Ocean Details

Implementation ideas for rendering the ocean.

• Fresnel - reflection and refraction depend on the view angle.
• Use specular map so when water is near land,
  • it flows differently
  • it is shallower and therefore animates and renders differently.
• Use dynamic branch to discard fragments based on distance. No need to perform all the wave sampling when the fadeFactor is going cancel out the effect.
• Utilize the alpha channel in the baseWaterColor and blendColor to add additional translucency to the water. May be useful to view terrain, models, etc. under the water.

Done

• Done: Implement by creating a material with Fabric.
• Done: We have noise functions to animate the water. Check the reference help for our GLSL built-ins.
• Done: Use a specular map so we know what is water and what is land. Let's not worry about the resolution for the moment. Coastlines will look bad.

Resources

• Assassin’s Creed III: The tech behind (or beneath) the action
• Must read: Regarding Water
• GPU Pro 2, Page 307
• ShaderX 2, Page 207
• A few words in LEAN Mapping
• A few demos from Humus
• WebGL Demos
  • WebGL Terrain, Ocean, Fog: demo, blog post
  • WebGL GPU Landscaping and Erosion: demo, blog post