   Waves/foam how should they look around an island...
  I am adding in waves/foam in my engine. The problem is my water flows in one direction like the ocean does for the most part. So after I seen the waves moving away from the island on the opposite side I started to ask myself what is the correct behavior of waves around and island? I know for sure the side where the water hits the shore waves should be but what about the other side where the water flows around the island? I wouldn't think one should see waves or foam on that side? Thanks for any input.   
  Correct me if I'm wrong: Foam forms where there is shallow water, so it should form all around the island.   ;Quote:Original post by vNistelrooyCorrect me if I'm wrong: Foam forms where there is shallow water, so it should form all around the island.So then would I have to make this foam move or maybe animate to look like its forming but not moving in any directions?   ;Quote:Original post by MARS_999Quote:Original post by vNistelrooyCorrect me if I'm wrong: Foam forms where there is shallow water, so it should form all around the island.So then would I have to make this foam move or maybe animate to look like its forming but not moving in any directions?The foam would move with the flow anyway.Try a using a pixel shader to blend an animated foam texture where there is shallow water.   ;  I´d say since the ocean or anything big enough to have an island worth noticing in it won´t have a single wave movement with a single direction but loads of waves in more or less unpredictable directions and differences in amplitude you should be fine with the same behaviour for waves and foam all around the island. Still you could distinguish between a beach consisting of sand and a beach consisting of gravel or bigger rocks:I´d expect to see more foam on a rough beach (gravel and rocks) than on a smooth one (like a sand beach) since the water would flow in a more erratic way (more turbulence) between small stones and rocks than it would on top of a smooth sand surface, therefore "creating" more foam. Furthermore the waves on a rough beach tend to look more "washed out" compared to the waves at a sand beach, which have a much clearer line to them.Also you could try to simulate waves splashing onto steep cliffs, small rock spikes, piers and so on at the coast.For both of these things I don´t have any idea on how to implement them, sry, but they would be nice to see I guess.   ;  I don't think anyone would care, but on a top level, there is a direction, normally sustained by the wind, where the major waves come from, to which non directional "noise waves" moving in all directions add - so if you have some wind (not much required), you'd have one half of the island with strong waves creating foam, and softer more random waves on the other half   ;  um, i dont know if im right, but dont waves always go towards an island.  i remember in the movie castaway the water is always rushing towards the island.  I know its just a movie but a big movie like that wouldnt be wrong on something that big. Now if your talking about in the ocean, then im sure it has its own direction based on the wind except for the currents like the north-atlantic current or whatever its called[edit] In fact, heres a good website on how waves interact around an island, and why Waves Around an Island[/edit]   ;  check out the nvidia developer pages, they recently released some chapters from GPU Gems 2, and I think you'd be most interested in chapter 18 specifically.   