Hello everyone,
I have been looking at lots of different methods (most lacking tutorials or how-to info), and formulating my own theory on how to get this to work. I won’t be doing it myself right now, but here’s the gist of what I’ve got. Watching the demo posted helped to come up with this theory.
First, I would use a displacement map sequence to form the animated surface of the ocean and apply a mask to gradually reduce the height all the way to 0 at the edges. The idea is to keep the waves huge closer to the center, and almost non-existent by the shore. The waves near the shore are made up of a separate displacement map sequence. What I suggest is to set up collision points wherever you want your waves to start, and trigger them when the first ocean plane touches them. That way, the 2nd plane’s waves would mesh into the first plane’s waves, and they would appear to be one and the same.
As for the 2nd plane, you’ll need a sequence of displacement maps that are drawn to look like a wave that gains height quickly and then drops off slowly until it reaches the shore. The center should be tallest and it should curve out in the direction that the wave is travelling in. You can set it up as a decal since you’ll be using triggers.
Lastly, you can set up another animated decal on the beach for the wet sand effect and trigger it when the wave decal touches it.
This is a lot of work to put together, but I think you can essentially get something that looks as true to life as you can get. You just need to have great textures. You can use Blender’s Ocean modifier to get your initial displacement map sequence and foam data. Perhaps you can even work with it to make the sequence for the waves. I haven’t tried but I’m sure with a bit of creativity, it can be done. The benefit of that would be the foam data and the curl and crash of the waves.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes if you try this! And for the love of all that is development-related, post tutorials or screenshots if you can!