Most realistic water rendering in game engines

[Kaotik]

We're having a discussion on another forum which evolved from lacking mirrors to lacking water realism in games, and was wondering which game(s) get the most realistic look on water these days?

Of course getting mathematically correct reflections and refractions is next to impossible since it depends on so many different variables even within just one lake, but obviously some are better on faking them than others.

One of the things that most games seem to miss is character reflections, even if everything else gets reflected, but is there any other "fundamental" things missing?

 

[Davros]

checkout Outcast from 1999

JustCause 2 used cuda for water

Crysis2 used some form of GPGPU

Fear 3

I allways liked the water in IL-2 (used vertex shaders i believe)

Also Cryostasis

 

[Kaotik]

Those are more on the physics / animation side though (of course they affect rendering too, i know!), but IIRC even Crysis 2 still doesn't reflect character for example

 

[Davros]

skyrim has a few water mods
(ps: remember how we were all blown away when we first saw the water in Morrowind)

 

[Argoon]

The game with the most realistic water that I've seen till this day is on a low price indie game called Hydrophobia.

Here is the trailer.

 

[Kaotik]

Yeah I remember the Morrowind-quicksilver

Mods can do wonders indeed, like we've seen on all TES games since Morrowind for example - but even with mods, can Skyrim reflect the character or sky without bugging?

 

[snarfbot]

There was a pretty recent battleship sim that had really awesome water. Ill try to find a youtube vid

 

[3dcgi]

Here's an article about the water in Assassin's Creed 3.
http://www.fxguide.com/featured/assassins-creed-iii-the-tech-behind-or-beneath-the-action/

 

[Rootax]

Back in the day I was amazed by Wave Race on N64 .

Then by the Gamecube version. It was nice at the time.

 

[slapnutz]

The game with the most realistic water that I've seen till this day is on a low price indie game called Hydrophobia.

Here is the trailer.

Yep remember that one too.
Went from awesome potential full release to sorta good download only version ... however apparently there was some update that supposedly improved it a lot.

Also, Outcast ... f**k yeah.

 

[Argoon]

Yep remember that one too.
Went from awesome potential full release to sorta good download only version ... however apparently there was some update that supposedly improved it a lot.

Also, Outcast ... f**k yeah.

The PC version is acceptable, i was pleasantly surprised to see the M&K being so well supported in a low price, indie, console to PC port game, also the graphics are pretty good especially the water of course and the dynamic lights effects. Unfortunately the team that made this game is no more.

 

[Novum]

When it comes to ocean water, CryEngine is still the best in my opinion.

 

[Bryant]

If you want to talk purely visual water rendering, I thought Half-Life 2 was amazing at its time.

 

[almighty]

I would say Crysis with the enhanced water shader

 

[homerdog]

Is there anything that comes close to Crysis ocean water? That was five years ago but I haven't seen anything in the same league since. I have seen some attempts, but they came off looking weird. Two Worlds II comes to mind.

 

[Arwin]

The water in Assassin's Creed 3 is pretty amazing, even in consoles, in the ship navigation sections.

(couldn't find better footage yet)

 

[Sigfried1977]

I think Assassin's Creed III wins hands down here. Not even a contest really. That ocean simulation doesn't just look stunning, it also behaves and feels incredibly convincing.

Oddly enough every other body of of water in ACIII looks completely terrible. Way worse than in in all the other AC games as a matter of fact, including AC Liberation on the Vita.

 

[Sigfried1977]

skyrim has a few water mods
(ps: remember how we were all blown away when we first saw the water in Morrowind)

Tried a bunch of these (including the on in the video) but got rid of them pretty much instantly. In most cases the water looks a lot more convincing in the vanilla game. Simply quadrupling the size of the ripples doesn't make for realistic water. All it does is ruin the sense of scale.

 

[Arwin]

I think Assassin's Creed III wins hands down here. Not even a contest really. That ocean simulation doesn't just look stunning, it also behaves and feels incredibly convincing.

Oddly enough every other body of of water in ACIII looks completely terrible. Way worse than in in all the other AC games as a matter of fact, including AC Liberation on the Vita.

Yeah, the game is clearly made by several different teams.

 

[Davros]

including AC Liberation on the Vita.

You make it sound like that surprises you ?