Quick start: create your first water body

Choose and create the water body

Open GameObject → DiffusionWorks → Ultimate Water System 2D and choose:

• Create 2D Water Body for flat orthographic water.
• Create 2.5D Water Body for a real surface with depth.
• Create Fake Perspective 2D Water for a surface strip above a 2D waterline.
• Simple Water 2D for a custom decorative Bézier shape without the main interaction system.

The creation tool builds the water object, its interaction trigger, and its initial materials, then applies the matching default preset when available. Select the created root object to access the unified Inspector. Keep generated children under this root; use the root’s settings for normal authoring.

Prepare rendering in a new scene

The imported demos configure their temporary Sorting Layers automatically. A new production scene must use the same ordering principle with your own layer names:

1. Create or choose one Sorting Layer for the water surface and a later, higher layer for the underwater renderer.
2. Assign those layers in the water Inspector. Keep the surface before underwater in the back-to-front order.
3. Open the 2D Renderer Data used by the scene camera and enable Camera Sorting Layer Texture.
4. Set Foremost Sorting Layer to the final layer that should be visible through the underwater effect. It must be immediately before the underwater layer, never the underwater layer itself.
5. Put scenery that should receive underwater color and distortion at or before that boundary. Put crisp foreground elements after the underwater layer.
6. For a 2.5D Water Body, set the camera’s Projection to Perspective so its surface depth and ZWrite behavior are rendered correctly.

The Reflections and scene captures chapter contains the complete layer diagram and explains why including the underwater layer in its own capture creates a feedback loop.

Configure and test it

1. Position the water root at the desired waterline.
2. Open Geometry & Rendering → Body Setup. Set Width, Underwater Height, and, for 2.5D water, Depth (Z).
3. Leave Enable Interactions enabled for gameplay water.
4. Edit the surface and underwater appearance in the water Inspector. Start with the colors before tuning distortion or patterns.
5. Open Waves and set a small amplitude. Increase it until the motion fits the scene.
6. To test floating objects, add a Rigidbody2D, a matching Collider2D, and Buoyancy 2D to a test object. Use a simulated Dynamic body and place it above the water.
7. Enter Play mode and check the object’s entry, floating height, and ripples. Ensure its layer is included in the water’s interaction settings and that the project’s 2D collision matrix permits the required contacts.
8. Use Save New in the preset controls to preserve a reusable water style. Save the scene to preserve the placed water object.

Tip: Tune one feature at a time. Establish the water shape and colors first, then waves, interaction, reflections, and decorative modules.