This page provides information on the V-Ray Water Map.
Overview
VRayWater is a procedurally generated texture. It can be used along with Vector Displacement (other types of displacement will not work) in order to simulate waves on the surface of water.
An alternative way to simulate waves is Phoenix Ocean Texture. It is easier for use. For more information, see the Mesh page.
Workflow
- Select the geometry and apply a single VRayDisplacement node to the selection from V-Ray Shelf > VRayDisplacement.
Go to VRayDisplacement parameters and add a VRayWater texture in the Displacement mat. slot.
Add Displacement Control from Attributes > V-Ray > Displacement Control. The Displacement controls will be displayed in the Extra VRay Attributes of the VRayDisplacement parameters.
In the Displacement Control, set the Displacement Type to vector displacement as VRayWater texture can work only with this displacement type.
Adjust the parameters of the VRayWater texture.
Parameters
Height Multiplier – Specifies a scale multiplier for the whole texture. See the Height Multiplier example below.
Wind Direction – Specifies the wind direction and thus the direction of the waves. See the Wind example below.
Wind Magnitude – Specifies the strength of the wind creating the waves. Higher values produce larger waves. See the Wind example below.
Wind Direction Multiplier – Specifies a multiplier for the importance of the wind direction. Smaller values produce more variation in the direction of the waves.
Choppy Multiplier – Specifies a multiplier for the choppiness of the waves. Higher values produce sharper looking waves.
Rate – Speeds up or slows down the movement of the waves. This value has effect only in an animation.
Seed – Specifies an integer used to set the starting point for the random generator. Different values produce different waves randomly. See the Seed example below.
Resolution – Specifies the amount of detail in the generated map.
Patch size – Specifies the real world size of one patch of the VRayWater texture outside of which the surface is perfectly periodic.
Example: Height Multiplier
Height multiplier = 1
Height multiplier = 2.5
Height multiplier = 5
Example: Seed
Seed = 1
Seed = 3
Seed = 5
Example: Wind Direction
In the following example, we can see how the Wind Direction parameter affects the waves. In our case, the wave angle is set to 21 degrees and in the animation the waves are moving at an angle of 21 degrees in a counterclockwise direction relative to the X axis. None of the texture parameters need to be animated to produce moving waves. Here, the Wind Direction is set to 21. Wind Magnitude is 15, Height Multiplier is set to 5 and Seed is 3.
