Development Update – August 2022

Oi folks,

There have been some quite interesting updates again, especially regarding Kappa Shader v5.0, which is receiving more and more fancy additions.

Kappa Shader

Preview versions of version 5.0 of Kappa Shader have been available for Tier 2 (5€) patrons since last month, you can find the announcement post here: Link

Since then I have made further improvements to the new skybox and finally overhauled the 2D clouds, as those haven’t received an update to bring them more in line with the much more varied cloudscapes before. This means that there are now three different types of 2D clouds, rather than just one layer of cirrus clouds. Especially the cirrocumulus and the noctilucent (or night shining) clouds should be the most exciting additions. While the former help a lot with giving the skybox even more depth due to their high altitude and distinct shape the latter greatly improve the atmosphere of the blue-hour, as the noctilucent clouds are very prominent during those daytimes. Neither of those two cloud types are hooked up to the weather system though, as I still need to work out how exactly I want them to be driven by it, especially regarding the noctilucent clouds since I’d want them to be a slightly less common sight than just being visible in the same intensity regardless of the day or weather parameters. To top the skybox changes off I’ll also look into adding a solution to create some subtle atmospheric godrays from the clouds, which should tie everything together in a nice way.

Aside from that I have also reworked some bits of the SSPT emission handling, which should now be more consistent across the advanced mode and the “normal” and faster mode.

What’s left to do now is fixing the remaining bugs and just making sure that all the new bits are smoothly working in conjunction to give you quite an upgrade regarding the atmospherics over version 4.2.

KappaPT

As you might guess the same thing I said in last month’s blogpost still applies, which is that I’m only fixing eventual bugs in this pack until Kappa Shader v5.0 is done, however Hodilton made another fancy cinematic using KappaPT so I’d like to showcase that here :)


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NostalgiaVX

I’m still looking into figuring out a solution for the rather inconsistent performance of this pack, though I am hesitant to actually start working on it as long as I’m stuck with having to use OptiFine, given all of its quirks and old bugs, since that makes it really hard to judge if a performance issue actually comes from my pack or just from some weirdness it happens to trigger with OptiFine. That means that I’m still waiting for Iris to be viable in a way, as I’d feel much more comfortable with doing whatever big rework might be necessary if I can rely on a more stable foundation that doesn’t quite feel like it’s actually fighting you.

Regardless of that I’d like to include another showcase featuring NostalgiaVX that Hodilton made, this time in conjunction with the realistic physics mod:


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I’d also like to include another nice showcase video made by iambeen :)


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Soft Voxels

This pack has seen less updates in the last month, which is mostly due to me focusing whatever spare time I had for these projects on Kappa Shader v5.0, as I really want to get that one done but I have still looked into some minor rework of the atmospheric parameters of this pack, especially since the volumetric fog can be a bit too much at times.

I’ll eventually start completing the overworld feature-set soon as well, which means that I can also start with making the free version of Soft Voxels take shape, as it is finally becoming a bit more mature and refined so stay tuned for updates on this :)

I’d also like to feature a nice showcase using Soft Voxels that has been made by iambeen:


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And last but not least Limitless Designs also made a fancy and a bit more unique showcase video using Soft Voxels (yes there are lots of showcases this month):


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Closing Words

Those of you who are on my discord server may already know, but as of late I am also quite occupied with some personal stuff and other things that require my attention, which is why updates and releases have slowed down a bit. I hope you can understand that but regardless of that I am still trying to divide my resources in the most efficient way, which means a bit less “project-hopping” and more focusing on one thing after another, starting with Kappa Shader v5.0 in this case as you can guess already. Despite that I haven’t lost track of all the other updates I have planned, so you can be sure that those will follow soon.

As usual it’s time for another huge shoutout to my patrons, as you’ve been increasing in numbers at an incredible rate lately and it just baffles me how you people manage to keep going at that pace for such a long time xD

Needless to say that I am extremely grateful for your folks support and that it helps me with being able to keep working on these projects and I’m always trying to come up with some unique things for you to enjoy :)

And that’s it for this time and enjoy the warm summer months :p

Blogpost featured image made by Noelle using NostalgiaVX

 

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Posted in Blog, Kappa Shader, KappaPT, NostalgiaVX, Soft Voxels and tagged , , , , .