Merricksdad's Wavey Water Shader (EE)

**** The included fx_step_splash.mdl interferes with the current NWN fancywater shader in EE. When fancywater is enabled, you will probably see white squares emitted on water surfaces from any character crossing water. You can either remove all instances of my custom fx_step_splash.mdl from the included hacks (to allow fancywater to take over), or disable fancywater in the game options (to retain this custom water). ****

This is a modification of Soren's normal and spec mapped basic shader (fslit_nm.shd). I've added a portion of Sherincall's bumpyshiny water shader (fs_water.shd).

Click for Youtube video (version 0.8)

Like Soren's shaders, this one picks up the sun direction (with approximate solar normal of [-0.5, -0.5, -0.75] ). When you walk into the sun, the water will take on additional specular and diffuse flare. Unlike Soren's shaders, I've also given the waves some color when you walk opposite the sun. Instead of lightness, I've applied a bit of darkness to simulate away-waves.

Most of the wave work is being done by a single new wave function, and the rest is just a modification to Soren's lighting functions. The new function picks up wind events just like Sherincall's water.

The package (which is just a zip, not a hak) contains the new water fragment shader, and a copy of the standard vertex shader.  I've included my Granitelands 2 water texture, normal map, and spec map, along with a MTR file which calls on the new shaders.

The package also contains a new footstep_splash model which has a longer 4 second duration and "explodes" multiple times. This creates the needed wind event which pushes the water surface as you walk through the water. This is the modification that really makes Sherincall's wind-driven water functionality come alive.

The footstep model can also double as a wind placeable if you add it to placeables.2da, or even as a visual effect with customizable duration. This will let you mimic wind events at any duration.

The purpose of this package is to show users how water can be animated using the new shaders, and without actually using the bumpyshiny water feature in the Advanced Options menu.

I highly suggest applying the texture to a watery thing you're working on, then plop the shaders in your development folder. Play with the customizable constants at the top of the script to make bigger waves, or modify tint mixing.

Inside the fragment shader script are a bunch of contants at the top of the code. You can change these all you want. They're well documented as to what they do to the visuals. I've also included a screenshot here of the customizable constants.

Keep in mind that if you stray too far out of the provided notes and suggestions, you're going to crash the shader script, and maybe do a hard crash on the game engine. Such has happened many times while I was writing this script.

I've tried using MTR files to simply replace existing vanilla water textures, but it doesn't work that way. So to use this in vanilla tilesets you'll have to make some fake empty TXI files to undo the animations and other TXI effects.

As mentioned, this is not a replacement for the standard water shader. Instead, this is called via MTR material files (see included MTR file). This shader lets you make any texture into a fluid.

Have fun!

Revision Log

v 0.10:

• reduced number of mathematical operations, and built some pre-calculated values
• slightly changed the uv selection math
• changed how close lights interact with water in specular addition. Point lightsources now illuminate a wider swath of water, and carry toward the camera more
• base specularity was modified slightly
• too-bright specular light was reduced
• added the ability to define a base wavelength modifier by supplying the Z value of ##setglobalwind X Y Z. The wavelength modifier may not function exactly as expected, but it should be pretty close to an inverse multiplier. For instance a Z value of 9 will produce 9 sub-waves within the normal wavelength, without modifying the perpendicular axes of the wave.
• a minimum global windspeed was set so that global wind of zero wouldn't just look like fog instead of water.
• added a falloff distance option at which pointsource winds will be ignored (fog distance by default)
• added a falloff distance option at which global wind will be ignored (fog distance by default)
• added an option to force falloff distances to match fog falloff distance (enabled by default)

v 0.8:

• improved sinusoidal visuals: means no more straight waves
• improved time and distance before patterns repeat
• improved visuals when only one direction (x,y) is supplied
• wavelength modifier now properly affects global wind waves
• wavelength modifier is now in approximately meters
• wavespeed modifier now properly affects global wind waves
• wavespeed modifier is now in approximately meters/second
• supplying a global wind value via ##setglobalwind now uses the z (third) value supplied as a modifier to wave interval. This allows the wavelength to be modifed without modifying the shader constants
• modifying wavelength, wavespeed, and input wind speed no longer multiplies the other factors. Now it just produces an additive effect. This allows wavelength and wavespeed modifiers to work properly as true scaling factors
• global wind wave amplitude is now standardized. Adding stronger wind won't produce sharper waves.
• fixed issue with global wind to wave direction being backward (my son spotted this)
• fixed issue with large wavelengths not traveling as far. Ripple radius now automatically scales with increased wavelength so waves are not immediately attenuated.