The Vertical Rippling filter creates rippling effects in your artwork without changing the overall dimensions of the artwork (unlike the similar Waves Oceanic filter). The ripples in this filter go from top to bottom.
The Ripples slider indicates how many full ripples you want in the shape. Any value from 0 to 25 (including fractional values like 0.25) will work. Each whole ripple is 360°.
The Distance slider lets you control how far each ripple will displace your points. These values are in whatever units that you've got your document's ruler set for. The displacement will be vertical (because the ripples are moving from top to bottom).
The Depth slider lets you vary how much 3D effect you want. (That's right, each ripple works in 3D as well as 2D!) At 25%, the ripple is displaced 25% of the distance in the Z direction as well. To see this effect, tilt the artwork in the preview image.
