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A new research paper co-authored by a Game Freak developer dives deep into next-gen water simulation tech, raising hopes for Pokemon Winds and Waves‘ summery vistas and underwater areas.
Game Freak programmer Fumiya Narita and University of Tokyo professor Takashi Kanai recently co-published a new paper that aims to help render water and moving liquids more efficiently, without sacrificing any of the visual detail that really makes the ocean splash in animation. (Good spot, Automaton.)
Their joint research paper was presented during the international Pacific Graphics 2026 conference held in Singapore, and there’s quite a bit of technical knowhow involved, of course. Essentially, the research explains that detailed liquid physics presents a heavy computational load on many games, so the new tech looks to simplify the under-the-hood calculations and concentrate on the most impressive details – the splashes, ripples, maybe even the waves…
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It’s worth noting that the research didn’t show off the tech using any in-game demonstration, and Game Freak hasn’t confirmed whether the research will affect next year’s Pokemon Winds and Waves, either.
Regardless, it’s not hard to see how this research could hypothetically impact the next mainline Pokemon RPG. The game’s debut trailer showed off massive oceans with tons of simulated movement, as well as an underwater biome that suggests we might be able to dive below the surface this time around.
We’ll need to wait for Pokemon Winds and Waves to come out sometime in 2027 – exclusively on Switch 2 – to find out more.