What is open-water?

Open Water is a powerboat driving simulation that runs entirely in your web browser, built using Three.js, a tool for creating 3D graphics on the web. There is nothing to install beyond a modern browser: you steer a boat across an ocean with realistic looking waves, spray, and lighting, all rendered live as you play. You control the boat with either a keyboard or, on phones and tablets, touch gestures, since the game automatically detects which kind of device you are using and shows the right controls. You can throttle forward and backward, steer, switch between several camera angles like a chase view or a cockpit view, change how rough the sea is, and switch between different boats, each with its own handling. A local achievement log tracks things like top speed, distance travelled, and wildlife encounters such as dolphins or whales, and unlocking achievements gradually opens up more boats and rougher sea conditions. Nothing you do is sent anywhere, all your progress is saved locally in your own browser. Under the hood, the game constantly adjusts its own visual quality based on how fast your computer or phone can render each frame, lowering effects like shadows and reflections when needed to keep the game smooth, and raising them again when there is room to spare. On phones, it also uses lighter versions of the boat models with smaller image textures, because loading the full detailed versions could otherwise use enough memory to crash the browser tab. The simulation includes a hand built physics system for how the boat moves through the water, wave patterns generated from a mathematical wave model rather than pre-recorded footage, dynamic weather, spray and wake effects that react to how the boat moves, and 3D sound that changes with engine speed, rain, distant thunder, and nearby wildlife. To run it yourself, you need Docker and Docker Compose, which serve the game as a small local web server, plus a modern browser that supports WebGL2 for 3D graphics. The project is written in JavaScript with no separate build step required.