Q: water settings?

[Sp34k]

Hey guys

I've been doing some research about water settings etc. here on the forum but without much succes..
What I'm looking for is someone who can explain how "water" works in TG2.. I just made a fast terrain with some water to find out how it works but I don't surely know what values to put into the different settings..
Like if you look at the picture I have uploaded, then you'll see that the water looks like.. I don't know, a mix of snow and plastic..
My wish is to learn how to make water more realistic, maybe deincrease the "opacity" so it doesn't look so thick..

What should I keep in mind when dealing with water? Are there any settings or something I should know about when dealing with water?

I hope to get a few advices,
Cheers,
Mike

[Henry Blewer]

Water. This is what I've been doing. I don't do anything until I am ready for a final render. Water add a lot of time to a render.

roughness; default 0.2       I once did a render with 0.3, the water looked vary rough.
wave scale; default 10       It's a good value. It makes the waves tighter or wider.
smallest scale; default 0.1  This is what gives the ripple effect. This is also normally a good value.

Reflections
Master Reflectivity; default 1     This makes the surface reflect objects, sky and clouds. For murky water turn this down.
Index of Refraction; default 1.33 This is the way light is bent while traveling through a transparent/translucent object. It is a scale with various mediums having different values. Water's is 1.33. Glass is 1.67+/-. Diamond is 2.37 (I think)
Horizon Shift; default 0.5           I think this is a variable which controls how the waves are smoothed into the distance. The reflection becomes less chopped up by the waves the further away he water is.

Highlight Intensity; default 0.5   Controls the amount of light source reflected, sort of like specularity.
Min Highlight Spread: default 0.01    This is the small value for the highlight intensity. I look at it as a width function. 

Sub-Surface
Transparency; default 0.75     How clear is the water.
Decay distance; default 10     Controls how deep the transparency goes, and the color. If you have a pond with a low altitude value of 50 meters; the water level is 50 meters above this low point. Then setting this for 20 would make about 1/3 of the bottom of the pond visible through the water. The color helps control 'red shift'. Light as it travels through water, looses wave spectrum components. That's why everything turns blue at enough depth.
Opps. The decay tint determines the color. Sorry.

I don't know much about the other settings in this tab. I have played with them, but not enough to have a real understanding of them.

[Sp34k]

Hallo Njeneb

I am stunned over your reply.. I appreciate the details you have proveded, I wouldn't be able to figure this out myself.. I have saved the info in a document so I can always take a look at it..
Also, I like the "Index of refraction" explaination.. I wouldnt have figured that one out huh..

Thank you once again for helping with this one, I didnt expect a "list" like this, so thumps up matey
Tomorrow I'll start playing with all the settings to see how different I can make my water from the details you have provided:) Much much appreciated njeneb, thanks!

Cheers,
Mike

[Henry Blewer]

I am very glad you have found my reply helpful. Happy rendering!