Physical Water FX adds good-looking water surfaces in Blender
Tools developer Lazy3D has released Physical Water FX, a promising new add-on for quickly adding realistic-looking water surfaces to Blender scenes.
The add-on, which works with both the Cycles and Eevee renderers, can create sheets of water complete with surface ripples, waves, foam, bubbles and floating debris.
An intuitive way to add realistic water surfaces to Blender scenes
There are already a number of add-ons for creating water in Blender, some of which we’ve covered on CG Channel before, but Physical Water FX looks to be a straightforward way to add water surfaces to scenes, with a good range of visual options.
It enables users to add a geometry plane to a scene, then use Physical Water FX to make it look and behave like a water surface.
The add-on’s water shader can generate both larger waves and smaller ripples where the water comes into contact with surrounding scenery or floating objects.
It can also generate foam and bubbles in shallow or turbulent areas, generate animated rain splashes, and scatter debris like leaves over the water surface.
A wet shader creates the illusion that the water is interacting with surrounding terrain, and it is possible to use flow maps control the direction in which water flows.
Advanced options in the Pro and Deluxe editions
Users of the Pro and Deluxe editions of the add-on also get the option to apply decals to the water surface, which can be used to create more realistic shoreline effects.
To improve the visual realism of the water generated, the Pro and Deluxe editions also support caustic lighting effects – based on gobos when rendering with Cycles, faked when rendering with Eevee – and suspended particles in the water.
Suitable for use in animations and visualizations
The demo video at the top of the story shows Physical Water FX in use in a range of scenes. There are some artefacts, but the results hold up pretty well, particularly in mid shots.
Lazy3D pitches the add-on as being suitable for use in a range of use cases, including both animated shorts and architectural visualizations.
Price and system requirements
Physical Water FX is compatible with Blender 4.1+.
The Basic edition costs $16. The Pro edition, which adds caustics, shoreline effects and underwater particles, costs $25. The Deluxe edition, which also comes with a library of supporting assets like underwater plants, costs $58.
Read an overview of Physical Water FX on Blender Market
Read more about Physical Water FX in the online documentation
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