SDF Volumes
SDF (Signed Distance Field) Volumes allow Tidal to interact with complex geometry such as boats, ships, and irregular structures. They provide the highest accuracy at the cost of additional setup.
When to Use SDF Volumes
- Boat hulls and ships
- Irregular or concave geometry
- Accurate water displacement and buoyancy
Where to Find Them
- Component:
TidalVolumeSDF - Attached to: A mesh-based GameObject
- Requires: GPU SDF baking support
SDF Baking
SDF volumes require a baked distance field representation of the mesh. This is currently generated using Unity’s Visual Effect Graph SDF baker.
Dependency: Visual Effect Graph must be installed to bake
SDFs. Restart Unity after installation.
Limitation: Tidal Bodies limit 20 unique SDFs at a time currently per Tidal Body
Performance Considerations
While SDF volumes are more expensive than analytic volumes, they are still evaluated on the GPU and scale well when used correctly.
- Keep SDF resolution as low as acceptable
- Reuse SDFs when possible
- Avoid baking during runtime
Future: A built-in SDF baker is planned, removing the
Visual Effect Graph dependency.