hey lads I did some research on that waterfall effect thing, or rather I asked a game developer friend(worked at ubisoft til he decided to create his own company) I'll share the convo about it.

[22:17:40] Theodor Andrén: and I thought seeing as how you know this stuff probably better than anyone I've ever known might be able to shed some light on it
[22:18:14] twobloks: well depends what you want to do
[22:18:25] Theodor Andrén: I mean if you ask me this sounds a bit simple but on the other hand we only have so much space before it becomes a huge thing right?
[22:18:31] twobloks: if you want the water to act as an animation then you need an animation playing over your water
[22:18:50] Theodor Andrén: we were talking about it interms of stuff like...waterfalls, trees blowing in the wind that sort of thing
[22:18:59] twobloks: k
[22:19:17] twobloks: so if I understand exactly,
[22:19:24] twobloks: you want a water surface?
[22:19:44] twobloks: and you want to use a technique that could also possibly be used for waterfalls and trees?
[22:19:47] Theodor Andrén: the exact thing was a water fall in this case and then later who knows
[22:19:53] twobloks: ok
[22:20:08] twobloks: well waterfalls are generally done in 2 ways
[22:20:14] twobloks: that I know of
[22:20:18] Theodor Andrén: ok
[22:20:39] twobloks: either some light engine that renders how light refracts on the waterfall
[22:20:46] twobloks: and they use some sort of particle system for the waterfall
[22:20:57] twobloks: that's most likely highly overkill for you guys
[22:21:11] Theodor Andrén: yeah
[22:21:21] twobloks: generally waterfalls are a mesh that has an animated texture on it
[22:21:22] Theodor Andrén: only got one programmer that I know of
[22:21:47] twobloks: with some particle effects to simulate "water splashes"
[22:21:50] Theodor Andrén: ok so a particle effect would be an animated mesh too?
[22:21:59] twobloks: particle effects aren't really a mesh
[22:22:15] twobloks: generally they are a bunch of "billboards" or 2D planes that are facing towards you
[22:22:41] twobloks: they are generally very simple images that create cool effects when displayed multiple times
[22:22:44] Theodor Andrén: ok sort of like they did trees back in the early days of 3D games?
[22:23:03] Theodor Andrén: basically flat images that turn towards the camera
[22:23:16] twobloks: yes exactly
[22:23:46] twobloks: particle effects are like 50+ of those with small animations on them
[22:24:00] twobloks: small 2d animations
[22:24:11] Theodor Andrén: alright
[22:24:22] Theodor Andrén: I'm writing this down btw XD
[22:24:28] twobloks: lol kk
[22:24:45] twobloks: well if your friend wants to send me some emails he's welcome to
[22:25:05] twobloks: but I don't use unity so I can only tell you what I know from past experience
[22:25:11] Theodor Andrén: I'll tell him

A lot of this stuff is kind of beyond me but I think you guys might make something out of it