Cameron first mentioned that new CG would have to be developed for the underwater and ocean surface scenes. He said: "We are going to see the oceans of Pandora and the lifeforms and ecosystems there, so we've got to do more with CG water, both underwater with the caustics, the lighting, the optics of bringing light through water and with the surface of water, which is one of the big challenges in CG."
He went on to explain that the biggest challenge he wants to tackle is increasing the frame rate of the sequel. Films are currently shot with a frame rate of 24 frames per second. His goal is to get it up to 48 or 60 frames per second, making it so that you get realistic shots at the time of shooting, rather than having to wait six months for editing.
"I want to get rid of the motion artifacting associated with 24 frame display. Because movies are way behind, they're a century out of date," Cameron explained. "48, 60, 72, we're looking at the efficacy of the different ones and different solutions. The projectors can do it right now, the projectors can run at 144hrz but they're still displaying 24 frames content at 144hrz. The trick is how do you display 48 or 60 frame content, multi-flashing it, the way 3D projectors do. So that's one little bump I’m working on."