In this session recorded at Unreal Fest Bali, Riot Games showcases the inner workings of the vertex shader driving the key shore wave asset in the background of the Scuttler’s Strand 2XKO stage.
While modern games typically use 2D displacement techniques, this shore wave’s key feature is that it uses a custom 3D procedural displacement technique which gives it the ability to “roll” and form a barrel like a surf wave.
This custom 3D displacement technique is 100% shader-based and procedural at runtime, involves no simulation, never repeats the same pattern, and is fully based on fairly simple mathematical functions like Sine waves, Modulos, Frac, and Lerps (no matrices involved).
This session breaks down the process into its individual components, showing how a set of fairly simple, easy-to-grasp techniques can be stacked to produce a complex asset. You will also learn how to organize work in Unreal Engine’s Material Graph to keep things clean and readable.
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https://dev.epicgames.com/community/learning/talks-and-demos/1mKo/unreal-engine-rolling-shore-waves-in-2xko-s-scuttler-s-strand