---
title: "Water"
description: "Water is authored with `WaterComponent`."
engineVersion: v1.0.234
date: 2026-09-28
license: "(c) Gessa, proprietary. Cite with attribution to https://gessa.ai/docs/. Terms: https://gessa.ai/terms/."
canonical: https://gessa.ai/docs/creator/graphics/water/
---
# Water

Water is authored with `WaterComponent`.

## Component Fields

Water carries bounds, surface level, wave profile, shallow/deep color, transparency, normal map reference, reflection mode, refraction mode, shore foam strength, and depth-blend distance.

## Rendering

WebGL and WebGPU share physical water shading and the same visible water feature contract. WebGPU uses storage-buffer wave compute only for screen-reflection water when the authored scene and quality policy request that higher path; planar and lower reflection modes use the shared physical path.

## Reflections And Refraction

Reflection modes include none, cheap, planar, cube, and screen. Refraction can sample screen information on the higher path or fall back to color/UV displacement on lower paths.

## Shore Blending

Depth blend and foam settings help water meet terrain and props without harsh edges. These features are quality-gated and visible in profiler counters.

## Tuning

Use screen reflections only for hero water surfaces that justify the cost. Use planar, cheap, or none for small puddles, background water, or mobile-heavy scenes. Keep normal maps compressed and shared across water surfaces where possible.