This was the first River Tool to be released and had a specific use in mind, the key features of this tool is for making a more simple non branching river and wanting buoyancy support. It also uses an older technique for the shader, utilizing panning textures.
Pros
Simple river spline creation
Ability to have physics object have buoyancy and flow down the river
Panning textures
Cons
Unable to branch and re-attach
Does not support Flowmaps
Cannot have vertex painting
Not supported with UE4.26 Water Tools Plugin
No longer in development support - final engine version is 4.27 (untested in 5.0+).
This was a completely new project made for a different use. It is more focused on the ability to branch and then re-attach the river in multiple areas. It also has the ability to vertex paint areas for foam, and warping in different directions.
In engine 4.26 the "Water Tools" plugin was added, the Branching River Tool has added support to work with this.
