I can’t remember how many times I’ve searched the UE marketplace and the forum for THE ocean/shore simulation. I believe that this is a feature every map designer needs now and then, yet, there doesn’t seem to be an ideal and quick solution to this requirement.
It’s even more astonishing, as this challenge seemed to be over and done with almost 6 years ago, with the release of GTA 5 in 2013. The oceanic water sim on that game really nailed it. Perfect shore waves, great reflections, foam etc. and all of that blending in dynamically with the physics of the game. It even was super performance friendly…!
Does anyone know a solution that is as versatile and realistic as the oceanic water sim in this 6 yrs old game?
Rockstar north has 650 employees and at least two decades worth of experience and time building that engine and everything in it. While I can safely say that the look of the water is very much achievable with some hard work, the full sim and interaction on that scale is something else entirely. But it can be done with a dedicated team I just don’t expect things on that level of flexibility to show up in marketplace anytime soon. I think Pirates has the best loooking ocean in any playable game and ironically thats running under UE and that took lots of RnD with microsoft backing the funding. You get the idea.
The solution would be to hire a specialist to develop and integrate such solution for you. Currently, decent water rendering system cannot be wrapped up in a plugin,needs a custom engine build and thus will not appear on marketplace in overseeable future.
Thx for the answers, guys… Here’s hope some Epic dev reads this and says: “Yea, we really need proper water for everyone!” - I’ve seen so much “bad water” in UE4 projects… It doesn’t do justice to the engine. So it’s probably in everybody’s interest to have the best water sim possible.