Better (3D) clouds

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voxelproof
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Better (3D) clouds

by voxelproof » Post

I think that the default clouds look much too simple, I'd even say primitive. In fact they're 2D objects made to look 3D just by the fact that they consist of blocks and this in my opinion makes them too similar to layers of snow (despite they're passable and moving). In a good game design every detail counts and the visual aspect of the skydome is extremely important for the overall ambience. In case of clouds the shapes are crucial: clouds are all but rectangles, so shaping them in a more natural way certainly would make the worlds of Minetest appear to be much more enticing.

Here is an example from another Minecraft clone, namely Craft by Michael Fogleman (the game is much simpler in design than Minetest and a little buggy, but its terrain generation is of lightning speed and ambient occlusion and lighting are amazingly well done):

Image

Image

The project is open source so I hope modders or developers might use parts of the code in the future Minetest versions after receiving author's consent.
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u34

Re: Better (3D) clouds

by u34 » Post

the game only support creative mode when you register at a special page and login ingame! nice game anyway!
maybe some of the code could be used for minetest?!!

see more infos here: https://opensource.com/alternatives/minecraft

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voxelproof
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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by voxelproof » Post

cHyper wrote:the game only support creative mode when you register at a special page and login ingame! nice game anyway!
maybe some of the code could be used for minetest?!!

see more infos here: https://opensource.com/alternatives/minecraft
I didn't know about registering :) And as for the mc clones - I know most or maybe all (free) of them. Minetest is a meticulously deliberated choice.

P.S. This page is very outdated. I can remember I started to search MC alternatives from it. Besides Minetest on this list there're only two relatively unbuggy games - Voxelands and Manic Digger. Once there used to exist playable Terasology, but the ambience of it filled me with strange distaste (probably it was due to the textures). And my advice - keep far away from 'TrueCraft" :)
To miss the joy is to miss all. Robert Louis Stevenson

u34

Re: Better (3D) clouds

by u34 » Post

voxelproof wrote:
I didn't know about registering :) And as for the mc clones - I know most or maybe all (free) of them. Minetest is a meticulously deliberated choice.

P.S. This page is very outdated. I can remember I started to search MC alternatives from it. Besides Minetest on this list there're only two relatively unbuggy games - Voxelands and Manic Digger. Once there used to exist playable Terasology, but the ambience of it filled me with strange distaste (probably it was due to the textures). And my advice - keep far away from 'TrueCraft" :)
registering for mp mode!! ingame you can join the server and do your creations!!
Terasology look great when you have a powerful gaming computer. its still alpha and coded in java.

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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by azekill_DIABLO » Post

Gone, but not dead. Contact me on discord: azekill_DIABLO#6565
DMs are always open if you want to get in touch!

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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by philipbenr » Post

I could be completely wrong, but I think that a rewrite of clouds could be done somewhat easily without having to splice code from another game.

Actually, I think that I might take a look at the overall skybox code over winter break and see if there is anything that I could do to change that. As I said, doesn't sound like a very hard thing to do. (I also get to see how good the documentation on the engine is on the wiki. ;P )

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ThomasMonroe
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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by ThomasMonroe » Post

it would even be possible to have different types of cloud-generation to choose from, such as this, and maybe some others
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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by v-rob » Post

It would be cool to be able to have this changeable Lua-side. For instance, the weather mods could change the clouds to be stratus when it starts raining, and then back to cumulus after it stops. It would also be nice if the clouds did not go through mountains and tall buildings.
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ShadMOrdre
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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by ShadMOrdre » Post

Or you could just check out my mod viewtopic.php?f=9&t=17865

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paramat
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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by paramat » Post

We have a cloud API, it could have a parameter for the size of the cloud element (currently 64x64 i think) reducing this would create finer detail in the 2D noise.

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voxelproof
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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by voxelproof » Post

paramat wrote:We have a cloud API, it could have a parameter for the size of the cloud element (currently 64x64 i think) reducing this would create finer detail in the 2D noise.
Hooray. For now I keep clouds on the higher altitude to obtain more diversity and richness of landscape elements. Not bad, but could be better :)

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Last edited by voxelproof on Wed Dec 13, 2017 06:02, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by Amaz » Post

I was able to make these clouds by changing the cloud size:
Image

However, the result was 1 FPS, due to the massive increase in the number of calculations required... I don't know if there are any ways that can be avoided...

These are the changes I made:
Changed https://github.com/minetest/minetest/bl ... ds.cpp#L36 to this:

Code: Select all

static constexpr const float cloud_size = BS * 8.0f
And changed https://github.com/minetest/minetest/bl ... s.cpp#L371 to this:

Code: Select all

m_cloud_radius_i = g_settings->getU16("cloud_radius") * 8;

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Re: Better (3D) clouds

by ThomasMonroe » Post

I would not be surprised if the vertice count was through the roof when you made that picture Amaz, however I think it could be optimized some.
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