--- title: "Water Surface" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VSKETCHUP/154734253/Water%20Surface" format: markdown --- This page provides information on the V-Ray Water Surface Texture. Overview The Water Surface texture is an infinite non-cyclic procedural texture, producing a realistic ocean-like appearance. It is used as Bump and Displacement maps to recreate water surfaces. The old Water texture can no longer be created, but older scenes that use it can still be opened and edited. For more information, refer to the archived versions of the Documentation prior to V-Ray 7, update 2. UI Paths ||V-Ray Asset Editor|| >  Textures  (right-click) >  Water Surface ||V-Ray Asset Editor|| >  Create Asset  (left-click) >  Textures  >  Water Surface General Workflow Create a Generic material and apply it to a surface (recommended), or an object. Make it fully refractive ( Refractive Color (255,255,255)) with Refraction IOR of 1.33. Make the Reflection Color closer to white (222,222,222) and set the Max Depth for Reflection and Refraction to 10. Optionally set a light blue Fog Color (Refraction > Fog Color) to recreate blue sea or ocean water. For Caustics, disable the Affect shadows option (Refraction > Affect Shadows > off) in the advanced settings of the Water material. Add a Displacement asset (Asset editor > Geometry > Displacement) and assign it to the Water Geometry. Add the Water Surface texture in the Mode/Map slot with Normal Displacement Mode. For achieving fast results Water Surface texture can be used as a Bump map instead, but no Caustics can be generated. Use Displacement Shift parameter to shift displaced surface up and down along the normals. Adjust the scale of the Material’s texture accordingly. Parameters Level of Detail – Controls the amount of detail in the texture. Larger values produce more pronounced and richer details. See the Level of Detail example below.  Wind Speed – Controls the wind speed, which changes the waves' size, shape, height, and movement speed. Measured in system units per second. 1 See the Wind Speed example below.  Speed Multiplier – Controls the speed of the waves.  Height Multiplier  – Controls the amplitude of the waves. See the Height Multiplier example below.  Sharpness – Controls the sharpness of wave crests. See the Sharpness example below. Velocity Coherence – Controls the degree of variation in wave direction. When this value is set to 1, all waves will move in the same direction, as they do in coastal areas. When set to 0, all waves will move in random directions, as they might in the open seas. See the Velocity Coherence example below.  Wave Crest – Adjusts the length of the waves' crests. For the most realistic results, use smaller values to create short crests when the Velocity Coherence is low and larger values for bigger crest when the Velocity Coherence is high. See the Wave Crest example below. Vertical Offset – Introduces an additional shift to the displacement. See the Vertical Offset example below.  Seed – The initialization point for the random generator. Changing this value changes the randomization of the waves. In the event of multiple Ocean Textures in a scene, use different Seed values to make each texture look different. See the Seed example below.  Example: Level of Detail This example shows how the Level of Detail controls the amount of detail you see in the water waves.  Level of Detail = 5 Level of Detail = 10 Level of Detail = 15 Example: Wind Speed This example shows how the Wind Speed controls the size, shape and height of the water waves.  Wind Speed = 100 Wind Speed = 300 Wind Speed = 500 Example: Animation This example shows an Animation with a default Wind Speed set to 300. Example: Height Multiplier This example shows how the Height Multiplier controls the height of the water waves.  Height Multiplier = 1 Height Multiplier = 3 Height Multiplier = 6 Example: Sharpness This example shows how the Sharpness controls the sharpness of the wave crest.  Sharpness = 0.2 Sharpness = 0.5 Sharpness = 0.8 Example: Velocity Coherence This example shows how the Velocity Coherence controls the degree of variation in wave direction.  Velocity Coherence = 0 Velocity Coherence = 0.5 Velocity Coherence = 1 Example: Wave Crest This Example shows how the Wave Crest adjusts the length of the waves' crests. Wave Crest = 0 Wave Crest = 0.5 Wave Crest = 1 Example: Vertical Offset This example shows how the Vertical Offset introduces an additional shift to the wave displacement. Vertical Offset = -50 Vertical Offset = 0 Vertical Offset = 50 Example: Seed This example shows how the Seed parameter controls the randomization of the waves. Seed = 1 Seed = 3 Seed = 5 Texture Placement Type –  Controls how the texture is positioned on the geometry. 3D (World Space)  – Places the texture based on the world coordinates independent of the object UVs. Repeat X/Y/Z – Determines how many times the texture is repeated along the X/Y/Z axis. Lock X/Y/Z Repeat – Locks the X/Y/Z repeat. Offset X/Y/Z – Controls the texture offset in the X/Y/Z direction. Rotate X/Y/Z – Rotates the texture around the X/Y/Z axis. Notes Calculated in the default SketchUp unit - inches.