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Best looking WATER effects in a game!

Rebel Strike (not Rogue Leader) had a good water too.

media
 
the androgyne said:
Here's hoping for a revolution waverace with water like the SW2000 waverace..

0009002.jpg


It was so good you could 'feel' the water from watching the vids.... stupid NST, I CURSE AT THE!
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PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give us revolution Wave Race. One of the games I am most looking forward to.
 
As much as everyone is dishing their powerhouse hardware water effects, I'm going to go slightly lower tech and say: I've always enjoyed the water effects in Lunar Silver Star Story for the SS. Not sure if the PSX one emulated that one the same.

But Lunar 2: EB always disappointed me with its incredibly fake looking water (among other things...)
 
AOE3 for the most beautiful shores
HL2 for best refraction/reflection and most beautiful sights in a game ever
Wace Race: Best water physics
RE4 canned version: Best waterfall
Zelda TWW first movie: Best rain
Pikmin: Not perfectly realistic, but so vivid I tried to touch it

There are lots of games with beautiful Moon/Sun reflections, but most of that water is only reflective.
 
hukasmokincaterpillar said:
For the graphics gurus here, any idea what technique they might be using thats different from say a Far Cry or HL2?
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It was discussed a little on B3D a short while ago. Couldn't say for sure, but the vertex texture fetch technique shown on NVidia's page here looks to give fairly similar results..

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/using_vertex_textures.html

Anyway, despite it not being a game, I'll give the nod to the eyetoy/duck demo simply for the really brilliant water mechanics with the cups.
 
console:

easily Super Mario Sunshine

Have not seem Kameos water yet though (hear it is nice also).. looks good in pictures, don´t know about the physics yet though
 
The Grand Lucifarius said:
Lots of great picks here. I'm surprised however that no one has mentioned Black and White 2. I would have agreed that Mario Sunshine has the best water up until playing that game. It's water seriously breath taking, especially in the evening as the sun is setting.

Here is an example. There are far far better scenes then this but my connection isnt too hot right now and don't feel like surfing a bunch of screens.

black-white-2-20050902072846883.jpg


Such a beautiful game. <3
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You have to remember what the purpose is for the water though. B&W2's water looks really good from afar, but when zoomed in fully, it's easy to see the squares of water being replicated around your island, and the pixelation within them. Same goes for any strategy game with a top down view, to an extent.

If anyone cares, the reason Miyamoto said that Mario Sunshine couldn't be done on any other system is because the GC can do water effects better than any other. It's specialized on that front, hence the project name "Dolphin."
 
Cronox said:
You have to remember what the purpose is for the water though. B&W2's water looks really good from afar, but when zoomed in fully, it's easy to see the squares of water being replicated around your island, and the pixelation within them. Same goes for any strategy game with a top down view, to an extent.

If anyone cares, the reason Miyamoto said that Mario Sunshine couldn't be done on any other system is because the GC can do water effects better than any other. It's specialized on that front, hence the project name "Dolphin."
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It's specialized for water?


...
 
If anyone cares, the reason Miyamoto said that Mario Sunshine couldn't be done on any other system is because the GC can do water effects better than any other. It's specialized on that front, hence the project name "Dolphin."
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Ha ha, do you realize what you've just said. Go ahead and back it up with some proof, though, if you think you have it. I feel that you've completely fabricated that piece of information, however...

Looking at the actual hardware capabilities it becomes obvious that the XBOX is better suited in the creation of water surface effects. Super Mario Sunshine's water does look quite nice, but it is nothing particularly complex. They use a geometric mesh for the waves and apply what amounts to a "pixel shader" effect on the surface. If you look, however, you'll see that this is only drawn within a certain radius of the player character. I suppose that avoids the repeating pattern issue often seen in some games, though. It looks as good as it does simply due to artistic skill, not hardware superiority.
 
dark10x said:
Ha ha, do you realize what you've just said. Go ahead and back it up with some proof, though, if you think you have it. I feel that you've completely fabricated that piece of information, however...

Looking at the actual hardware capabilities it becomes obvious that the XBOX is better suited in the creation of water surface effects. Super Mario Sunshine's water does look quite nice, but it is nothing particularly complex. They use a geometric mesh for the waves and apply what amounts to a "pixel shader" effect on the surface. If you look, however, you'll see that this is only drawn within a certain radius of the player character. I suppose that avoids the repeating pattern issue often seen in some games, though. It looks as good as it does simply due to artistic skill, not hardware superiority.
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To be fair EMBM executes faster on Flipper than on NV2A while NV2A has the edge on DOT3 bump-mapping IIRC.
 
On the console side, the last time i was impressed with water effects was on FarCry Instincts. Very nice water nice.

Ok i will sound "Ubisoft oriented" but for pure polygonal water without pixel shaders or any fancy effects, first level of King Kong PS2 for the win. The water there (especially the recreation of waves is amazing.
 
Trackmania Sunrise & Virtual Skipper (both made by Nadeo) has very nice water:
VSK4_Screenshots01.jpg


I also liked both the waves and the rain in Cold Fear, but I can't find any decent screenshots of it.
 
Panajev2001a said:
To be fair EMBM executes faster on Flipper than on NV2A while NV2A has the edge on DOT3 bump-mapping IIRC.
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That's true, I have heard that. There seems to be some limitations on its usage, however, just based on the results. Any ideas if that's the case?

Another question, I've noticed that a commonly used water surface effect on the GC often results in the distortion of any adjacent edges. For example, if a floor high above the water appearance to touch it from the players perspective, that edge will become distorted. I've always wondered why exactly this occurs, as I've only witnessed this on the Gamecube.
 
Cronox said:
You have to remember what the purpose is for the water though. B&W2's water looks really good from afar, but when zoomed in fully, it's easy to see the squares of water being replicated around your island, and the pixelation within them. Same goes for any strategy game with a top down view, to an extent.

If anyone cares, the reason Miyamoto said that Mario Sunshine couldn't be done on any other system is because the GC can do water effects better than any other. It's specialized on that front, hence the project name "Dolphin."
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:lol x1000000
 
Traackmania for sure.

Splashdown amazed me at the time. Not the physics, but the look.
 
dark10x said:
That's true, I have heard that. There seems to be some limitations on its usage, however, just based on the results. Any ideas if that's the case?
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IIRC, that Flipper's EMBM function is best when used for translucent and reflective surfaces instead of opaque and not mirror-like surfaces. It can be used as generalized Depent-reads, but from what people have said (like ERP on the B3D forums) it has some limitations in the way you can use it to use it to achieve DOT3 bump-mapping and Normal mapping.

Another question, I've noticed that a commonly used water surface effect on the GC often results in the distortion of any adjacent edges. For example, if a floor high above the water appearance to touch it from the players perspective, that edge will become distorted. I've always wondered why exactly this occurs, as I've only witnessed this on the Gamecube.
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Maybe the developers also liked to apply some distorsion to simulate refraction ? Do you have some screenshots of that phenomenon ?
 
Embossed bump mapping has problems with the edges where the bump mapping is applied to. They simple arent there in some circumstances! I guess EMBM is a good tradeoff when the hardware does not support bump mapping in hardware.

btw the distorsion most likely is a texture mapping bug wich is common with EMBM if you do a regular UV mapping.
 
Shompola said:
Embossed bump mapping has problems with the edges where the bump mapping is applied to. They simple arent there in some circumstances! I guess EMBM is a good tradeoff when the hardware does not support bump mapping in hardware.
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Earth to Shompola, Earth to Shompola: we are talking about Environment Mapped Bump-Mapping or EMB or Dependent Texturing or Dependent Reads ;).

That distorsion might apply to EMBM too, but I do not know for certain.
 
Timen said:
Wind waker waves are awesome :)

especially in the northern part of the world, the waves tend to get pretty big!
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...can someone post pictures of this alleged waves in Wind Waker? I don't remember any. In fact, I remember the water being mostly flat and looking like shit.
 
quetz67 said:
thanks :-)

seriously, the water is quite good, just too transparent at a steep angle. The other shot shows the effect much better.
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there hasn't been many videos of it, but the water looks great in motion too.

what other shot btw?
 
Panajev2001a said:
Earth to Shompola, Earth to Shompola: we are talking about Environment Mapped Bump-Mapping or EMB or Dependent Texturing or Dependent Reads ;).

That distorsion might apply to EMBM too, but I do not know for certain.
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Ohh I guess that makes sense.
 
Shompola said:
I know it is weird. but real water, and deep one really does look like that. Same with mercury like water.
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yeah, from a plane flighing high you usually dont see the waves but kind of meta-waves. looks different
 
Cronox said:
If anyone cares, the reason Miyamoto said that Mario Sunshine couldn't be done on any other system is because the GC can do water effects better than any other. It's specialized on that front, hence the project name "Dolphin."
Click to expand...
the GC's graphics chip by ATi was called flipper...
 
kameo_03.jpg

kameo_21.jpg



Kameo does have some amazing water... has to be seen during motion, of course. While the day/night cycles are happening especially.
 
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