Skip to content

Shoreline Wetness

Shoreline Wetness is a visual effect in Oceanology that brings an added layer of realism to coastal environments by simulating the wetness of the shoreline as waves move up onto the beach. This effect can be used to depict wet sand, rocks, and other coastal assets, dynamically responding to the interaction of waves with the landscape. The system uses data from OceanologyManager to accurately map where waves impact the shoreline, creating a realistic and visually appealing wet effect.

Overview of Shoreline Wetness

The Shoreline Wetness feature simulates moisture on terrain surfaces that are in contact with water, such as the beach or rocks near the water's edge. The wetness effect is controlled by multiple parameters, including moisture levels, metallic values for the wet areas, roughness for more or less shiny surfaces, and the radius of the wetness effect.

This feature is perfect for adding a dynamic visual component to your environment, showing where water makes contact and gradually dampens the area.

Important Parameters

  • Band Opacity: Controls the intensity of the wet effect, making it more or less noticeable.

  • MoistureMetallic: Determines how metallic the wet surface appears, giving a shiny or matte look.

  • MoistureRoughness: Controls the roughness of the wet area, affecting how light interacts with the wet surface.

  • Wet Hardness: Sets the edge hardness of the wet area, allowing you to create either a gradual or sharp transition between wet and dry areas.

  • Wet Location: Specifies the base location for the wet effect.

  • Wet Radius: Defines how far the wet effect spreads across the surface. Larger values indicate that the effect will cover a larger area.

Material and Setup Requirements

The Shoreline Wetness feature uses a material instance named Shoreline Wetness MID, which you can assign to surfaces that you want to become wet when interacting with the shoreline.

The feature relies on the OceanologyManager to gather height and depth data from the waves and landscape. This allows Shoreline Wetness to determine where the wet effect should appear based on where waves reach and interact with surfaces.

How to Enable Shoreline Wetness in Your Scene

  1. Select the Actor

    • Select either BP_OceanologyInfiniteOcean or BP_OceanologyLake within your scene to start configuring the wetness effect.

  2. Enable Wetness

    • Find the Shoreline Wetness section in the settings and toggle Enable Wetness to activate the effect.

  3. Adjust the Parameters

    • Modify Band Opacity, MoistureMetallic, MoistureRoughness, and other parameters to achieve the desired visual effect for your environment.
    • Use Wet Radius to control the area of effect, adjusting it to match the scale of your shoreline assets.

Example: Wetting the Shoreline

Consider a beach scene where waves come onto the shore, leaving a wet trail on the sand. To create this effect:

  1. Enable Wetness on the OceanologyInfiniteOcean actor.
  2. Set Band Opacity to a high value if you want the wetness to be more noticeable.
  3. Adjust MoistureRoughness to determine if the wet sand looks glossy or matte.
  4. Set Wet Radius based on how far you want the wet effect to extend from the waterline.

Summary

The Shoreline Wetness feature in Oceanology allows for the creation of highly realistic shoreline scenes, where the environment visually responds to the movement of water. By dynamically applying wetness to surfaces, it brings the scene to life, showing exactly where water has come into contact with the landscape. Adjusting the parameters allows full control over how wet areas look, from subtle dampness to pronounced wet surfaces that shimmer in the light.