Phaser home
Log inCreate a game

← Expansion packsWorld

Phaser AE

Watermax

Free packv3.0.0-53DWorld

A simulated open sea for 3D games on WebGPU. Three wave cascades are evolved on the GPU every frame and shaded from the physics up, so the water refracts what lies beneath it, reflects what stands above it, foams where crests break and carries whatever you float on it.

This is a Free pack. Every phaser.io account can use it in their games.

Released October 14, 2026 · updated October 19, 2026

Watermax: a screenshot of its demo
A note about these graphics

Expansion packs don't come with graphics. This screenshot is one way of drawing what the pack does, made for its demo: none of the sprites, tiles or backgrounds in it are in the pack.

That's by design. A pack is a game's logic, mechanics and effects, and it works with whatever art you give it. Some packs draw effects, backdrops or 3D scenes of their own, but none carries a game's sprites.

So the look is yours. Make the art on phaser.io, bring your own, or let your agent draw it in code: the same pack can look like anything.

What it does

The waves come from three cascades of the JONSWAP ocean spectrum, each owning one band of wavelengths, evolved every frame through an FFT into displacement and normal textures. A geometry clipmap follows the camera and samples them from coarse to fine, so small ripples ride on the long swell, and an outer ring carries the sea to the camera's far plane.

The surface is shaded from the physics up. Light that enters the water is absorbed colour by colour through the column of scene beneath it, either from colours you choose or from a physical model of the water's algae, silt and stain. It reflects the sky's environment map and, through screen-space reflections, the boats and cliffs above it. It glows where the sun is behind a crest, sparkles in the sun's path, and carries three layers of foam, one of them a lasting field fixed to the world that breaking crests feed and the wind streaks out. Beneath the surface, the underwater pass refracts, fogs through the same colour model and adds sun shafts.

Boats are part of it. float sets a hull's height, pitch and roll from heights the GPU samples, and its motion drives a wake field with its own foam. mask cuts the water out of a hull so the deck stays dry, and spray throws bursts from the bow where it strikes the surface fast. A sand-and-rock floor below catches the caustics, and rain falls as streaks that leave rings on the water.

Features

  • An FFT ocean — three wave cascades evolved on the GPU, with a seed for repeatable seas.
  • Ripples on the swell — a camera-following clipmap that samples every cascade and reaches the horizon.
  • Physically based colour — per-channel absorption with custom colours, or a physical mode driven by algae, silt and stain.
  • Reflections — the sky's environment map, plus screen-space reflections of the geometry above the water.
  • Lasting foam — three foam layers, one a world-fixed field that breaking crests feed and the wind streaks.
  • Floating boats — float gives height, pitch, roll and a wake, and probe keeps a sampled height and normal at any point.
  • Dry decks and bow spray — mask keeps the water out of a hull, and spray throws flipbook bursts at the bow.
  • An ocean floor with caustics — a sand-and-rock plane at a set depth, with caustics published for the seabed.
  • Rain — falling streaks and the ripple rings they leave.
  • Its own underwater view — refraction, fog and sun shafts when the camera goes below, and submerged to tell you it has.
  • Presets and quality tiers — sunset, tropical and storm, and low, medium, high or ultra.

Good for

  • Ship and naval games — where the sea is a character rather than a floor, and the boats ride it.
  • Sailing and boat simulations — hulls that pitch and roll on the swell, leave wakes and throw spray.
  • Island and coastal showpieces — a sunset or tropical sea against a shore built with terrain.
  • Storm sequences — the storm preset, rain on, high wind and spray off every bow.
  • Diving games — the camera crosses the surface into a refracting, fogged sea with sun shafts.
  • Title screens and cinematic sea views — the water as the scene's centrepiece on WebGPU hardware.

Make it yours

game.watermax.params holds every setting in groups, waves, color, foam, fresnel, sss, sparkle, ssr, caustics, fog, underwater, wake, clipmap, floor, rain and spray, and apply merges a partial patch into them live. A preset is the starting point, and quality trades cascades, mesh density, foam and wake field sizes and screen-space reflections for speed. The pack's options set the preset, quality, water level, seed, caustics and underwater pass, and the foam, floor and spray textures, which are bundled files by default and can be your own.

Two very different seas: a calm tropical lagoon at high quality, the physical colour model tuned for clear water, caustics on the floor and a camera that dives below; and a storm at medium quality with the wind raised, rain falling and every boat floated, masked and throwing spray.

A quick look

A boat floated, kept dry and throwing spray, on a windier, siltier sea with rain:

const boat = game.world3d.spawn({ mesh: 'wedge', x: 0, y: 0, z: 0, sx: 4, sy: 2, sz: 10 });
game.watermax.float(boat, { length: 10, width: 4, offset: -0.5 });
game.watermax.mask(boat);
game.watermax.spray(boat, { params: { size: 10, opacity: 0.4 } });
game.watermax.apply({ waves: { windSpeed: 6 }, color: { mode: 'physical', algae: 0.1, silt: 0.3, stain: 0.03 }, rain: { enabled: true } });

Works with

  • skymax — the environment map it reflects and the sun it takes; it also works under sky-3d, or with no sky at all against a fallback gradient.
  • world-3d and render-3d — required; it draws into the renderer's target and reads its depth and lighting.
  • terrain-3d — where the seabed should rise to a shore, since the built-in floor is flat.
  • water-3d — the alternative: cheaper Gerstner water with lakes and streams on WebGPU and WebGL2. Compose one or the other.

Good to know

  • WebGPU only, with no WebGL fallback, and far heavier than water-3d.
  • Heights are read back from the GPU a frame or two late, so a floated hull is smoothed rather than exact; a game whose rules read the water's height every step wants water-3d.
  • Screen-space reflections can only reflect what is on screen, and the floor is a flat plane at one depth.
  • It brings its own caustics and underwater pass, so composing it with water-3d or underwater-3d throws an error naming both packs.
  • The sea's outer ring reaches the camera's far plane, so too small a far plane leaves the edge of the water visible.

More World packs

Show all →