the trees would cover them. This is bad.
This, however, is a beautiful exhibit. Notice the natural water, which automatically beautifies the exhibit and also is drinkable. This takes out those water bowls and troughs, making everything look much more natural. Rocks of varying sizes are placed around the exhibit and edge of the pools. The food, and the pools are close to the viewing area, allowing guests to see what is going on. The trees are also placed in clumps, leaving open areas for easier viewing and travel and giving the look of small clumps of forest. Different species are also placed near each other, not just umbrella's together or something. Another thing you can't see (which is good) is the extra branch holder hidden at the other end of the exhibit behind some trees. A pool is next to this, which should be noticable in the pic. This is so that depending on where the animal is, it doesn't have to go all the way to the other end of the exhibit to eat. This is also done in case your keepers can't get to the holders quick enough, and they are left empty for a long period of time. This way, the elephants still get a chance to eat. (You can't see any grasses/flowers in this pic. For some reason they did not appear, but they are there. Grasses and flowers are important because they make the ground more interesting to look at.)
Another view from the guest's point of view. The animals are now much closer, and open spaces are easy to see. Toys should be placed in these open areas, so that guests can clearly see the animals play. The shelter would be in an area where trees partly cover it, but still allow animals to get inside.
To be technical, the elephants would find both exhibits appealing, as would the guests. However, the difference is to your eye, and maybe the eyes of people who download your zoo. I hope this helps some people.
Now about water. Most people place water dishes or troughs. Now, this is completely fine. The animals and guests will be happy. However, using pools instead of troughs and dishes has some interesting advantages. One, they are beautiful and make the exhibit much more natural. Two, they never run out of water, so an animal can drink from a pool and it will never run out of water, and thus zookeepers don't have to refill water dishes. One thing about pools though is the basic shape. You can simply plop down a circle of water like this and be done with it if you please.
However, sometimes this just doesn't look very good. So, you can go with the jelly bean shape. This is simple, yet already makes the exhibit more interesting.
Finally, you might want to go all out with a unique pool. Just place a bunch of circles in whatever pattern, connect them, and then smooth the edges of the water to look more natural and flowing. This ultimately creates a great pool of water for drinking or bathing, and looks more like it was made naturally then a man-made circle or oval.
Having pools can make a great difference and doesn't look as unnatural as troughs.
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