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Custom Water Materials for Non-Naval Scenes

This guide explains how to give a scene its own water look when the Naval DLC macro-displacement renderer is not in use — for example, a river ford, a lake, or any land battle with a water body in it.

Overview

By default every non-naval scene shares a single engine water material called base_water_scene_default. That material controls the colour of the water, how light scatters through it, and what the surface looks like.

You can replace it per-scene with any material that uses the water_surface shader. When you do, the engine uses your material instead — and the wave simulation parameters (strength, choppiness, wind direction influence) are no longer overridden by gameplay code, so you can tune them directly in the Scene Inspector.

Naval DLC note: This override only applies when the Naval DLC macro-displacement renderer is inactive. In naval combat missions the override is ignored and the naval pipeline takes over as usual.

Step 1 — Create a Water Material

  1. Open the Resource Browser and find base_water_scene_default.
  2. Duplicate it and give it a clear name, for example my_module_lake_water.
  3. Open the duplicate in the Material Inspector.
  4. Verify that the Shader field shows water_surface. Only materials with this exact shader will appear in the scene’s water material picker.

Step 2 — Set the Material on the Scene

  1. Open your scene in the editor.
  2. In the Scene Inspector, expand the Water group.
  3. Find the Non-Naval Water Material Override field.
  4. Click the picker and choose your material.
    • The list is filtered to show only water_surface materials.
    • Leave the field empty to revert to the engine default (base_water_scene_default).
  5. Save the scene. The override is stored in the scene file and loaded automatically every time the scene is opened in-game or in the editor.

Editor preview: If the Naval DLC is active in your editor session, the Visibility Manager panel will show a “Preview Naval Water Renderer” checkbox. Make sure this is unchecked while working on non-naval water — when it is checked the naval macro-displacement renderer is active and your material override will not be visible. Uncheck it to switch the viewport to the non-naval path and see your material changes live.

Step 3 — Tune the Material

The two fields that have the most visual impact are in the Material Inspector. Everything else (wave animation, displacement, caustics) is driven by the simulation and cannot be changed per-material.

Factor Color — Water Body Color

This controls how light is absorbed as it travels down through the water. Think of it as the colour the water takes on when it is deep.

Channel What it controls
R (red) How much red light survives at depth. Low \= reds disappear quickly, giving a blue-green tint.
G (green) How much green light survives.
B (blue) How much blue light survives. High \= clear blue water.
A (alpha) How quickly the scattered haze takes over with depth. Low values make the haze appear almost immediately; higher values (0.5–2.0) give a natural depth gradient.

Starting points to try:

Water type Factor Color (R, G, B, A)
Clear tropical blue 0.05, 0.35, 0.80, 1.0
Deep dark ocean 0.02, 0.10, 0.25, 1.5
Murky river 0.10, 0.50, 0.30, 0.8
Shallow lagoon 0.15, 0.60, 0.70, 0.5
Swamp / bog 0.20, 0.35, 0.10, 0.4

The colour values are in linear space. The Material Inspector displays them converted to sRGB for readability — what you see in the colour picker is approximately what you will see in-game in bright sunlight.

Factor2 Color — Underwater Haze / Scatter Color

This is the tint of the murky glow you see when looking through shallow water at a lit surface below. Think of it as the colour of the water itself rather than what is behind it.

Channel What it controls
R, G, B The haze colour. A good starting point is a lighter, slightly greenish version of your Factor Color.
A (alpha) How strongly the haze colour appears near the surface. 0.1–0.3 is a natural range.

Starting points to try:

Water type Factor2 Color (R, G, B, A)
Clear tropical blue 0.10, 0.60, 0.50, 0.2
Deep dark ocean 0.05, 0.20, 0.40, 0.1
Murky river 0.15, 0.40, 0.20, 0.3
Swamp / bog 0.20, 0.30, 0.08, 0.35

Set Factor2 Color to a colour in the same family as Factor Color but lighter and slightly more green or cyan. Very saturated values can look unnatural.

Step 4 — Tune the Scene Wave Settings

When a custom water material override is active, the gameplay code no longer forces fixed wave parameters onto your scene. The sliders in the Scene Inspector Water group now have full effect.

Slider What it does Suggested range
Strength Controls how energetic and tall the waves are. Higher \= choppier surface, more foam at the edges. 0.5–3.0 for rivers and lakes; up to 6–8 for stormy coasts
Choppiness Controls the shape of wave peaks. 0 \= smooth rolling waves, 1 \= sharp peaked waves. 0.3–0.7 for most water bodies
Wind Dependency How strongly the waves align with the wind direction. 0 \= waves travel in all directions equally, 1 \= waves strongly follow the wind. 0.0–0.5 for enclosed water; 0.5–1.0 for open water

Without a material override, Strength is forced to 10 and Wind Dependency to 0 by the engine regardless of what you set here. The sliders only take effect when a custom material override is assigned.

What Cannot Be Changed per Material

The following are driven by the engine simulation or the global render pipeline. They are the same for every non-naval water surface in every scene and cannot be overridden by changing the water material.

Hot-Reloading in the Editor

When you save changes to your water material while the scene is open in the editor, the engine detects the change and refreshes the water automatically within a few seconds. You do not need to reload the scene.

If the water does not update after saving the material, try toggling the Non-Naval Water Material Override picker off and back on to force a refresh.

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