AquaFlow — Stylized Procedural Water Shader for Unity URP

A fully procedural, texture-free stylized water shader for Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline. Every visual effect is generated in HLSL and independently togglable — use only what your project needs, with zero texture dependencies.

AquaFlow is designed for stylized games, interactive experiences, and VR/AR applications where artistic control and performance matter. All parameters are exposed directly in the Material Inspector, making it easy to iterate visually without touching any code.

 

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FEATURES
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DEPTH & COLOR
• Depth-based color blending with three independent zones: Shallow, Deep, and Abyss
• Radial water gradient for pools, fountains, and isolated water bodies
• All color zones fully customizable via HDR color pickers

SURFACE & NORMALS
• Procedural normal map generation — no normal texture required
• GGX specular with smoothness and intensity control
• Animated refraction with speed and strength parameters
• Simulated Subsurface Scattering for translucent water feel

FOAM
• Depth-fade foam with directional control and edge softness
• Soft intersection foam with noise-eroded edges for natural shorelines
• Directional Shimmer Foam with animated streak system
• Expanding foam ring system with cycle timing control

CAUSTICS
• Surface caustics with animated tiling and speed
• Deep caustics with depth-buffer-accurate projection
• Independent toggle and intensity control for each layer

VERTEX DISPLACEMENT
• Animated Vertex Displacement Crests for wave-like geometry deformation
• Density, amplitude, and timing fully adjustable
• Works with any mesh — no special geometry required

SYSTEM
• Every feature section has an independent ON/OFF toggle
• 100% procedural — no external textures required
• Single shader file — no runtime scripts or dependencies
• Clean Inspector layout with labeled sections

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TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
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• Unity 2022.3 LTS or newer
• Universal Render Pipeline (URP) 14+
• Shader Model 4.5 (supports all modern platforms)
• Depth Texture must be enabled in URP Renderer settings (required for depth-based features)