The Ghana Waterfall

I created the waterfall in preproduction as an idea for a 'signature image' that could help sell the game early on.
To create this I used additive transparency, parallax scrolling, vertex lighting, and some UV mapping tricks.
The technique isn't that different from the old school scrolling methodology. (I used to do this by hand on Dpaint animator)

The waterfall uses 2 textures that layer on top of each other additively. Thats right, only two textures to create the entire waterfall.

Here's the MAX image of the water. Notice the UV pull at the bottom of the image. This is the way you make water accelerate with 1 constant scroll speed.
By doing this, you achieve a look similar to water falling ever more rapidly until it achieves terminal velocity.
I layered this additively over a slightly slower moving backplate, and used Vertex color/alpha to fade/blow parts in and out.
I spent many summers in Yosemite looking at Bridleveil falls and Yosemite falls. Simple observation and mastery of your toolset
creates the opportunites you need to make some great environment art. The best part about this is that its really cheap. In fact, it takes advantage of the
PS2's one advantage over the Xbox: The fillrate for transparency. Because of this we were able to spend more horsepower on particle systems and physics.

The Results: