River


This feature is in preview release and is subject to change.

Use the River component to carve riverbeds into the terrain and fill them with moving water. The River component uses 2D materials to create the illusion of flowing water. Optimally, you should use this component to create flat rivers along level terrain. To create rivers that run downhill, you can create a series of rivers separated by occasional waterfalls.

The River component requires the Spline component to shape its path along the x, y, and z axes. After you place a river, you can edit the points in the river’s spline.

To use the River component, you must enable the Roads and Rivers gem. For more information, see Enabling Gems.

[Example animation of the River component.]

Topics

River Properties

[River component properties.]

See the following River component properties.

Name	Description
Global width	Sets the width of the river.
Per-Vertex Width Modifiers	Modifies the width at a specific vertex that is added to or subtracted from the Global width. For more information, see Modifying the River Width.
Elements	The river’s vertices or points. Specify a positive or negative value for each vertex.
Segment length	Length of each segment. Smaller segment lengths increase the polycount used for the river curvature. To create a river with smooth corners, specify lower values.
Tile length	Length of the river texture. Adjust this parameter with Segment Length to avoid stretching textures.
Sort priority	Priority that you can set if the river intersects with another river.
View distance multiplier	Distance at which the river is visible. The default value is 1. A higher value indicates a longer visibility distance.
Minimum spec	Specifies the minimum system configuration level for the effect. If the configuration is lower than the set value, the river will not appear. Choose from Low, Medium, High, VeryHigh, and Never.Default value: Low
Tile width	Width of the river texture.
Depth	Depth of the river.
River material	Material file for the river. For more information, see Setting River Material Properties.
Cap at Depth	If selected, limit fog rendering to the river’s bottom. If deselected, fog continues to render below the specified depth of the river.
Density	Specifies how dense the fog appears. Specify higher values for thicker fog.
Color	Color of the fog.
Affected by Sun	If selected, the value for the Sun color parameter in the Time of Day Editor affects fog color of the river.
Shadowing	Sets the shadow darkness on the surface of the river. To enable this parameter, set the console variable `r_FogShadowsWater` to `1`. For more information, see Using the Console Window.
Caustics - Enabled	Enables caustics – Light rays that are reflected or refracted by the water’s surface.
Intensity	Intensity of normals during caustics generation.
Height	Distance above water’s surface that caustics are visible.
Tiling	Tiling of normals during caustic generation.
Physics - Enabled	Bind river with CryPhysics.
Speed	Defines how fast physicalized objects are moved along the river. Negative values move objects in the opposite direction.
Border width	Specifies the width of the slope on the borders of the river.
Embankment height	Defines the height of the slopes on the borders of the river. If the river is at ground level, specify an embankment height to make the river appear to flow.
Depth of the river bed	Defines the depth of the ditch beneath the river.
River bed width offset	Defines the width of the riverbed relative to the river’s width. A value of 0 makes the riverbed the same width as the river. A value of -1 makes the riverbed one meter narrower, and so on.
Erase width	Distance from the river edges in which the vegetation should be removed. Set the parameter to `0` to remove only vegetation that is on the river. Specify positive values to remove vegetation in a wider border from the river’s edge. Specify negative values to leave some vegetation within the borders of the river. For more information, see Erasing River Vegetation.
Erase variance	Randomizes the removal of vegetation so that the edge looks more natural.