Oceanology Legacy 5.8.1 — engine compatibility for Unreal Engine 5.8. No new features; the next feature release is Lite 6.0.0.
Oceanology Legacy 5.8.1 is a compatibility release and nothing more. It builds and runs the existing Legacy plugin on Unreal Engine 5.8. There are no new features, no new actors or components, no parameter changes and no rendering changes.
Lite 6.0.0 is a rebuild on a different codebase, and a rebuild takes as long as it takes. Projects do not wait for it. If your production needs to be on UE 5.8 now, 5.8.1 gets your current Legacy setup onto 5.8 without touching your scene, your presets or your blueprints. When Lite 6.0.0 arrives you migrate on your own schedule instead of being blocked on an engine version in the meantime.
It is not a preview of Lite, and nothing in it comes from the Lite work. Lite 6.0.0 is the Pro codebase with different actors, different components and a different authoring model, so moving from Legacy to Lite is a real migration rather than an in-place upgrade. Treat 5.8.1 as the bridge that keeps a shipping project moving, and plan the migration to Lite 6.0.0 separately.
| Oceanology Legacy | Oceanology Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Target engine | UE 5.8 | UE 5.8 |
| Codebase | The original Legacy tree, 17,478 lines | The Oceanology Pro core, 99,961 lines |
| New features | None | Lakes, shallow water, interactive water, hydraulics, rebuilt swimming and underwater |
| Purpose | Keep existing projects shipping on 5.8 | The product Legacy becomes |
| Effort to adopt | Drop in, no scene changes | A migration to new actors and components |
| Ongoing updates | Engine compatibility only | Synchronized with Pro |
| Version | Oceanology Legacy 5.8.1 |
| Target engine | Unreal Engine 5.8 |
| C++ | 17,478 lines, 107 files, 2 modules |
| Shader files | 4 |
| New features | None |
| Cost | Free to Legacy owners |
| Successor | Oceanology Lite 6.0.0, also free to Legacy owners |
This is one entry on the Galidar roadmap. For what already shipped in each release, see the Changelog.