I tried last night and the global wave control was checked, but it was greyed out too so I could not uncheck it.  I should add that I am a newbie and am using Vue 8 Esprit.  I'm not sure what you mean by a metawater.  I clicked to add a water plane and always before all of the wave controls have been available. The material I am using is the one that loads with the water plane.  I also tried replacing that with a Tropical Water material from the Water material group that comes with Vue.

BTW, Rich, I did look at your tutorial and found it very helpful in understanding the water editor controls. I have your site bookmarked. Now if I can just figure out how to access them!