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[Tsar Hoikas]

I think they also use a ripple manager

Depends on the effect you want

If you want a puddle, then I don't think it needs to ripple

[Aloys]

Maybe they use a puddle manager.

[Nadnerb]

Getting the reflection ripples is what I (and I suspect many others) have been eagerly awaiting ever since work on making ages for plasma began. Is research being done in this area?

[Aloys]

I have no idea how it is done in Plasma.. I found no textures that could be used as a bump map of the reflections..

[belford]

Some of the distortion looks like it results from polygon normals. (This is the "zig-zaggy" part of the reflection distortion. It's static -- it doesn't ripple unless you move, or the reflecting object moves.) See, for example, the Bevin fountains.

The moving ripples (e.g., Aegura lake, Bevin water garden) look like a shader effect. I would have expected them to be based on a texture, but if you can't find one, it could be completely algorithmic.