Ocean waves

[Wafff]

Hey, I'm fairly new to UDK but I've run through almost all the 3dBuzz video tutorials so I've got a good idea of the basics of how most things work, and to practice a little level/material design I'm trying to put a basic beach scene together.

So far I've got a good ocean material going that blends nicely with the sand, but I'd like to have some form of waves moving into the shore as well to complete the effect. So far the only way I can think of doing it would be to create a static mesh that followed the shape of the terrain and then add a whitish transparent material that would pan across the model giving the illusion of waves.

Thought I'd post it up here to see if this is, in fact, the only way of going about this or if there's a simpler/better-looking option - unfortunately with this method if I ever change the shape of the 'shoreline' (where the ocean meets the sand) then it would require that I remodel the shape of the wave static mesh too.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer.

[Quantum Gaming]

have you tried playing around with the fluid surface actor? you might be able to get the effect your going for, there is a 3d buzz tutorial on it.

[Wafff]

have you tried playing around with the fluid surface actor? you might be able to get the effect your going for, there is a 3d buzz tutorial on it.

Yeah I have played around with that idea, but it didn't give me the effect I was after - all I'm after is some sort of texture where the ocean meets the shoreline (that is able to follow the various curves of the shore, as it's not a straight line)

Just found an image on google that hopefully illustrates what I mean: http://www.stockphotopro.com/photo-thumbs-2/A70HWD.jpg - I'm not after simulated waves or anything, just curious if there's a way to do this through the material editor.

[ambershee]

I'm afraid that there is no easy way of achieving that. Good water effects are usually quite tricky. Whilst it's certainly possible, expect it to be difficult.

[Sir. Polaris]

If your not hitting a cliff side. My recommendation is to do what your doing. You have regular "sea" then planes with a "semi translucent wave" on it. They then pan in, pan out and cycle giving the illusion of waves.

If your hitting a cliff I would suspect a "spray emitter" and a mesh of a wave of water needs to pan up from the sea and look like it's impacting with the wall. My best guess for you is to break down the visual aspects of a wave and see how you can fake them to the human eye.

[KazeoHin]

This is a complicated issue. Good water is DIFFICULT to make. The answer to any idea is "yes, but..." because no real idea is going to be 100% perfect in any situation.

[Wafff]

Fair enough, thanks guys. I'll give it a go with the panning texture on a plane. If I can get a decent result I'll post it up on here