Simple Ocean

Infinite, performant ocean rendering for Unity — with quadtree LOD, Gerstner waves, buoyancy physics, URP & Built-in support, underwater fog, and caustics.

Full documentation: https://dylanauty.com/documentation/simple-ocean/

---

Quick Start

1. Add Ocean To Scene

Tools > Simple Ocean > Add Ocean To Scene

Creates a GameObject with OceanRenderer using the "Shallows" wave preset. Assign a material (SimpleOceanURP or SimpleOceanBuiltIn) to the Ocean Material slot.

2. Add Underwater Effect

Select your camera and add the UnderwaterEffect component (or assign the material and press Play — underwater fog activates when the camera submerges).

3. Add Buoyancy (optional)

Select a GameObject with a Rigidbody, then Tools > Simple Ocean > Add Buoyancy To Selection.

---

Pipeline Support

Built-In Render Pipeline

• Use SimpleOceanBuiltIn material
• Underwater fog sets RenderSettings.fog while submerged, restores on exit
• Caustics render via OnRenderImage on the camera

URP (Universal Render Pipeline)

• Use SimpleOceanURP material
• Underwater fog + caustics combined in a single ScriptableRenderPass using Hidden/UnderwaterEffectURP
• The pass is injected automatically at runtime — no manual renderer feature setup needed
• URP 12+ (tested on 14.x)

Both pipelines support vertex displacement, analytical normals, refraction, depth-based fog, shore foam, crest foam, SSS, and intersection rings.

---

Components

OceanRenderer

The core component on the ocean GameObject. Controls the quadtree grid, wave configuration, material properties, and mesh quality.

Section	Fields
Camera Tracking	Target Transform — the transform the ocean grid follows (default: active camera)
Wave Configuration	4 Gerstner waves (Wavelength, Amplitude, Speed, Steepness, Direction), Depth Offset, Wave Chop, Water Fog Density
Material Overrides	Water Color Deep, Water Color Shallow, Horizon Color, Horizon Blend, Horizon Power, Horizon Dist Scale, Glossiness, Specular Color, Bump Strength, Normal Scale, Normal Speed, Foam Color, Foam Intensity, Crest Foam Threshold, Crest Foam Tuning, Surface Foam Tiling/Speed/Cutoff/Distortion, Intersection Foam Tiling/Speed/Distortion/Fade/Cutoff/Color, Refraction Strength, SSS Intensity/Color/Power/Crest Scale/Distortion, Disable Textures, Enable RGB Absorption, Absorption R/G/B, Wind Direction, Performance Preset, Ring Width/Intensity/Color/Freq/Speed, Shore Foam Intensity, Foam Fade Range, Enable Rings
Material & Rendering	Ocean Material, Layer, Cast Shadows, Receive Shadows
Quadtree Grid	Root Size (world-space extent), Root Grid Size (1–7, must be odd), Max Depth (1–10), Subdivision Threshold
Mesh Quality	Mesh Resolution (4–64 verts per tile edge), Skirt Depth (hides LOD seams)
Debug Tools	Debug Mode with pass isolation (0=SurfaceFoam…6=Rings), Pause Waves
Addons	Add Caustics Projector Component button

Wave presets are applied via the Wave & Visual Presets section using preset buttons — see Wave Presets.

UnderwaterEffect

Attach to your camera. Controls underwater fog and screen-space caustics. Activates when the camera position is below the water surface.

Field	Description
Underwater Fog Color Shallow	Fog color at the water surface (blends toward deep color as you descend)
Underwater Fog Color Deep	Deep water fog color
Surface Fog Density	Base fog density at the surface (0.001–0.3)
Fog Density Per Metre	Extra fog density added per metre below the surface (0.0–0.1)
Sync Colors From Ocean	Auto-pull fog colors from the ocean material's _WaterColorShallow / _WaterColorDeep (default: on)
Sync Effects From Ocean	Auto-pull caustics intensity from the ocean material (default: on)
Enable Caustics	Master toggle for screen-space caustics (default: off)
Caustics Intensity	Brightness multiplier for caustics (0–5)

Built-in: Fog modifies RenderSettings.fog while underwater and restores on exit. Caustics render through OnRenderImage.
URP: Fog and caustics combined in a single ScriptableRenderPass using Hidden/UnderwaterEffectURP, injected at AfterRenderingPostProcessing.

WaterBuoyancy

Attach to any GameObject with a Rigidbody to make it float on the ocean surface.

Field	Description
Buoyancy Strength	Upward force multiplier
Water Drag	Linear drag applied while submerged
Water Angular Drag	Angular drag while submerged
Float Offset	Vertical offset for the waterline
Buoyancy Points	Custom sample points; uses bounding-box corners if empty
Center Of Mass	Local-space center of mass offset (zero = no override)
Stabilization Torque	Extra torque resisting rotation while submerged (0 = free rotation, 1 = locked upright)

CausticsProjector

Attached to the ocean GameObject via the Add Caustics Projector Component button in the OceanRenderer inspector. Controls caustics on the water surface and screen-space caustics on underwater objects.

Field	Description
Caustics Tex	Caustics texture (defaults to Assets/SimpleOcean/Textures/caustics.gif)
Color	Tint color
Intensity	Brightness multiplier (0–5)
Scale 1	World-space scale of the caustics pattern (0.005–0.5; smaller = larger pattern)
Scale 2 Multiplier	Second-layer scale multiplier (0.5–5)
Speed	Animation speed of the caustics movement (0–2)
Split RGB	Colour-channel offset for chromatic aberration (0–0.1)
Wave Distortion	How much the pattern is warped by simulated refraction (0–2)
Distortion Speed	Speed of the distortion animation (0–2)
Enable Caustics	Master toggle

When enabled: pushes all caustics properties to the ocean material each frame via LateUpdate, and temporarily enables UnderwaterEffect.enableCaustics during its OnEnable. When disabled or removed, restores the underwater effect's previous caustics state and sets _CausticsToggle to 0 on the ocean material.

IslandGenerator

Bonus tool for generating procedural terrain islands. Attach to an empty GameObject or use Tools > Simple Ocean > Island Generator (creates a new island with random settings via ContextMenu > Randomize).

Field	Description
Radius (Shape)	Island radius in metres
Resolution	Mesh subdivisions
Seed	Random seed for terrain shape
Height Scale (Height)	Maximum island height
Dropoff Start (Drop-off)	Percentage of radius where height starts dropping (0.3–0.9)
Dropoff Steepness	How sharp the underwater slope is (1–10)
Dropoff Depth	How deep the seabed extends
Skirt Radius	Extra geometry radius below the drop-off
Skirt Depth	Vertical depth of the skirt geometry
Noise Frequency (Base Noise)	Base noise frequency
Noise Octaves	Number of noise octaves
Noise Lacunarity	Frequency multiplier per octave
Noise Persistence	Amplitude multiplier per octave
Shape Irregularity (Shape Variation)	Irregularity of the island outline (0–1)
Shape Warp Scale	Warp scale for outline distortion
Width Ratio (Profile)	Width/height ratio of the island (0.3–3)
Center Shift X	Offset the island centre along X (−0.8–0.8)
Center Shift Z	Offset the island centre along Z (−0.8–0.8)
Dual Island	Blend amount for a second overlapping island (0–1)
Dual Angle Deg	Rotation angle of the second island
Dual Offset	Offset distance of the second island (0–1.5)
Dual Size	Size multiplier for the second island (0.2–1.5)
Detail Strength (Detail Noise)	Detail noise amplitude (0–1)
Detail Frequency	Detail noise frequency
Grass Strength (Grass)	Grass vertex-colour strength (0–3)
Grass Frequency	Grass noise frequency
Grass Coverage	Grass coverage threshold (0–5)
Grass Start Height	Minimum height for grass
Sand Color (Colors)	Sand vertex colour
Grass Color	Grass vertex colour

The island mesh generates automatically in Start() and re-generates on any inspector change via OnValidate. Right-click the component header and choose Randomize for new random terrain.

OceanItemTelemetry

Attach to any object to monitor water interaction and fire UnityEvents on state changes.

Section	Fields
Telemetry (read-only)	Is In Water, Is Fully Submerged, Wave Height, Submersion Depth, Surface Normal
Events	On Enter Water, On Exit Water, On Fully Submerge, On Surface
Gizmos	Show Gizmos — toggle debug visualization

Read-only properties accessible from scripts: IsInWater, IsFullySubmerged, WaveHeight, SubmersionDepth, SurfaceNormal.

UnderwaterURPFeature (URP only)

A ScriptableRendererFeature that defines the UnderwaterCompositePass used by the underwater effect. It does not need to be added to the URP Renderer asset — injection happens at runtime via reflection in OnBeginCameraRendering. The pass renders a full-screen quad with the composite material (Hidden/UnderwaterEffectURP) after post-processing, using RenderTexture.GetTemporary for _MainTex and MaterialPropertyBlock for parameter binding.

---

Tools Menu

Menu Item	Description
Tools > Simple Ocean > Add Ocean To Scene	Creates a GameObject with OceanRenderer + Shallows preset in the current scene
Tools > Simple Ocean > Add Buoyancy To Selection	Adds WaterBuoyancy (and Rigidbody if missing) to all selected GameObjects
Tools > Simple Ocean > Island Generator	Creates an "Island" GameObject with IslandGenerator + randomize on the new component

---

Wave Presets

Available in the OceanRenderer inspector under Wave & Visual Presets:

Category	Presets
Calm	Still, River
Rough	Ocean, Swell
Depths	Lake, Deep Ocean, Shallows
Artistic	Stylized, Toon, Tropical
Murky	Foggy Lake, Murky Ocean, Swamp
Extra	Rough Ocean, Mirror, Pool

Each preset sets the 4 Gerstner waves and the material properties (water color, foam, specular, SSS, etc.).

---

Enabling Caustics

1. Select your ocean GameObject in the Hierarchy
2. In the OceanRenderer inspector, scroll to the Addons section
3. Click Add Caustics Projector Component
4. The CausticsProjector component appears and automatically activates caustics on the water surface and enables UnderwaterEffect.enableCaustics
5. Toggle Enable Caustics on the CausticsProjector to control all caustics

---

Performance Tips

• Mesh Resolution: 16–32 is a good range. Higher values add detail but cost vertices.
• Max Depth: 5–7 is typical. Going above 8 generates many tiles near the camera.
• Subdivision Threshold: Higher values = more quality. Lower = faster.
• Root Grid Size: 3–5 covers the visible area. 7 is very generous.
• Performance Preset: Mobile, Desktop, or Ultra — controls mesh resolution, max depth, and bump noise quality.

---

Requirements

• Unity 2021.3 or later
• Built-in Render Pipeline or URP 12+
• URP projects must have the UniversalRenderPipelineAsset assigned in Graphics Settings

---

Support

• Documentation: https://dylanauty.com/documentation/simple-ocean/
• Asset Store page for questions and feature requests

---

Simple Ocean includes the Island Generator as a bonus tool for creating procedural terrain islands.