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Devlog 14

Rings of detail, and a softer far edge

Devlog 13 let you choose how far you see. Today the world reaches much farther than that, and the far edge got a softer look.

Less work per frame

The light got cheaper again, with the pictures coming out exactly the same. Everything solid is now drawn once just to find what is in front, and only then lit, so nothing hidden behind something else is ever lit at all. And the game keeps the height of the highest land in each area, so a shadow ray that is already above an area skips straight over it.

Rings of detail

Render distance now sets the full world close around you: every block, people, creatures, shadows. Past it, rings of plainer land go on much farther out, each ring coarser than the one inside it, so the hills and ranges far off are still there on the horizon. The rings fill in nearest first, and the fog follows what has arrived, so there are no holes or flashes as they load.

Seen from above, a small town of timbered houses among oaks and sakura trees on rolling grassland, a road leading out of it, with hills and snowy land far behind.
A town in the full world, with the plainer rings rolling on behind it.
Seen from high above on a clear day, green hills dotted with oaks and sakura trees roll away for miles, with snowy ranges, lakes and the sea along the far horizon.
Seen from high above, a turquoise sea meets a pale sandy shore with a road along it, thick green woods behind, and the land running on to the horizon.
A coast from high up, woods running inland as far as the eye goes.

Shadows and the shading in creases now carry on into the first ring, fading out evenly across it. Water out in the far rings is drawn solid, so sand no longer shows through lakes and the sea in the distance.

A blur at the far edge

Far land now blurs a little, the way distance looks to the eye. The blur follows the rings, so the full world near you stays sharp however high you climb, and it grows smoothly toward the far edge, where the land fades softly into the sky. Open sky and stars stay crisp.

From high above at sunset, green hills and trees reaching to snowy ranges that soften into a purple and pink sky.
Sunset from high up: the far ranges blur into the evening sky.
Moonlit grassland at night, oaks and sakura trees across rolling hills and a snowy slope to the right, under a dark sky full of crisp stars and a bright moon.
Night: the far land softens while the stars and the moon stay sharp.
The player stands on a snowy hilltop looking out over green hills and trees, sharp up close, the land growing soft toward a hazy horizon that fades into the sky.

How strong the blur is is a new row on the Settings screen, from off to strong.

The Settings screen over a blurred view of the hills: a Render Distance slider, a new Distance Blur slider below it, and Back.