Nowadays, computer generated images are very present in our everyday life. Realism of these images is increasing, surprising and it isn't often easy to distinguish the reality of the virtuality, this reality made by all the complexity of the natural phenomena which surround us. Water is one of these phenomena among which the variety and the dynamic comportment produce complex representation. We are interested in this thesis in its most area shape, that of the oceans, which are a part integral of our landscapes. At first, we study the methods allowing the simulation and rendering of the ocean in the physical domain and in computer graphics. In the second chapter, we propose a new rendering method unified allowing a faster visualization of ocean surface and allowing to approximate scattering and sub-scattering exchanges of light, foam and glare effects. In the chapter 3, we are interested to breaking waves by proposing a new physical based adaptive approach allowing to reproduce this phenomenon and to reduce time of calculations imposed by the resolution of equations of the fluid mechanics in 3D. In the fourth chapter, we extend this model by proposing a hierarchical approach allowing a stronger acceleration of the process of resolution and to obtain a simulation close to interactivity.
