Water layer
What can I do with the water layer?
With the water layer you can render water.
How do I add a water layer?
Choose LAYER > Add layer > Add water layer... to add a new water layer.
The new water layer can be selected from the layers dropdown to make it the active layer.
Examples
The installer comes with shows demonstrating the possibilities of the water layer. Choose FILE > Open show... and select a show from the BluffTitler/Media/Shows/Water folder.
To quickly switch between your own shows and the ones that came with the installer, click on the Personal and App buttons in the upper right corner of the file dialog.
Water simulation model
The water is simulated using the Gerstner waves. In this model, the water surface is not only moving vertically but also in the horizontal plane. Complex patterns are created by adding lots of waves with different wave lengths, amplitudes, speeds and directions.
Sinus wave
Sinus waves have round extremes.
Set the Waves steepness property to 0 for sinus waves.
Layers floating in sinus waves only move vertically.
Gerstner wave
Realistic water has sharp crests and wide troughs, which is perfectly modeled by the Gerstner waves.
Set the Waves steepness property to 1 for Gerstner waves.
Layers floating in Gerstner waves move in all 3 dimensions!
Simulation
The simulation is deterministic. No random variables are used. This means that the water looks the same everytime you render the show.
Effect
By default, the water layer uses the Special/Water effect.
Floating in the water
Choose LAYER > Float in water to make your layer float in the water. The vertical position is now relative to the water surface.
Water layer properties
Position
The position of the water.
1st slider: horizontal (x) position
2nd slider: vertical (y) position
3rd slider: depth (z) position
Press <F2> to render the coordinate system.
Size
The size of the water.
Colour
The colour of the water.
1st slider: red
2nd slider: green
3rd slider: blue
When you press <F3> and the mouse is inside the tool window, the standard Windows colour dialog is presented. When the mouse is outside the tool window, the colour of the current mouse position is copied: it's a colour picker!
Specular colour
The colour used for specular highlights.
1st slider: red
2nd slider: green
3rd slider: blue
When you press <F3> and the mouse is inside the tool window, the standard Windows colour dialog is presented. When the mouse is outside the tool window, the colour of the current mouse position is copied: it's a colour picker!
When this property is (0, 0, 0), the specular light colour is used.
Specularity
The size of the specular highlights.
Set the specular colour with the Specular colour property.
Transparency
The transparency of the water.
0 means fully opaque
1 means fully transparent (invisible)
Texture position
The position of the foam texture. Choose MEDIA > Change texture... to change the texture.
Texture size
The size of the foam texture.
Depth bias
This property can be used to solve sorting problems. When the water and landscape layers are placed at the exact same position, you can force the transparent water to be rendered on top of the landscape by setting the Depth bias property of the water to -1.
Waves
The number of waves.
More waves create a more complex pattern, but is slower to render and simulate. For realistic water use about 100 waves. For cartoony water 10 can be enough.
Waves length range
The wave length.
1st slider: minimum wave length
2nd slider: maximum wave length
For realistic water use a minimum wave lenght of about 0.1. For cartoony water use about 10.
Waves height
The height of the waves.
The ratio between wave length and amplitude. Use 0 for a motionless sea, 50 for a calm sea and 500 for a storm.
Waves heading range
The direction of the waves.
1st slider: minimum heading
2nd slider: maximum heading
All waves are positioned randomly in between these 2 values. To make all your waves move to the same direction, use a small range by setting the 2 sliders near to each other.
Waves speed
The ratio between wave length and speed.
Warning: this property can not be animated without discontinuities so keep it fixed during the whole show.
Waves steepness
The shape of the waves.
A value of 0 generates sinus waves: round crests and round troughs, simulating a small pond or bath water. Layers floating in the water move only vertically.
A value of 1 generates trochoidal (Gerstner) waves: sharp crests and wide troughs, simulating a rough sea. Layers floating in the water move in all 3 dimensions.
Start time
This sets the simulation time in seconds at the start of the show. This can be used to immediately jump to a nice effect without having to create a long show.
Buoy size
A higher value makes the rotation of layers floating in the water (using the LAYER > Float in water menu item) less sensitive to the water.
Water effect properties
The water layer uses by default the Special/Water effect. This effect adds the following properties to the layer:
FX Foam colour
The 1st texture is used as an alpha map. White means foam, black means no foam.
FX Foam texture is a colour map
When this property is set to 1, the 1st texture is used as a colour map.
FX Foam texture factor
The opaqueness of the foam texture. 0 means no foam.
FX Foam procedural factor
If the 1st slider is bigger than 0, foam is only added at the sharp crests of the waves. The 2nd slider controls the smoothness.
FX Waves detail (tessellation)
More tessellation means more detail, at the expense of slower rendering. Switch to wireframe (press <Tab>) to inspect the tessellation.
FX Subsurface scattering colour and factor
Subsurface scattering tries to take into account the half-transparency of the water at the crests.
FX Reflection factor
The 2nd texture is used as a reflection map. The 3rd as a cube map. This property sets the amount of reflection.
FX Reflection rotation
The rotation of the reflections. Normally this is set to 0.
FX Lighting factor water, foam
The 1st slider sets the lighting factor of the water. The 2nd of the foam.
FX Transparency range
This property gradually makes the water fully transparent. This can be used to blend it into the background. If the distance to the camera is smaller than the 1st slider, the water is not transparent. If this distance is bigger than the 2nd slider, the water is fully transparent.
FX Foam texture mirror, rotation
If the 1st slider is set to 1, the foam texture is mirrored to make it seamless. If the 2nd slider is set to 1, the foam texture is rotated 90 degrees.
FX Fresnel colour, factor
Water is more reflective and less transparent when it is viewed from a sharp angle. This property sets the water colour when it is most transparent.
FX Normal strength
This sets the impact of the normal map.
FX Radius
When this value is bigger than 0, the water area is round instead of rectangular. This can be used to render the water inside a swimming pool or a wine glass.