This extension adds a decal-like system that allows the water surface to be displaced and its foam and normals to be modified. These decals are projected from a top-down perspective onto the water surface.

In practical terms, it means particle systems, trail renderers and static meshes can be used to influence the appearance of the water.

The normals of the water surface are recalculated from the created displacement (Y-axis only), ensuring any and all lighting effects look correct. For example, a wave actually makes the surface appear to curve.

Shown here is a single “Beach Wave” particle system that emits particles moving forward. The ‘Color Over Lifetime’ module is tweaked carefully to control the fading of displacement and foam.

The boat wake above uses a TrailRenderer component, and a ‘ripples’ particle system.

A ripples particle effect is attached to the surfers here

Known limitations:

• Displacement created by effects does not affect C# buoyancy information.
• Surface displacement requires the Tessellation feature to be enabled on the receiving water material
• Rendering resolution scales down by the increase in rendering range. Very high detail close to the camera, whilst rendering over long distances (+1000m) is not realistic to expect.