Whitecaps applies an effect that looks like the whitecaps you get on the water on a windy day. This plugin is basically the same as Sorta Surf, except that it applies the effect across the entire surface of the water without consideration of the depth. In fact it's possible to achieve exactly the same effect as this by using Sorta Surf, but as Terragen doesn't yet support multiple copies of the same plugin being used at the same time, you wouldn't be able to have a surf effect and a whitecaps effect at the same time. It's also more convenient than messing about with the Breaking Depth setting in Sorta Surf to get the effect to cover the entire surface.

The Interface

Mac version	Windows version

Whitecaps is easy to use. Here's a guide to it's settings :

• File Menu
  The File menu allows you to open and save your plugin settings. The settings are saved in files with a .wwk extension. All of the different plugins save their settings in files with a .wwk extension, but each has it's own format. If you try and open a .wwk file that was saved by a different plugin, then you will be notified about it.
  

  All of the commands in the File menu should work pretty much as you expect them to, however there is a File Menu page here if you would like it explained.
  

  WaterWorks settings files are cross platform, and can be exchanged between the Mac and Windows versions.
  

  Please note that mask information is not currently saved in the settings file.
  

• Density
  This setting controls the density of the whitecap effect. Lower numbers show less of an effect. Values can range from 0 to 100.

• Frothiness
  This setting controls how frothy the whitecap look. With this setting at 0, the effect will look flat on the surface of the water. With this setting at 100, the area the whitecap effect covers will be very frothy.

• Reflectiveness
  This setting allows you to control how reflective the frothy areas ( as set by Frothiness ) of the whitecaps are compared to the reflectiveness of the water ( as set in the Water window ). If the Reflectiveness is set to 100, then the frothy areas are just as reflective as the water. Smaller values will make the frothy areas less reflective relative to the water. Values can range from 0 to 100.

• Caps Colour button
  This button opens the colour picker so you can choose a colour for the whitecaps.

• Use Mask checkbox
  This check box allows you to choose whether or not to use a mask to control where the whitecaps effect appears. You can generate masks using the Mask Generator plugin.

• Mask Settings button
  Clicking on this button will bring up the Mask Settings dialog box, which allows you to select a mask file to use. See the Mask Settings page for more information.

• Cancel button
  This button closes the plugin window without recording the changes you've made to the settings.

• OK button
  This button closes the plugin window and records the changes you've made to the settings.

How Whitecaps interprets masks

Whitecaps recognises the full 256 shades of grey ( from white to black ) when reading a mask that you load from a file. If Whitecaps encounters a white pixel in the mask, the whitecap effect is applied at full intensity. If Whitecaps encounters a black pixel in the mask, then the whitecap effect is not applied at all. When Whitecaps encounters an intermediate value, the whitecap effect is scaled back by that value. So if Whitecaps comes across a medium grey pixel ( a value of 128, or half of the range ) then the whitecap effect will be scaled back by 50%.

Tips for using Whitecaps

Here are some hints and tips to help you get the most out of Whitecaps :

• Generally, Whitecaps should be one of the last plugins applied during the rendering process, if you're looking for a more realistic effect. This means it should be one of the lowest plugins in the list. It might help to think of the plugin list as being an upside down stack. By having Whitecaps nearer the bottom of the list, it will be applied directly to the surface of the water, over the top of the effects of the other plugins, much as real whitecaps. Feel free to experiment of course, you never know what you might come up with.
• Although I'd like it to, where Whitecaps applies it's effect is not actually related to the water surface in any way, for example the effect isn't applied to the crests of waves. In practice this doesn't really matter though, and after a lot of observations from various ferries etc., very often this isn't the case in reality either. The white foamy area often stays around long after the crest that produced it has passed on.
• For fine control over where the whitecap effect appears, you can use the Mask Generator plugin to create a mask which you can edit in a paint program ( such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or GraphicConverter ).

Requirements

WaterWorks needs the TGPGuiLib to run. This file provides cross platform interface functionality. To find out more about the TGPGuiLib and download the latest version, visit it's website.

© Jo Meder 2000, all rights reserved