Someone just built an incredibly realistic ocean simulation using Three.js and WebGL2.
And then decided to give away the entire source code.
For free.
Meet Ultra Water, an open-source, high-performance ocean renderer that brings surprisingly sophisticated water physics and visual effects directly into your browser.
And honestly, the results look fantastic.
Here's what Ultra Water can do:
Realistic ocean waves: FFT-based simulation with four wave cascades, from large ocean swells to tiny ripples.
Breaking waves: Waves interact with the shoreline, producing realistic surf and foam.
Water reflections: Dynamic reflections, refraction, and sunlight scattering.
Underwater rendering: Light shafts, caustics, atmospheric effects, and underwater views.
Floating objects: Boats, barrels, and other objects respond to waves through buoyancy and drag.
Interactive controls: Experiment with camera angles, lighting, and rendering quality.
Real-time performance: The developer reports over 200 FPS across several scenes on an RTX 3060.
Yes, that's a consumer GPU rendering complex water effects in a browser.
The published benchmarks show approximately 303 FPS for open ocean and 212 FPS underwater, measured at 3.3 megapixels on an RTX 3060.
Of course, those are the developer's measurements, not guaranteed performance on every computer.
But there's more.
The same developer also released Ultra Elements, a collection of 39 real-time elemental spells and visual effects built with Three.js.
Fireballs. Lightning. Ice. Explosions. Magical shields. Particle effects.
Each spell has customizable parameters, colors, and presets.
And the interesting part?
You can give this code to Claude Code, Codex, or another AI coding agent and ask it to create entirely new effects for your game.
For example:
"Study the Ultra Elements codebase and create a new magical water spell with swirling particles, realistic splashes, and a glowing impact effect. Follow the existing architecture and make the effect customizable."
Instead of asking an AI agent to invent everything from scratch, you're giving it a working rendering system and a collection of examples to build upon.
That's a much better starting point.
And this is what I love about open-source creative coding.
One developer builds an impressive technical foundation.
Another turns it into a game.
Someone else creates a completely new visual effect.
And AI coding agents make it increasingly easy to experiment with and extend these systems.
Want realistic water or custom magic effects in your next Three.js project?
You probably don't need to start from zero anymore.
Ultra Water source code:
https://github.com/Humpalumps/Ultra-Water
Try the interactive water demo:
https://gelatin.games/ultrawater
Ultra Elements: 39 open-source spell effects
https://github.com/Humpalumps/ultra-elements
Both projects are available under the MIT license.
#ThreeJS #UltraWater #WebGL #CreativeCoding #WaterSimulation #GameDevelopment #VibeCoding
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