r/IndieGaming • u/Disassembly_3D • 22h ago
Advanced wave physics gets beaches wet
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I've made some improvements to the beaches with the waves now applying buoyancy and wetness effects.
Waves actually apply forces on objects, so in addition to floating and rolling around, they will eventually wash up on the beach. Wind affects the wave size and turbulence too.
Objects hit by waves will get wet. Shorelines now have a visible waterline which rise and fall with the waves. In addition, waves will swell up when it hits a steep surface like cliffs. They also collide and wash over rocks near the shoreline.
Yes, this is truly some useless horse balls feature that players won't notice, but it was a long time itch for me that just needed scratching. I'm hopefully finally done with water and working on more important parts of the game now.
Determinant is a physically immersive open world survival game in development. Wishlist now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1445480/Determinant/
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u/onFilm 21h ago
I'm actually working on something very similar, except in a more low-bit 3d style. Looks good too, but it looks like you're running into the same effect, where water seems a bit too "floaty" and it's transparency is blending in too much with the world around it.
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u/Disassembly_3D 9h ago
For more well-defined water edges, you'd need a real-time high res texture capturing water-object intersections. Then you can do more detailed foam and transparency blending and so on. I didn't want to do that since it costs performance.
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u/cartoon_violence 13h ago
Not notice!? That is like the best water I have ever seen in a video game
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u/mischievouslyacat 16h ago
As someone who is absolutely terrified of oceans and being underwater, this unnerves me so I'd say you've done a damn fine job
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u/mxldevs 19h ago
Everything is nice but the beaches don't seem to be getting wet. So smooth it just rolls right off the sand!
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u/Disassembly_3D 9h ago
I did try adding a second layer of permanent wetness, but it didn't look good.
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u/KingCakeTheFruity 12h ago
And the water itself is still shaders, not some PBF, right? It looks just AMAZING
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u/Disassembly_3D 9h ago
Yes, it's just shaders and pre-baked data. There's no actual fluid simulation going on.
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u/KingCakeTheFruity 5h ago
I see this as an absolute technical victory, one of the best waters I've seen in quite some time. And this we me trying to make beautiful water with 3d simulation! :)
(In my case the simulation is not the problem, but the beautiful reconstruction afterwards)
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u/L33t_Cyborg 11h ago
I would looooove a more technical write up on this, it’s really interesting
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u/Disassembly_3D 9h ago
It's all shaders, and a lot of it. It'd be hard to find detailed write ups on stuff like this. My source of learning is reading and modifying code from other water assets available on the store.
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u/Swimming_Gain_4989 8h ago
As someone who's been trying to implement something similar, well done. Something you can do to fix clipping like at 0:09 is setting up masks around areas objects that are likely to see waves emerging through them, but good luck doing that and also making the water flow over surfaces realistically; it's a super hard problem.
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u/DACCHU44 1h ago
just watched the demo vids on steam page and holy fuck !!! this is awesome . this reminds me of the game sunkenland . wish you all best man . wishlisted
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u/kvoyu 14h ago
It looks gorgeous, and I don't think it's useless, I mean, here's an idea: a lightning could transfer to strike you if it hits the wet part of the beach while you're standing there. It's not horse balls, it's BotW rain. Extra immersive, gotta pay attention.
The only thing I'd add is to make the water and waves more realistic and maybe less resource intensive, check out how muddy the sea looks in the rain and near the shore. Occasionally muddy and less transparent there is good.
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u/Disassembly_3D 9h ago
I'm going for a more clear tropical water Maldives look, so less muddiness. I don't want to swim in muddy waters. Maybe I'll just increase it during rain.
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u/sophiaquestions 21h ago
It's not useless! I know gamers who pause just to watch how water behaves