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Session Name:

Technical Artist Summit: H2O in H3LL: The Various Forms of Water in 'Diablo IV'

Overview:

From oceans, rivers and puddles, to ice, snow and fog, water in the open world of Diablo IV's Sanctuary takes many forms and has even more challenges to solve. In this talk, Aaron talks about the pixel and vertex shader techniques employed to create convincing shorelines, dynamically accumulating puddles, snow-topped rocks, ominous Helltide rivers, icy caves, and more. Maintaining performance across platforms is, as always, of paramount importance. Water requires many elements to work in concert, from lighting and rendering tech, to textures and material parameters, all the way to level art. Study the technical details and artistry behind how Diablo IV achieves believable water within performance constraints.

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