Better underwater graphics (less water banding)

This has been an issue since the beginning. Only around noon and in shallow waters does the water background look nice.

But once it gets darker or you go deeper, it gets ugly. Other underwater games don’t have this issue.

This black hole in the deep may be the ugliest:

Have you actually ever been diving irl? I have/am a diver. It’s not very common for the waters to be clear. You have dust from the seafloor clouding your vision/view and the endless dark depth is actually very accurate. Now, for a game to be enjoyed, I can agree to some level of your statement here, but not to the point where I think it should be changed or fixed. /D out.

I’m wondering if you misunderstood my post. I wasn’t complaining about the water getting darker at greater depths. I was complaining about the bands/stripes in the water background. It’s a graphical artifact in some games and not something you’d ever see in real life.

You are very right, I did misunderstand your post :slight_smile: I am sorry about that.

No worries, I’m glad you understand now.

To the devs, I’d suggest using heavier underwater fog to hide the stripes, if the resolution of the water background can’t be improved. The water in this game may be too clear, resulting in these stripes being too visible.

For comparison, here’s a similar underwater pic from Escape The Pacific. The water has dynamic lighting too (a bit different) but as you can see the banding is minimal compared to Stranded Deep. SD looks better overall, but not in this aspect.