# How to setup a Water Material for a River To Ocean Transition?

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-setup-a-water-material-for-a-river-to-ocean-transition/2660207>\
**Category:** World Creation\
**Tags:** Water, ocean, unreal-engine, question\
**Created:** [September 26, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-setup-a-water-material-for-a-river-to-ocean-transition/2660207 "2025-09-26T16:44:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![unit23](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/unit23/32/1146013_2.png) [@unit23](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/unit23)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-setup-a-water-material-for-a-river-to-ocean-transition/2660207/1 "2025-09-26T16:44:55Z")

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The documentation

> River Water Bodies act as connections between other water bodies. At the points where lakes and oceans intersect a river, you can use a transitional material to automatically blend them together seamlessly. [Water Body Actors in Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.5 Documentation | Epic Developer Community](https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/water-body-actors-in-unreal-engine?application_version=5.5)

I have setup a river and ocean in 5.5 and it is not seamlessly blended

 ![Screenshot 2025-09-26 182906](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/6/a/e/6aea39c042dfc33f99a76c0aae09136da66f5687.png)

The river materials …

 ![Screenshot 2025-09-26 184100](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/9/5/1/95147a822598e15a21c39e018b53400e937678fe.png)

When zooming closer the transition looks better

 ![Screenshot 2025-09-26 185403](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/d/2/a/d2afc2f35099ccb74e196c73d4a997f588edb707.png)

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**Author:** ![msurrena](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@msurrena](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/msurrena)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-setup-a-water-material-for-a-river-to-ocean-transition/2660207/2 "2025-11-05T14:23:45Z")

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Mine isn’t either. I’ve been sitting here for three hours trying to figure out how to do it.

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**Author:** ![MostHost\_LA](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/mosthost_la/32/907035_2.png) [@MostHost\_LA](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/MostHost_LA)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-setup-a-water-material-for-a-river-to-ocean-transition/2660207/3 "2025-11-05T15:52:27Z")

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My custom system does it via a blend of distance to nearest, stencil, and render targets.

The challenge is that the river water has to displace the larger body of water and “mix in" so to speak - also generating waves rather than receiving gerstner and other waves.

If you only have one river to deal with, this is trivial; make a material with a texture that represents the river rather than a general water material.

If you have more entry points, then you need a custom system/material like I need to create (granted I went and did this before epic even came out with their trash solution to water).