For over a decade I have been working as a Technical Artist and Programmer in the games industry, and I am the author of The Shaders Bible series, covering both Unity and Godot, with thousands of copies sold worldwide. Through Jettelly, my publishing platform, I have written and curated technical books on shaders, procedural graphics, and Compute Shaders. With this experience, I bring you a complete course on one of the most requested topics in real-time graphics: water effects in Unity.
In this course we will develop a wide range of water effects, from a simple 3D splash to a full 3D ocean, combining Shader Graph, HLSL, Particle Systems, Compute Shaders, and C#. Each chapter is built around a specific effect, and the technical concepts are introduced exactly when they are needed, so you always understand why you are learning something and how to apply it immediately.
The course does not assume you are a professional shader developer, but it does assume you know what a shader is and how it integrates into Unity. From there, we will progress gradually: starting with a 3D splash effect to get comfortable with Shader Graph and the Particle System, then moving through streams and waterfalls where we introduce HLSL custom functions, flowmaps, and world space. Later we will build 2D and 2.5D water effects with buoyancy and opaque texture sampling, and finally we will reach the most technically demanding chapters, where Compute Shaders drive vertex deformation for an interactive 3D water surface and a full procedural ocean.
Along the way, you will learn the math behind wave generation, how to use the depth texture for foam and intersection effects, how to communicate between C# and Compute Shaders, and how to identify the right technique for each production scenario. By the end of the course, you will be able to design and build your own water effects from scratch, tailored to the style and performance requirements of your project.
Let's start building water today.