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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 52m

A low camera, and my boat sails right past it. The reflection is a boat-only planar mirror: each water pixel samples where its view ray crosses a plane fitted to the swell, so the image keeps its size on moving water. Seagazer, early development footage. #godot #godotengine #WishlistWednesday

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thank you! Sharing the ocean's shader is what does it: the spray takes the same light as the water at any time of day, with nothing extra to tune.

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Seagazer is a short sailing adventure made in Godot 4. Sail a painterly ocean from dawn into starlight with nothing but a compass, and meet the people it finds. Wishlist it on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/4989540/...

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Seagazer on Steam

A short single-player sailing adventure. Navigate the open sea with your trusty compass. Sail a painterly, cel-shaded ocean from dawn into starlight, meet the people the compass finds, and witness fle...

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Crest speed comes from a phase integrated each frame, not sin(time * speed), so nothing snaps when the boat speeds up. The droplets are 48 spheres in one MultiMesh, and the ocean shader rings the water where each lands. 5/6

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

To keep the root outside the hull, a 23-plane stand-in for the hull and 17 water samples per side push it clear every frame. Asking "inside or outside?" made it jump: a 1 mm change in water height moved the root 9.44 m. Measuring distance to each plane moved it 2 mm. 4/6

The boat banked hard in a turn on the grey grid, both spray sheets flaring out from the hull, their roots still outside it.

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Each sheet starts as a 64 × 24 grid (12 × 8 here, so you can read it). The vertex shader builds every vertex from its UV: pinched at both ends, curling at the lip, scalloped by travelling crests. At top speed a sheet is 17.4 m long and 5.7 m tall. 3/6

The boat on a grey grid floor, its spray drawn as a coarse white wireframe of 12 by 8 quads that rises and curls along the hull.

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The sheet shader includes the ocean's fragment code, with one define that switches off ocean-only features and adds a foam lip. Each frame it copies the ~170 uniforms the two share, so the spray always has the ocean's light, glint and time of day. 2/6

The boat and its bow spray at noon, in the lavender evening light, and at midnight. The spray takes its colour and light from the ocean in each.

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The bow spray in Seagazer has no particles. It's two mesh sheets that run the ocean's own shader code, bent into shape in a vertex shader. Here's how it works, made in @godotengine.org. 1/6 #godot #godotengine #gamedev #indiedev

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Mostly the look! the particles glowed at night and sat on top of the water. The geometry is light (two draws of 1,625 verts, plus one MultiMesh for the droplets), but every sheet pixel runs the full ocean shader, so per pixel it's likely heavier. I haven't profiled it on its own yet.

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Reposted by HeedlessNomad · Seagazer

Jettelly @jettelly.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

. @heedlessnomad.bsky.social made this bow spray effect in Godot, using a vertex shader to shape and animate the water around the boat. 🌊 How does it look? #godotengine #gamedev #vfx

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Reposted by HeedlessNomad · Seagazer

Brackeys @brackeys.com · 18/01/2026

Made a video on VFX in Godot 🔥✨ youtu.be/htRjt505sPg

"VFX Godot" in big font surrounded by orange and blue explosions (stylized).

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

#gamedev is equal parts fulfilling and exhausting. But damn is it fun.

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

After dealing with some tech debt, finally got around to adding a cutscene and shader dissolve mechanic. Overall, feeling nice! #godot #solodev #indiedev #gamedev

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Thanks! I actually prototyped realistic inertia/wind but it made the game less enjoyable. Sometimes accuracy takes a backseat to fun - that's why Mario can change direction mid-air! Different games, different goals. Thanks for engaging!

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Shaping up to be an exploration/ discovery game! At least that's how I see it so far haha

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

That moment when your game stops feeling like separate systems and becomes ONE experience 🎮 Finally got my dream boat modeled & animated! ⛵🌊 #godotengine #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #sailing

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

That means a lot! It was in a very rough state when I first got started. Shaders are an easy rabbit hole to get lost in, and I'm happy I can move on to something else finally. Definitely keep at it! Your project is coming along great 😃

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

This is beautiful work! In love with the art direction and water shader!

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

After weeks of work my ocean is finally feature complete! ⛵😤 #godotengine #gamedev #indiedev

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Thanks for the interest and the compliment! Honestly, the vision is still coming together. But at its core I want to give players a sense of freedom and exploration. A boat on the open sea always symbolized that for me.

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Some great progress on matching the waterline to my boat! #godot #indiedev #solodev #gamedev ⛵

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Thanks so much! Will do my best to share more updates!

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

For sure! Biggest thing for me was not trying to reinvent the wheel. I found the best approach was to use a free resource, then heavily modify it based on my needs. Godotshaders.com is an excellent resource! Here's a basic version of what I'm using now gist.github.com/IsukyPohlo/5...

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HeedlessNomad · Seagazer @heedlessnomad.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Using Blender for all my modeling, but the boat is just a free prop I snagged while I spent the majority of my time on shaders and mechanics.

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