We will use Mental Ray renderer and Daylight System in the scene.
Step 1
By default 3d max uses Scanline renderer. Change the renderer to the Mental Ray. Go to Rendering-> Render Setup->Common Tab -> Assign Renderer -> Production.
Step 2
We will have create a geometry. Create a Plane. Go to Create Panel -> Geometry -> Standard Primitive -> Plane.
Set Length to 500 and width to 500.
Step 3
Create a Target Camera just above the Plane. Go to Create panel -> cameras -> Target.Activate the Perspective view and press C in the keyboard to activate the Camera view.
Step 4
Open the material editor and crate an ocean material.
Click on get material and select Arch and Design
Select Ocean plane and assign material to it.
Select Water, Reflective Surface template.
Step 5
Now we will illuminate the ocean with the daylight system. Daylight system is a simulation of real world sun. Go to Create Panel -> Systems -> Daylight in the top viewport.
Daylight Parameters
Sunlight: we will use mr Sun
Skylight: mr Physical Sky
Position: We will set it manually.
Step 6 First Render of the 3D Ocean
We have the ocean and the daylight system so it’s a good idea to check how the rendered image looks like. Your image should look similar to picture below. In the background you see the mr Physical Sky environment map which was added automatically in the previous step. The brown line represents the ground in the background map. Thanks to Metal Ray’s lume shader the plane looks like and 3d ocean already. However, there are some things I’d like to change:
Horizon should be lowered to hide the ground
Smaller Waves
More blue and saturated colors to both ocean and the sky
Little brighter image
Step 7
Color, saturation, and brightness of the image can be adjusted in the parameters of the Daylight:
mr Sky Parameters
Multiplier: 1,1 ( increases the intensity of the sun )
mr Sky Advanced Parameters
Red/Blue Tint: -0,1 ( changes the hue of the light and sky )
Saturation: 1,3 ( changes the saturation of the light and sky )