How to get a ship to float on a vray displacement map?

[werticus]

How would one go about getting a ship to float on top of an ocean that was just a plane with a vray 2d (or i could make it 3d if needed) displacement map on it?

It is not so critical that I need proper physics or IK, I just need it to follow the height of the map at the location of the ship.

[joconnell]

Have a second copy of the plane and use the same map in a regular displace modifier with the same strength. Use that as your animation guide.

[werticus]

Ahh thanks, good idea. I'll give this a shot. Hopefully with that plane set to not render it won't destroy the memory use or render times.

[vlado]

Ahh thanks, good idea. I'll give this a shot. Hopefully with that plane set to not render it won't destroy the memory use or render times.

Well you don't need it to match the shape of the ocean exactly with the same quality, and it only needs to be around the ship, so it shouldn't affect the rendering.

Best regards,
Vlado

[joconnell]

Yep, also an ocean will take a little bit of time to affect the movement of the boat so it's almost as if your boat is rocking half a second behind the shape of the waves, depending on how big the boat is and how much weight you want to give it.

[werticus]

Awesome, got it working using a script that has a delay feature in it to follow the surface of a very small section of 3dsmax displaced ocean that is hidden.

Thanks for everyone's help!

[joconnell]

Ooh! Have you got a link to the script? I'm interested in how they're calculating their lag / delay in it.