What is this?
Tidewater is an island fishing game that runs right in your browser: cast from the pier, the beach or your own boat, fight the fish, sell the catch to Joe, and spend it on better gear at Marta's chandlery.
Tidewater is an island fishing game that runs right in your browser: cast from the pier, the beach or your own boat, fight the fish, sell the catch to Joe, and spend it on better gear at Marta's chandlery.Is it a native game or does it just run in the browser?It's a pure browser game: it runs directly on WebGPU and WGSL shaders through its own small rendering engine, with no framework and nothing to install.
It's a pure browser game: it runs directly on WebGPU and WGSL shaders through its own small rendering engine, with no framework and nothing to install.How do I start playing?Open the play link from the repo in a recent Chrome, Edge or Safari — every push to main is deployed to GitHub Pages automatically. Then WASD to move, mouse to look, E to interact.
Open the play link from the repo in a recent Chrome, Edge or Safari — every push to main is deployed to GitHub Pages automatically. Then WASD to move, mouse to look, E to interact.Will my machine and browser handle it?You need a browser with WebGPU (recent Chrome, Edge or Safari) and a capable GPU. The target is 60 fps at 2560×1267 on an Apple M5 Pro, and dynamic resolution scales the render down on slower machines.
You need a browser with WebGPU (recent Chrome, Edge or Safari) and a capable GPU. The target is 60 fps at 2560×1267 on an Apple M5 Pro, and dynamic resolution scales the render down on slower machines.Anything to watch out for on first launch?The first load compiles several hundred shaders, which can take a minute or more; later visits are faster because the browser caches them. Only Chrome, Edge and Safari are listed as supported browsers.
The first load compiles several hundred shaders, which can take a minute or more; later visits are faster because the browser caches them. Only Chrome, Edge and Safari are listed as supported browsers.Does my progress carry over between sessions?Progress — gear, money, the fish log — is saved in your browser, so it persists between visits without any account.
Progress — gear, money, the fish log — is saved in your browser, so it persists between visits without any account.Is the code open source?MIT — free to use, modify and redistribute. Third-party assets (CC0 audio, Poly Haven scans, Rocketbox characters, OFL/Apache fonts) are credited separately in CREDITS.md.
MIT — free to use, modify and redistribute. Third-party assets (CC0 audio, Poly Haven scans, Rocketbox characters, OFL/Apache fonts) are credited separately in CREDITS.md.How does the fishing actually work?You cast with the left mouse button, strike when the bobber dips, then keep line tension in the green band, easing off when the fish runs. Shallows, pier, reef, bay and deep water hold different fish — 18 Caribbean species — and some bite only at dawn, dusk or night. Sell your catch to Joe and upgrade at Marta's.
You cast with the left mouse button, strike when the bobber dips, then keep line tension in the green band, easing off when the fish runs. Shallows, pier, reef, bay and deep water hold different fish — 18 Caribbean species — and some bite only at dawn, dusk or night. Sell your catch to Joe and upgrade at Marta's.Is there more to it than fishing?Yes: you can swim the coral reef, take the boat to deep water (it burns diesel you refill at the chandlery), and watch a humpback whale breach. There's also night fishing with deck floodlights, an underwater flashlight, a free camera and a photo mode.
Yes: you can swim the coral reef, take the boat to deep water (it burns diesel you refill at the chandlery), and watch a humpback whale breach. There's also night fishing with deck floodlights, an underwater flashlight, a free camera and a photo mode.How serious is the water simulation?Quite serious: a four-cascade FFT ocean from Tessendorf spectra with foam and whitecaps, depth-aware breaking waves, a shallow-water swash simulation on the sand, boat wakes, seabed caustics, and a split underwater/above-water view at the waterline.
Quite serious: a four-cascade FFT ocean from Tessendorf spectra with foam and whitecaps, depth-aware breaking waves, a shallow-water swash simulation on the sand, boat wakes, seabed caustics, and a split underwater/above-water view at the waterline.What if my GPU struggles — can I turn effects down?Yes. The settings panel (H) exposes sea state, time of day, sun azimuth, clouds, haze and post-processing, and URL flags like ?noClouds, ?noVeg or ?noSim skip whole systems at load.
Yes. The settings panel (H) exposes sea state, time of day, sun azimuth, clouds, haze and post-processing, and URL flags like ?noClouds, ?noVeg or ?noSim skip whole systems at load.Is there sound?Yes — positional audio from real CC0 field recordings: surf timed to each breaking wave, wind, birds, the boat engine, footsteps by surface, underwater ambience, whale song, and the rod and reel. M mutes it.
Yes — positional audio from real CC0 field recordings: surf timed to each breaking wave, wind, birds, the boat engine, footsteps by surface, underwater ambience, whale song, and the rod and reel. M mutes it.Why does the description say 'built with Opus 5.5'?The GitHub description credits the coastal town to Opus 5.5, an AI model. The README itself documents only the finished game — features, requirements and controls — and doesn't discuss how it was built.
The GitHub description credits the coastal town to Opus 5.5, an AI model. The README itself documents only the finished game — features, requirements and controls — and doesn't discuss how it was built.What are similar projects?Babylon.js, web-ocean, bgfx, WebGL-Fluid-Simulation, raylib, flutter_scene, engine, iw4L
Babylon.js, web-ocean, bgfx, WebGL-Fluid-Simulation, raylib, flutter_scene, engine, iw4LWhich topics is it in?gpu-programming, webgpu, github-pages, shaders, computer-graphics, game-engine, simulation, rendering, game-development, graphics, game, 3d
gpu-programming, webgpu, github-pages, shaders, computer-graphics, game-engine, simulation, rendering, game-development, graphics, game, 3d