Deconstructing the water effect in Super Mario Sunshine
http://blog.mecheye.net/2018/03/deconstructing-the-water-effect-in-super-mario-sunshine/ [blog.mecheye.net]
2018-03-04 22:55
The GameCube, for those unaware, had a novel, almost-programmable, but fixed-function GPU. Instead of developers writing shaders, they programmed in a set of texture combiners similar to the methods used in glTexEnv pipelines, but taken to the extreme. For those used to modern programmable GPUs, it can be quite the mindbending experience to think that complex effects can be done with this thing. And yet, 2002 saw the release of Super Mario Sunshine with some really good looking water for its time.
source: L