Status Update: Terrain shaders

Hey folks! We want to give you a small status update of our recent progress.

The last weeks we've been mainly working on textures and proper terrain shaders. Unlike the Java version of the game, we're using physically-based rendering, which is basically a more realistic approach to render materials. Materials no longer consist of a single texture, instead there are various maps which allow the game to render the material accurately (including surface structure, glossiness etc).

When it comes to the terrain shaders, or more specifically, to the transition between multiple materials (e.g. sand, dirt, gravel etc), we're now taking the "height" of the particular material into account instead of just blending the materials. As a result, transitions between materials are more realistic now (compared to basic blending)

We've also been tweaking the terrain generation and started working on new vegetation. This is something we want to get ready before we can release a first playable demo of the new version. We know things take quite long, but we're sure you'll like it once it's ready

Anyway, we are very grateful for your patience!

Last but not least we want to share a screenshot of a fairly high mountain. Even if it doesn't look that tall, but this mountain has a total height of more than 800 blocks! Just as a reference, the highest mountain in the old version had a max height of ~230 blocks. So yes, you can build much higher in the new version

Stay tuned for the next status update! To get more information about what's happening in the meantime, please check out our Trello Roadmap

Thanks a lot for your feedback

Quote from Groovaholic

I hope that when that transition occurs between the different biomes that it actual last a bit longer "i.e" instead of it changing within 20 blocks from desert to grassland it changes in say 40-50 to give a more natural feel and look,

We haven't started working on biomes yet, so unfortunately I can't say much about that. However, when talking about transitions, I was just referring to transitions between different materials, e.g. when placing gravel somewhere, or transitions between rock and grass etc.

Quote from Groovaholic

One last thing with the shaders that you are using will we be able to use Reshade to make our own personal look to the game?.

Can't say much about that yet, but the new version will come with a lot of post processing effects out of the box (like bloom, motion blur, depth of field, color corrections, ambient occlusion, screenspace reflections etc) Most of them will be fully customizable.

Quote from SARSteam

Off course I am patient ! When is the release of the playable demo ???

Hehe, hopefully it won't take too long until it's ready

Thanks for your feedback

Quote from Avanar

One question - will there be material (i.e. sand) that is subject to gravity?

This would be a great feature, but unfortunately I can't say much about that yet... doing it "right" (so the chunk of terrain comes down as a whole) would basically work in a similar way as dynamic water (more or less). Alternatively we could just remove the material and spawn a small physical boulder at that location - that wouldn't look as good as the first option, but probably this still provides satisfying results... idk, we really have to think about that

Quote from Fizbit

Regarding trees on the new "super mountains", will they cover them from head to toe or will the trees fade out in altitude like you might normally find on truly tall mountains?

Unfortunately vegetation isn't implemented yet, but yes, you will indeed find less vegetation the higher you get, and probably no vegetation at all above a certain altitude

Quote from Brandon_lee19

Sorry if this is the wrong topic, but will there be working mirrors in the new version(reflective material)?

We are still tinkering with reflective materials. However, actual reflections (except glossiness/specularity) have a major impact on performance, especially since these reflections need to be computed in realtime in Rising World. We have added screenspace reflections, which aren't that costly (in terms of performance), but they have some visual limitations. In the long run, that could be replaced by raytracing.

Actual mirrors, on the other hand, are different. They also require realtime reflections (and we can't work with screenspace reflections here), but since they only consist of a single surface (and it's unlikely that people place lots of them in their house), it's definitely something we take into consideration

In short, mirrors (as objects) may be added in the long run, but when it comes to reflective materials, we will rather stick to some basic reflections here.

Quote from ArcaneDesmond

Looking good, curious if temperature and altitude will be considered for higher elevations? Looking at the tops of those mountains makes me curious about snow capped peaks, boulders, rocks or possibly blustery conditions up there

Yes, that's planned It's our intention to add snow to higher elevations, and that would also affect the player temperature.