So I always think stylised visuals are way more interesting then realistic ones. I think that is one of the reasons I am so interested in the art of shader-making!

A little while back I set a goal for myself to learn to make shaders. I want to delve into the code eventually, but for now Shaderforge is a great introduction to the topic. I eventually found a way to create this "volumetric dark water effect" with it!

So I tried to use the depth node to get the darkening first, but I found out it wasn't usable in the free personal version of Unity! This was really frustrating, because I already focused so much on this idea, this nice looking water.

But.. after I took a break I decided to keep going, and I was slowly able to make what I wanted to in a different way! Now it's basically just a cutoff on the y value, and everything under that including the white coastline is done with emission.