Screen space reflections look bad on swamp water

[hwnde]

Swamp water seem to use the same SSR shader as regular water which doesn't look good with Jarkendar swamp.
First, there are lots of trees there which means severe pop-in and pop-out when you turn the camera. Second, the shader assumes that there is a clear sky above which is not true for swamp since thick vegetation obstructs the sky.

I think SSR should be disabled for swamp. Realistically swamp water shouldn't be able to reflect much because of dirt.

[Try]

Hi, @hwnde !

I think SSR should be disabled for swamp.

Sure, but how? Only useful information engine has is the Material::group - so we know that it's a water.
From semi-useful data there is a texture (green'ish on swamp, blue on ocean) - this is not in use as not applicable for ocean and rivers.

[hwnde]

So texture is something that we could potentially use to branch the logic, correct?
Another approach is to implement ray traced reflections.

[Try]

He are examples of textures:
ocean:

swamp:

Naturally there are problems.
This is a single texture, that does not represent any of material properties. Using them as specular - works for swamp, probably, but not for ocean. Using them for transmittance - OK, but doesn't solve anything for SSR

Another approach is to implement ray traced reflections

Ray-tracing, in current gen of api's, is very awkward to use. It give us a 'hit', but then engine would have to evaluate(expensive) color at the hit-point. Animation is also something what doesn't just works. And even if we solve RT - this is only small subsets of GPU's.

[hwnde]

Did some experiments - I tried overriding alphaFunc for specific materials. The best results seem to be produced with Multiply - looks very close / identical to the original.

[Try]

The best results seem to be produced with Multiply - looks very close / identical to the original.

Multiply, while maybe works for swamp case, but completely ruins effect in open areas, such as harbor

Main issue is still stands - engine need to be aware, if sky is reachable, similar to sky-occlusion maps in modern engines