difficult months without any inspiration for now, and very busy days. the little time that I have, I am using to learn, slowly more and more. I started (again) some real Bathymetry experiments. my problem is so stupid that I dont know where begin, but in simple words, What the hell is doing the water shader?? especially in shallow water
Shallow water has been a problem for me too, but with smallscale terrains. What if you use a reflective shader instead? You won't see depth anyway from this distance, I guess. Or you can fake depth with changed/subdued/softened colors added to the 'water'. And what if you don't even use a water object or sphere, but 'color' (colors+reflection) the water directly onto the planet? Should be possible also from this distance for sure.
There was a thread here somewhere showing a Colour adjust shader with a negative white and black point to create sea foam near the shorelines but it could be softened outward and colored as it falls off into the main ocean. That technique could be applied over the color+reflection layer.
You're probabaly referring to something I put up, but that only works well if you have your Y stretched in the initial heightmap. Or you'll get discrepancies where the fractals differ too much between water that is very much higher than the seabed.
I see. Hopefully another solution will present itself.
Of course I do. making the ocean "flat", and using a Displacement To Scalar node derived from the DEM, connected the color function of the "flat" ocean.
What method are you using for the water? If you're not using a second planet (with only water shader), you should try that.
- Oshyan