This material creates the appearance of an ocean surface. It is designed to work with spectra created with the 
Ocean Spectrum SOP. There are several parameters to control the surface properties of the ocean waves, as well as a layer of foam which rests on the surface of the ocean.
Tip
For realistic subsurface scattering effects and attenuation, you can use a Uniform Volume material for the space below the ocean surface.
Parameters ¶
Ocean Shader ¶
Waves ¶
Wave Min/Max Height
These values allow you to customize the color and diffuse contributions of the ocean waves.
Min
The lowest point on your ocean surface, also known as the “troughs” of the waves.
Max
The highest point on your ocean surface, also known as the “peaks” of the waves.
Diffuse ¶
Diffuse Intensity
The diffuse contribution of the ocean waves themselves. Generally speaking, for realistic waves, this value should be very low. This value is multiplied by the Diffuse Ramp value.
Diffuse Color
The diffuse color of the waves from “trough” to “peak”. A variety of ocean looks can be created by simply customizing this ramp.
Diffuse Ramp
A multiplier on the Diffuse Intensity which allows you to vary the diffuse contribution over the surface of the wave from “trough” to “peak”.
Reflections ¶
Note
Reflections can be enabled/disabled on the Settings tab. For a more detailed explanation of reflection parameters, see the Surface Model VOP help page.
Reflect Intensity
How reflective the surface of the ocean is. For realistic waves, this will typically be a very high value.
Reflect Color
The color which will be used to tint the reflective contribution of the wave.
Reflect Roughness
The bluriness of the reflective component of the waves. For realistic waves, this value will typically be quite low, resulting in sharp reflections on the surface of the ocean.
Reflect Minimum
To maintain realism, the ocean surface creates different amounts of reflection based on the angle with which you are viewing the waves. To maintain a desired look, you can set a minimum amount of reflection which will prevent the reflective component from falling below this value, regardless of viewing angle.
Refractions ¶
Note
Refractions can be enabled/disabled on the Settings tab. For a more detailed explanation of refraction parameters, see the Surface Model VOP help page.
Refract Intensity
How visible the refractive component of the ocean surface is. For realistic waves, this value will generally be quite high.
Refract Color
The color which will be used to tint the refractive contribution of the wave.
Refract Angle
The bluriness of the refractive component of the waves. For ocean waves, this value will often be between 1-3. However, for very clear water it would be reasonable to use even lower values.
Refract Minimum
To maintain realism, the ocean surface creates different amounts of refraction based on the angle with which you are viewing the waves. To maintain a desired look, you can set a minimum amount of refraction which will prevent the refractive component from falling below this value, regardless of viewing angle.
Note
Attenuation can be enabled/disabled on the Settings tab.
Attenuation Color
The color to tint the light passing through the ocean surface.
Attenuation Density
The density of the ocean surface. Larger values will make the ocean seem more opaque.
Foam ¶
Foam Particles
The filename of the particles representing the ocean foam, usually created with the Ocean Foam SOP. Every shading point will lookup nearby foam particles according to their radius and accumulate its foam pattern.
Particle Radius Scale
A scale on the particle radius applied before looking up foam particles around a shading point. Increase this value and decrease Particle Alpha to smooth out the look of the foam.
Particle Alpha
The amount of opacity each particle will contribute. Increase this value for a thicker foam layer.
Particle Alpha Ramp
A ramp over the lifespan of the foam particle that further scales the Particle Alpha.
Diffuse ¶
Streak Intensity
The visibility of the foam streaks on the surface of the ocean. Essentially, the diffuse contribution of the foam streaks.
Streak Color
The color of the foam streaks.
Whitecap Intensity
The visibility of the whitecaps on the peaks of the waves. Essentially, the diffuse contribution of the whitecaps.
Whitecap Color
The color of the whitecaps.
Reflections ¶
Note
Reflections can be enabled/disabled on the Settings tab. Additionally, these values are scaled by the overall visibility of the foam (Streak Intensity and Whitecap Intensity), excluding the color values. For a more detailed explanation of reflection parameters, see the Surface Model VOP help page.
Reflect Intensity
How reflective the foam layer is.
Reflect Color
The color which will be used to tint the reflective contribution of the foam.
Reflect Angle
The bluriness of the reflective component of the foam.
Reflect Minimum
To maintain realism, the ocean surface creates different amounts of reflection based on the angle with which you are viewing the foam. To maintain a desired look, you can set a minimum amount of reflection which will prevent the reflective component from falling below this value, regardless of viewing angle.
Refractions ¶
Note
Refractions can be enabled/disabled on the Settings tab. Additionally, these values are scaled by the overall visibility of the foam (Streak Intensity and Whitecap Intensity), excluding the color values. For a more detailed explanation of refraction parameters, see the Surface Model VOP help page.
Refract Intensity
How visible the refractive component of the foam layer is. For realistic foam, it is reasonable to set this value lower than the Refract Intensity of the waves.
Refract Color
The color which will be used to tint the refractive contribution of the foam.
Refract Angle
The bluriness of the refractive component of the foam. For realistic foam, it is reasonable to set this value higher than the Refract Angle of the waves.
Refract Minimum
To maintain realism, the ocean surface creates different amounts of refraction based on the angle with which you are viewing the foam. To maintain a desired look, you can set a minimum amount of refraction which will prevent the refractive component from falling below this value, regardless of viewing angle.
Note
Attenuation can be enabled/disabled on the Settings tab.
Attenuation Color
The color to tint the light passing through the foam layer.
Attenuation Density
The Density of the foam layer. Larger values will make the ocean seem more opaque.
Streaks ¶
Foam Sharpness
How sharp the edges of the foam are. High values will create a sharper more web-like pattern, low values will create a softer, rounder pattern.
Filter Scale
How much to filter the streak pattern to avoid aliasing artifacts when viewed from a distance.
Frequency
The frequency of the streak pattern.
Offset
How much to offset the streak pattern.
Streak Direction
The direction in which to stretch the Frequency to stretch out the foam in that direction. Setting this to the prevailing wind direction or wind direction plus 90 degrees can give interesting effects.
Streak Bias
The amount of Frequency stretching to do along the Streak Direction.
Whitecaps ¶
Intensity Ramp
The whitecaps are generated from a “cusp” value which exists on the peaks of most of the waves created by the Ocean Evaluate SOP. However, depending on the desired look of your ocean, you may not want all of the waves to have a whitecap element. This ramp can be used to adjust which waves will appear to have whitecaps as well as the overall intensity of the whitecap mask. Typically, the lower values can be clamped to zero to avoid whitecaps from appearing on very small waves.
Bubbles ¶
Filter Scale
How much to filter the bubble pattern to avoid aliasing when viewed from a distance.
Frequency
The frequency of the bubble pattern.
Offset
How much to offset the bubble pattern.
Foam Displacement ¶
Note
These values are scaled by the overall visibility of the foam (Streak Intensity and Whitecap Intensity).
Streak Amount
The amount to displace the streak pattern on the surface of the waves. For wide shots, it may not be necessary to displace the foam at all.
Whitecap Amount
The amount to displace the whitecaps on the peaks of the waves. For wide shots, it may not be necessary to displace the foam at all.
Bump Only
Modifies the normals of surface and doesn’t do any true displacement.
Displacement ¶
Spectrum Geometry
The merged Ocean Spectrum outputs representing the ocean surface.
Mask Geometry
The merged volumes representing masks for the ocean surface. These override any masks found in Spectrum Geometry, allowing the use of animated masks with static spectrum geometry.
Anti-Alias Blur
The shader automatically uses downsample ocean spectrum when evaluating larger shading samples in the distance. This parameter scales the size of those shading samples in the calculation and controls how quickly it transitions to lower-frequency samples. Decrease this value for more detail in the distance at the potential risk of aliasing.
Downsample
Downsamples the input ocean spectra before shading.
Time
The time at which to evaluate the input ocean spectra.
Add Bump To Ray Traced Displacements
When True Displacements is enabled, this toggle will add bump to the displacement, adding to the effective detail of the displacement map without incurring the cost of increased shading quality.
Displacement Bound
The maximum bound that the displacement shader will move geometry.
Displacement Space
The space in which you specify displacement bounds.
Re-Dice Displacements
With extreme displacements, you may get micropolygons which are stretched out of shape. With this option enabled, the displacement geometry is re-measured after a trial displacement. The result is micropolygons with a more uniform size, which can result in higher quality images.
Note
This option is more costly because the displacement shader may be run twice during the dicing process.
True Displacements
Whether the VEX variable P will be moved during rendering or whether bump mapping will be performed.
Settings ¶
Enable Reflections
Whether reflections will be calculated by the shader.
Reflect Lights
Whether lights will be considered as part of the reflection evaluation.
Reflect Objects
Whether objects will be considered as part of the reflection evaluation.
Reflection Quality
The sampling quality for raytraced reflections when Reflect Objects is on. Larger values will cause more raytracing samples to be sent for this reflection layer, increasing quality but also shading time.
Reflection Component
The name of the reflection component to be exported by the 
Mantra ROP.
Enable Refractions
Whether refractions will be calculated by the shader.
Refract Lights
Whether lights will be considered as part of the refraction evaluation.
Refract Objects
Whether objects will be considered as part of the refractions evaluation.
Refraction Quality
Sampling quality for raytraced refractions. Larger values send more raytracing samples.
Refraction Component
The name of the refraction component to be exported by the Mantra ROP.
Note
For a more detailed explanation of Caustic and Fresnel parameters, see the Surface Model VOP help page.
Enable Fake Caustics
With this option enabled, the ocean surface will create semi-transparent shadows that attempt to approximate the amount of light that would be transmitted if real caustics were rendered. If you're rendering real caustics using an 
Indirect Light, turn this parameter off.
Min Shadow Intensity
The minimum shadow intensity to use for fake caustics. Increase this to darken the lightest part of the shadow.
Max Shadow Intensity
The maximum shadow intensity to use for fake caustics. Decrease this to lighten the darkest part of the shadow.
Conserve Energy
Ensures that the surface reflects no more light than it receives. This is important in physically based rendering and raytracing to ensure the illumination in the scene does not increase as the number of raytracing bounces increases.
Fresnel Blending
Turns on Fresnel blending, where the reflection and/or refraction amount varies based on the viewing angle to the surface. You can control the proportion of Fresnel blending for each component through the minimum parameters on the different tabs.
Inside IOR
The interior index of refraction for use in physical Fresnel computations. Water has an index of refraction around 1.33.
Outside IOR
The exterior index of refraction for use in physical Fresnel computations. Air has an index of refraction near 1.
| See also |
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