Local Water Zone Settings

Override color

Changes local optical properties within the zone (transparency distance, base water color, turbidity color). Optional spherical falloff for smooth radial blending. Used to separate biomes or create distinct water looks in confined areas

Parameters:

• transparent (meters) – controls how clear or opaque the water is

• water color – defines how water absorbs light with depth, giving the liquid its natural tint, like ocean blue or cola brown

• turbidity color – defines how particles scatter light, adding murkiness, like algae-green lake or muddy river

• use sphere blending – fades overrides using spherical falloff from zone center; good for round ponds or smooth radial transitions.

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Override wind

Scales the global wind effect within the zone and blends it at the edges. Used to reduce wind response in sheltered places (piers, bays) or calm lakes and courtyards. Parameters:

• strength multiplier – scales global wind locally

• edge blending – width of the fade between local wind and global wind at the zone border.

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Override height

Applies a visual height offset or clipping of the surface inside the zone with edge blending. Used to cut out water inside enclosed geometry (submarine interior, underwater windows, etc) or to create a local raised body of water (rooftop, elevated pools, etc). This modifier offsets water vertices in world space (up or down), so lighting, reflections/refraction, foam, and other effects remain consistent.

Parameters:

• clip water below zone – clips/lowers water inside the zone.

• edge blending – smooth transition width for the height clip.

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Override mesh (experimental)

Renders water inside the zone using a provided custom mesh instead of the default patch. Used to achieve special shapes. Limitation: when viewed through it the water is treated as infinitely deep (not an enclosed tank)

Parameters:

• custom mesh – replaces the default surface inside the zone with your mesh.

• rotation offset (x/y/z) – rotates the custom mesh relative to world axes.

Tips

• Current implementation is not minimal cost. In practice, multiple local zones render almost like additional water patches. For example, ~10 zones can take roughly the same GPU time as the base surface itself.

• Be cautious with the number of zones and with overlaps.

• Prefer few larger zones over many small ones.

• Keep edge blending widths reasonable; large soft blends increase overdraw.

• Disable unused overrides (color/wind/height/mesh) per zone to avoid extra work.

• Сustom Mesh is not supported in Aquarium mode; when viewed through it the water is treated as infinitely deep (not an enclosed tank).

• Plan: further optimizations are intended in future updates (to reduce per-zone cost).