Water

Add rivers, lakes, oceans and water zones. Needs the Water plugin.

What it’s for

Ask your assistant to add and set up water from Unreal’s Water plugin: rivers, lakes, oceans, custom water bodies, and the water zones they render in. It can place a body, give it surface and underwater materials, and tune its underwater post-process without you opening a details panel. The Water plugin has to be enabled in your project.

Use it when a level needs water. Your assistant places a water zone first, because water does not render without one, then adds the body and sets its materials. Rivers, lakes and custom bodies take their shape from a spline, which your assistant edits point by point through Splines. Blending the shoreline into terrain belongs to Landscapes.

River-to-lake and river-to-ocean transition materials only apply to rivers. Your assistant cannot set them on a lake, ocean or custom body.

Things you can ask

Add a river to a level

You get a water zone and a river inside it, ready to shape.

You: Add a water zone and a river running through the valley.

Added MainWaterZone and a river called ValleyRiver. Next I can shape its course along the valley.

Set a lake’s surface and underwater materials

The lake uses the materials you chose above and below the surface.

You: Give the lake our stylized water surface and the murky underwater look.

MountainLake now uses M_StylizedWater on the surface and M_MurkyUnderwater below it.

Set up underwater post-process

The ocean gets an underwater post-process effect when the camera goes below the surface.

You: On the ocean, add the underwater post-process and turn up the fog when submerged.

The ocean now uses M_UnderwaterPP as its underwater post-process, and it is enabled.