Wave Generator is a Plugin written by Ruben Mayor and Philippe Jadoul for 3ds Max. Very quickly you can generate ocean surfaces including control over waves. The plugin is currently in alpha version. We needed a solution to create various oceans surfaces. Wave Generator gave me the ability to create the ocean as a 3d object then add materials or even export it to other applications. I found it very straight forward to work with and in 3ds Max I just add a daylight system and a generic mental ray water material to create the image above.
You can download Wave Generator here.