Beautiful Water

[DRAAK]

I would like to see in this game a high-tech water ...
Not necessarily immediately tessellation
The current implementation of water (the original) looks not very natural.


WARZONE-2100 best high-tech RTS! I love it!
WARZONE2100 лучшая высокотехнологичная RTS! Я обожаю её!

[JDW]

The one in development seems nice, and a bit transparent too. More real than what it is now.

The first screenshot in the post below shows transparent water,

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2186&p=64195&hilit=gates#p64195

Too lazy to post a better screenshot

[DRAAK]

At the screenshot looks better... but...
And where the wave, reflection?
It is all transparent. Unnatural.

below - a good example

[JDW]

Hey, you used real life photos! That's cheating

I'm just kidding. Yes, those 3D-looking water textures do look really good, but I don't think that I can say more on the topic of textures since I'm not a graphics guy. However you made a good point about the reflection of the sky making it look very natural. Anyhow, I think some people are currently working on improving the look of water.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6101&p=65904#p65876

Does anyone know why those water textures posted by DRAAK look really good? Are they normal textures in the first place?

[KukY]

Does anyone know why those water textures posted by DRAAK look really good?

Becuase they are shots taken in real life where your PC doesn't have to calculate each single shadow, reflection, wave...

[JDW]

I see

Ok, what about these screenshots from games, what sort of technology are they using to make water textures look the way they do?

http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/battl ... 1718984096

http://www.techulous.com/news/supreme-c ... shots.html

http://os.wildfiregames.com/discovery.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anoth ... island.jpg

EDIT: Check out the water effects in this Spring game video as well, they don't seem like real life photos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qVRCVt8oTo

[Wolftrak]

The short answer:
Water is the most complex thing that you can implement in a game engine.First of all,TONS of light refractions.That's like pointing a laser into a rain and trying to calculate the angle and intensity of all the small beams that are diverted through the drops.And lets remember,not every drop is the same.Different difractions,different results.Second,it doesn't have a permanent shape.That's nightmare for game physics.
So,the real answer to the question:
Why these games have it?
It's because it's fake.That's something made to look like water while using less calculations.

[Zarel]

Becuase they are shots taken in real life where your PC doesn't have to calculate each single shadow, reflection, wave...

Look closely. Those are renders. You can tell because real life is anti-aliased, and the renders aren't.

[MaNGusT]

I prefer water that looks like this. First of all that should be implemented to water code is - it must blur a bottom texture and water have the "model" animation(deformation) or have a bump map texture, next can be reflections.
http://4gamers.ru/albums/screens/strate ... 793839.jpg
http://ve3dmedia.ign.com/images/03/58/3 ... oOp-03.jpg
http://www.gamershell.com/static/screen ... 6_full.jpg

[DRAAK]

j0shdrunk0nwar
KukY
This is NOT a photo. This screenshots!
First my screenshot - just a demo. (used OpenGL 2.0 with GLSL)
Second screenshot - from the game Supreme Commander (the first). (used DX9.0C (SM3))

MaNGusT
http://www.gamershell.com/static/screen ... 6_full.jpg
In "C&C GENERALS" - not beautiful water. IMHO

[MaNGusT]

In "C&C GENERALS" - not beautiful water. IMHO

much better than in warzone 2100

[DRAAK]

much better than in warzone 2100 ...

It's a shame... "Warzone" - such a good game.
And the water - bad.

[JDW]

It's a shame... "Warzone" - such a good game.
And the water - bad.

From what I've heard, rendering high detail water like the ones in the other games would require a really good GPU. Which I don't have.

[DRAAK]

Which I don't have.

Notebook?

...rendering high detail water like the ones in the other games would require a really good GPU...

And if add the option - "Real Water" - on / off?

[JDW]

Notebook?

Yes.

And if add the option - "Real Water" - on / off?

Sure, why not? I never said that I wouldn't like having "almost natural looking" water bodies in the game. I would probably have to switch it off on my machine though, till I moved over to a higher end monster-machine.

But as Wolftrac put it,

Water is the most complex thing that you can implement in a game engine.

Although this is a really good suggestion, I wonder who can contribute some really good water code to WZ's game engine.