[Mod] Waterfalls [v1.0]

Post Reply
Termos
Member
Posts: 417
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:50

[Mod] Waterfalls [v1.0]

by Termos » Post

Adds water erosion, so flowing water appears to obey gravity a little bit more and forms somewhat more realistic looking waterfalls.

Warning: This will destroy some nodes, don't use near anything important until you get the hang of what it does.

Jan 17, 2019 version 02 changes:
- found a way to reduce horizontal spread of initial splash even further
- added ledge_height parameter in waterfalls.conf. default 3 details

March 05, 2019 Confirmed working with 5.0.0 and upped version to 1.0, no real changes.


Usage:
- place a regular water source on a hill side, try to find a logical spot - concave slopes around 45 degrees seem to work the best, usually found at an intersection of two hills.
If placed on a convex slope, it will destroy a large area, placed on top of a hill it will probably destroy the whole of it.
- best put the source on top of a stone node, don't place it on "crumbly" nodes (dirt, sand etc.) or it will get removed in the process.
- don't place on desert hills with sandstone core. (sandstone node groups are more like dirt/sand than stone), unless you want it to be leveled out.
- affects regular water only, river water works as usual in order not to mess up the valleys mapgen.
- after everything's done, the mod can be disabled, waterfalls will stay.

Images:
Spoiler
Image
Image
Image
Image
Download:
waterfalls.zip
v1.0
(120.57 KiB) Downloaded 185 times
License: MIT
Depends: default
Mapgen: any
Installation: Extract zip contents into [minetest]/mods directory, then select world -> configure to enable 'waterfalls'
Last edited by Termos on Tue Mar 05, 2019 19:03, edited 7 times in total.

User avatar
voxelproof
Member
Posts: 1087
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2017 08:13
Location: Europe

Re: [Mod] Waterfalls

by voxelproof » Post

Termos wrote:Adds water erosion, so flowing water appears to obey gravity a little bit more and forms somewhat more realistic looking waterfalls.

Warning: This will destroy some nodes, don't use near anything important until you get the hang of what it does.
Seems very promising. I wonder if it could be employed to simulate dam failure ;) Going to check this out in experimental world.
To miss the joy is to miss all. Robert Louis Stevenson

Termos
Member
Posts: 417
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:50

Re: [Mod] Waterfalls

by Termos » Post

Depends on what exactly you have in mind, this particular set of algorithms perhaps not, but the general approach could be appropriate.

The algorithms are basicly cellular automata, they don't care about the grand scale of things, the only thing they care about is what a particular node and its immediate neighbors are.

Actually this question made me think how to implement gradual draining of water from a reservoir through a crack in a dam. Tricky stuff to do with regular water, but with special nonregenerable water maybe it could be done.

User avatar
voxelproof
Member
Posts: 1087
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2017 08:13
Location: Europe

Re: [Mod] Waterfalls

by voxelproof » Post

Termos wrote: Actually this question made me think how to implement gradual draining of water from a reservoir through a crack in a dam. Tricky stuff to do with regular water, but with special nonregenerable water maybe it could be done.
This is more or less what I meant. If your code makes water behaving in different ways depending on particular sets of neighbouring nodes, then with certain tuning of these properties it would require certain constrictions on material used and arrangement of different types of nodes in building dams. Reservoirs can be easily filled with water using World Edit.

Dam failure resulting in flooding the area below should perhaps affect buildings, trees and so on. Haven't tested your mod yet, but I think it is doable at least to a limited extent (i.e. affecting nearby structures standing on the slope directly below the dam).
To miss the joy is to miss all. Robert Louis Stevenson

Termos
Member
Posts: 417
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:50

Re: [Mod] Waterfalls

by Termos » Post

That's a fun problem, I have a model of 'roaming sources' algorithm on my mind which should work with liquid_renewable set to false, that would work on a small scale - that's because stuff happens only within active block range which is quite limited.

It probably could be done on a large scale with voxelmanip, but there comes the problem of determining which chunks to load, and there's more and more of them and they need to be updated quite frequently, so things go downhill fast from there.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Back to waterfalls, my #1 favourite so far.
Source placement is the key.

Image
Image

User avatar
voxelproof
Member
Posts: 1087
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2017 08:13
Location: Europe

Re: [Mod] Waterfalls

by voxelproof » Post

Termos wrote:That's a fun problem, I have a model of 'roaming sources' algorithm on my mind which should work with liquid_renewable set to false, that would work on a small scale - that's because stuff happens only within active block range which is quite limited.

It probably could be done on a large scale with voxelmanip, but there comes the problem of determining which chunks to load, and there's more and more of them and they need to be updated quite frequently, so things go downhill fast from there.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Back to waterfalls, my #1 favourite so far.
Source placement is the key.
I've noticed that your mod makes a nice landscaping tool, however not sure if in the way it was intended. I mean that the water composing waterfalls quickly vanishes, sinking into the ground below. So it looks that it in fact suits well better simulating damage made by the flooding (like in the mentioned example of failing dams) than creating permanent waterfalls. I know that the process can be stopped by disabling the mod, but the landscape looks more consistent when all the flowing water is that of river type.

Below I post a sequence of pictures depicting this landscaping techique; the river uphill is hand-made by me after washing down the soil by your mod.

By the way it brought me to the idea of improving the terrain generation by removing soil form the steeper slopes.

Image

Image

Image
Attachments
w3.png
w3.png (518.74 KiB) Viewed 920 times
w2.png
w2.png (549.2 KiB) Viewed 920 times
w1.png
w1.png (509.32 KiB) Viewed 920 times
To miss the joy is to miss all. Robert Louis Stevenson

Termos
Member
Posts: 417
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:50

Re: [Mod] Waterfalls

by Termos » Post

voxelproof wrote:I mean that the water composing waterfalls quickly vanishes, sinking into the ground below.
True, happens sometimes, that's because liquid_range is hard capped at 8 nodes. This is one of the reasons why source placement is so important.
Best way is to look at the slope and try to visualize how real water would flow, if there's a plateau along the way, water will probably stop there, if there's a convex slope like on the pictures above, probably all of it will be stripped of soil.

If the spot is right, it should be ok, or sometimes a couple of nodes need to be removed to get it flowing again.
Getting it right just takes some practice.

Termos
Member
Posts: 417
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:50

Re: [Mod] Waterfalls

by Termos » Post

Version 02

Changes:
- found a way to reduce horizontal spread of initial splash even further
- added ledge_height parameter in waterfalls.conf. default 3

apart from controlling ledge height obviously, this parameter also affects the probablility that water stops flowing prematurely. If ledge height is x, you can expect it may stop flowing if it goes in diagonal direction and slope gradient becomes milder than x:4

That's because max liquid range is 8, which makes it a 4 in diagonal terms.
Of course it will surely stop flowing on a flattish surface, there's no way around except for adding some water sources manually.

User avatar
voxelproof
Member
Posts: 1087
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2017 08:13
Location: Europe

Re: [Mod] Waterfalls

by voxelproof » Post

Termos wrote:Version 02
Seems much better, water flows persistently now. Anyhow, now I must build a huge dam 8D

Image

Image

Image
Attachments
w6.png
w6.png (456.7 KiB) Viewed 920 times
w5.png
w5.png (455.12 KiB) Viewed 920 times
w4.png
w4.png (488.96 KiB) Viewed 920 times
To miss the joy is to miss all. Robert Louis Stevenson

Termos
Member
Posts: 417
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:50

Re: [Mod] Waterfalls [v1.0]

by Termos » Post

Just confirmed it works with 5.0.0

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 21 guests