Smooth Terrain vs. Meshes for an ocean map - suggestions?

I am currently building a United States Navy-based group, and we are working on our warzone. The focus of this warzone will be in an ocean with various ships and islands with captures. We started building the water and sea-flooring in smooth terrain, and due to the restrictions with terrain regions - this will take ages to build a decent sized map. The primary motive for smooth terrain was to have nicer looking water, and the ability to swim within it.

Before we get too far carried away, is it worth wasting the time to copying and pasting regions, or should I go back to the old method of much-larger, water meshes?

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Smooth terrain water is probably going to look better and be better performance wise than using a large amount of custom meshes.

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I don’t recommend Terrain Water for a military group as it causes ships to lag and fling. I recommend using meshed so your boats can run smoother.

To answer your question of “is it worth wasting time with the Regions tool,” there’s a plugin that makes this much quicker:

If your concern is that you want quality looking water that you don’t have to code any kind of swimming mechanic into, this is probably your best bet. It’s true, it isn’t great for performance, but as long as you aren’t making an entire sea, you’re probably fine. If it really doesn’t work out, then at least you have the knowledge that it isn’t feasible, and can work on the alternative.

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