Here is another new filter. It is somewhat related to caustics, but it is also different.

This one is located under the filter category of rendered noises.

Filter > Render > Noises > Water ripples animation...




You'll be given a chance to cancel the operation. It warns you that this can be a lengthy operation. It will render into an animation, and each frame can take a little while to render.

If you don't have an animated loaded, nothing much will appear in your image. You need to create an animation placeholder for it.

Here's the rendering in progress.



This one is being rendered into a 512x512 square image.
We could use this as a texture map for caustics on the ocean floor too, or as normal map or displacement map in some 3D program.
We can also use it as the elevation map in 3D Designer or Puppy Ray, right inside of Howler.

You might want to adjust contrast, spread the dynamic range, change the color (reduce the red to reveal a light blue coloration), map a different gradient over it, make it seamless, make it loopable, ... the possibilities are endless.