Waves

 

 

Use this rollout to define the waves' shape, velocity and detail.

 

 

Shape

The Wave shapes have a significant impact on the sea rendering's realism. Use these parameters to create any type of seas - from flat and calm to dangerously stormy.

 

Wind Speed - This spinner is the key parameter to control the waves. Higher wind speeds will produce bigger and more detailed waves.

 

Height Scale - With this spinner you can control the waves' height. Higher values will produce taller waves.

 

Note: When you change Grid Details the height of the waves will change also. Use Height Scale spinner to offset this effect.

 

Choppy Waves - This spinner will create sharper waves more suitable for stormy seas.

 

Note: Only choppy waves can produce realistic foam, as the foam is created when the mesh vertices are very close to each other.

 

When you change the Grid details, the height of the waves will change also. Use Height scale to mitigate this effect.

 

Directionality - With higher directionality the waves will be more aligned to the wave front (similar to swells). Smaller values will leave the waves as they were originally created.

 

Smoothness - The Smoothness parameter allows you to remove small waves from the ocean mesh. This parameter is suitable for creating calm seas.

 

 

Motion

Use these parameters to define the waves' direction and speed. You can even create waves that are repeatable (that loop) after a user-defined number of frames.

 

Wind From - The Wind direction will alter the waves' propagation direction. This parameter does not tell you in what direction the waves will propagate, but it is the direction where the wind is blowing from.

 

This image should help you to visualize this parameter.

 

 

Propagation - This factor's default value is 1.0, which means that the waves' propagation speed will remain unchanged.

 

Values lower than 1.0 will produce slower waves, while values greater than one will produce faster waves.

 

Loopable Waves - In certain situations you will need your animated waves to loop after a certain number of frames.

 

With this parameter you can create loopable waves.

 

Period/Frames - The number of frames after which the waves' motion will start from the beginning.

 

Reflected Waves - This parameter is set to zero by default, which means there will be no waves moving in the direction opposite to the wind direction.

 

In certain situations you will want to have reflected waves. In nature those waves are created mainly as primary waves reflect from the land.

 

 

Details

The DreamScape SeaSurface does not create waves directly on the mesh. Instead, it creates an internal waves matrix upon which the mesh is recreated.

 

As the waves matrix has finite dimensions, you might be able to notice repeatable wave patterns on a very large ocean surfaces (actually on any SeaSurface mesh with dimensions greater than the wave matrix Grid size.)

 

Grid Detail - The bigger this spinner's value is, the bigger mesh will be created without noticeable wave patterns. Be aware the large values can slow the performance down.

 

Grid Spacing - This spinner enables you to create waves to fit the scale of your scene. With this parameter you actually scale the waves' matrix dimension (not the detail). It's good practice to keep the mesh width/length resolution above the Grid spacing.

 

Random Seed - This is a random number generator seed. Different seed values will produce different wave patterns.