Water, waves & ripples
Water combines waves, foam, depth colour, reflection, refraction and interaction in one effect. This section covers stylised and realistic water shaders, ripples, buoyancy and underwater looks. Start with a simple scrolling-normal shader, then add depth and foam. 64 hand-picked Unity guides, tutorials, videos and repos, kept current.
- Barely Breathing: procedural puddles that follow the environment
Updated procedural puddle generator that spreads around obstacles and follows environment shape.
jettelly.com · Sep 2026 - A real-time potion shader breakdown in Unity
Liquid that reacts to movement, built with C# and Shader Graph.
jettelly.com · Aug 2026 - Generating a Living Sea
The three systems behind a Privateer battle are really one pipeline: wave function collapse builds an island map, the jump flood algorithm turns its coast into a distance field, and the boids fish read that field to stay in the water.
bartouv.github.io · Jul 2026 - Charting a New Sea Every Run
How the run map is generated: Poisson disc scatter for even beacons, Delaunay triangulation for natural links, then pruning and connectivity guarantees so an FTL-style sea is always playable start to boss.
bartouv.github.io · Jul 2026 - Every Pixel Knows Its Nearest Shore
The jump flood algorithm builds a distance field to the coastline in a handful of GPU passes, and one field drives shore foam, shallow water, and fog of war. How JFA works and how to stop it flickering.
bartouv.github.io · Jul 2026 - Simulating surf breaks in Unity with bathymetry depth maps
Wave system behind a surfing game, driven by bathymetry depth maps.
jettelly.com · Jun 2026 - Stylized Water 2026
Patreon post on a 2026 update to a stylized water shader.
patreon.com · Jun 2026 - GitHub - AshenOneArt/HPWater: HPWater
Repo: Unity water rendering project called HPWater.
github.com · ~Feb 2026 - Shoreline Shader Breakdown
Breaks down water techniques for ocean waves crashing onto a shoreline in Shader Graph.
cyanilux.com · Dec 2024 - Unreal Fest 2018: Stylized VFX in RIME 2.0 - Water Edition
Talk on stylized water effects in RIME, with a fire effect shown that Simon highlights as inspiring.
youtu.be · Nov 2024 - Unity Shader Graph Basics (Part 9 - Scene Intersections 2)
Uses scene intersections for foamy coastal water edges and glowing edges on passing objects.
danielilett.com · May 2024 - Vertex Animated Water - Advanced Materials - Episode 36
Creates vertex-animated water in an advanced materials series.
youtube.com · ~Jan 2024 - GitHub - GarrettGunnell/Water: Sum of sines and fft fluid simulation with a physically based water shader
Repo: sum-of-sines and FFT water simulation with a physically based shader.
github.com · Jun 2023 - Waterfall Shader Breakdown
Breakdown of a waterfall shader that parts around a sphere using signed distance fields.
cyanilux.com · ~May 2023 - Jedi: Fallen Order – Splishy Splashy
Looks at the water splash effects in Jedi: Fallen Order.
simonschreibt.de · May 2023 - GitHub - AJTech2002/Smoothed-Particle-Hydrodynamics
Repo: smoothed-particle hydrodynamics fluid simulation in Unity.
github.com · Apr 2023 - Stylized Water Shader
Step-by-step tutorial on building a stylized water shader in Unity.
alexanderameye.github.io · ~Mar 2023 - Rendering realtime caustics
Tutorial with code on rendering realtime caustics in Unity using shaders.
alexanderameye.github.io · ~Mar 2022 - Gentle Introduction to Fluid Simulation
Intuitive explanation of fluid simulation aimed at programmers and technical artists.
shahriyarshahrabi.medium.com · ~Oct 2021 - WaveMaker | Physics | Unity Asset Store
Asset Store package for simulating wave physics in Unity.
assetstore.unity.com · Jul 2021 - Liquid Shader Breakdown
Breakdown of a liquid shader that discards pixels above a Y height and renders back faces.
cyanilux.com · ~Feb 2021 - Tech Breakdown: Hiding Water in Boat Interiors
Tech breakdown of hiding water inside boat interiors.
phosphoer.medium.com · ~Feb 2021 - Stylized Water For URP
Product page for a stylized water shader for URP.
alexanderameye.github.io · ~Sep 2020 - Simulating Liquids in Bottles with a Shader
Interview on simulating liquid in a bottle with a shader.
80.lv · Jun 2020 - Stylized Water For URP - Desktop:Mobile [Unreleased] - Unity Forum
Forum thread for a stylized water shader on URP for desktop and mobile.
forum.unity.com · Mar 2020 - Splash! - Trifox
Developer blog on how Trifox built its water splash visual effects.
trifox-game.com · Mar 2020 - Low Poly Water GPU | Substances | Unity Asset Store
Asset Store low poly water package using GPU effects.
assetstore.unity.com · ~Aug 2019 - Stylized Water 1 | VFX Shaders | Unity Asset Store
Asset Store stylized water shader package from Staggart Creations.
assetstore.unity.com · ~Jul 2019 - River 2k19 Edition
Revisits river effects in games with a 2019 edition.
simonschreibt.de · Jan 2019 - Flowing River
Case study building a flowing river with a shader.
ronja-tutorials.com · Nov 2018 - Looking Through Water
Catlike Coding tutorial on underwater fog and fake refraction.
catlikecoding.com · Aug 2018 - Shader Showcase Saturday #2: Waterfalls
Creates dynamic waterfalls with shaders.
alanzucconi.com · Jul 2018 - Flow: Directional Flow
Catlike Coding tutorial making ripples aligned with a flow vector field.
catlikecoding.com · Jun 2018 - GitHub - keijiro/StableFluids: A straightforward GPU implementation of Jos Stam's "Stable Fluids" on Unity.
Repo: GPU implementation of Jos Stam's Stable Fluids in Unity.
github.com · Jun 2018 - Texture Distortion
Catlike Coding tutorial on distorting textures to simulate flowing surfaces.
catlikecoding.com · May 2018 - My take on shaders: Unlit waterfall (Part 1) – Harry Alisavakis
First part of an unlit waterfall effect tutorial.
halisavakis.com · ~May 2018 - Stylized VFX in RIME – Water Edition
Talk on three stylized water-related effects in RIME at Unreal Fest Europe 2018.
simonschreibt.de · May 2018 - waterfall - William Chyr
Blog posts about adding a splash to a waterfall using a sine-wave vertex shader.
williamchyr.com · ~May 2017 - The Ocean: Wind Waker Graphics Analysis
Wind Waker graphics analysis of how the ocean is rendered.
medium.com · ~Jan 2017 - SUIMONO Water System | VFX Shaders | Unity Asset Store
Asset Store water system package by Tanuki Digital.
assetstore.unity.com · Jun 2016 - Make a realistic boat in Unity with C# - Add waves and an endless ocean | Habrador
Boat tutorial part on adding waves and an endless ocean.
habrador.com · ~May 2016 - The Water of Flotsam
Devlog on the approaches used to build the look of water in Flotsam.
pajamallama.be · Mar 2016 - Blubb! – Fish Tanks in Games
Looks at fish tanks in games.
simonschreibt.de · Feb 2016 - Make a realistic boat in Unity with C# | Habrador
Tutorial on building a boat with buoyancy physics in Unity C#.
habrador.com · ~Nov 2015 - news
Article on a water interaction model for boats in video games.
gamasutra.com · ~Feb 2015 - Zelda Wind Waker – Hyrule Travel Guide | Simonschreibt.
Travel guide that studies Wind Waker's environment and visual tricks.
simonschreibt.de · Nov 2014 - Underwater Effects
Article on rendering underwater effects in Unity.
alastaira.wordpress.com · Oct 2014 - Diablo 3 – Resource Bubbles
Looks at the liquid-filled resource orbs in Diablo 3 and how the bubble effect is built.
simonschreibt.de · Mar 2013 - Water Caustics Effect - caust_014.png
Free pre-rendered 16-frame water caustics animation texture.
opengameart.org · Nov 2012 - Water Caustics Effect (Small)
Free small pre-rendered 16-frame water caustics animation.
opengameart.org · Nov 2012 - Welcome to Habib's Water Shader Wiki - Habib's Water Shader
Wiki about building and tuning a water shader in Unity.
habib.wikidot.com · ~Jul 2009 - My take on shaders: Water Shader – Harry Alisavakis
Tutorial on building a water shader.
halisavakis.com - Making a small sailing game in Unity - Indie Devlog #1 The Ocean System
Devlog on the ocean system for a small sailing game.
youtube.com - GTA V – The Wormy Fountain | Simonschreibt.
Analyzes how the wormy fountain effect in GTA V works.
simonschreibt.de - Definitive Stylized Water | VFX Shaders | Unity Asset Store
Asset Store page for a stylized water shader package with reviews.
assetstore.unity.com - Crest Water 4 URP (Ocean, Rivers & Lakes) | Particles/Effects | Unity Asset Store
Asset Store page for Crest water, an ocean, river and lake system for URP.
assetstore.unity.com - Crest Water 4 HDRP (Ocean, Rivers & Lakes) | Particles/Effects | Unity Asset Store
Asset Store page for Crest water, an ocean, river and lake system for HDRP.
assetstore.unity.com - Chapter 1. Effective Water Simulation from Physical Models
GPU Gems chapter on simulating water from physical models.
developer.nvidia.com - Causticas para tu JUEGO! | Parte 02
Spanish video on making caustics effects for your game, part two.
youtube.com - Caustic Surface Production Guide
Artist's workflow recreating a Zelda: Breath of the Wild style water and caustic surface.
80.lv - Building a Dynamic Water Shader with Campo Santo
Artist's article on the dynamic water shader behind the In the Valley of Gods trailer.
80.lv - Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag – Waterplane | Simonschreibt.
Analysis of the Assassin's Creed Black Flag water plane rendering.
simonschreibt.de - Assassin's Creed III: The tech behind (or beneath) the action - fxguide
Behind-the-scenes on ocean simulation and ship physics in Assassin's Creed III.
fxguide.com - 2D Water Shader Breakdown
Breakdown of a 2D water shader with pixelated highlights, distortion, reflections and shoreline ripples.
cyanilux.com