The following is a list of little things that could make Minecraft have a better feel to it, while at the same time being simple to implement.
1. Transparent clouds. This is a simple change to the texture for the clouds. By making them get more transparent at the rims of the clouds, you could improve the look of the game with more lofty, airy looking clouds, rather than flying white chunks.
2. Clouds turn orangeish-pink at sunset/rise. By changing the color of the clouds at sunset and sunrise to an orangeish-pink, the game gives a better transition to the purpleish blue colored clouds of the night. The mechanics to change the color of clouds is already in use, so this would be very easy to add.
3. Sound of the wind. Occassionally, players should hear the sound of wind rushing by their ear. This could only happen at at least sea level, and should happen more often in flat biomes such as tundras, deserts, and savannas (plains). This cannot happen when it is raining or snowing.
4. Occassional leaf blowing by. When the wind goes by the characters ear, there could be a chance of seeing a leaf fly by the player. This leaf would behave like rain, save that it flys by horizontally before fading out into transparency. This only happens in biomes with trees.
5. The sound of crickets. At night in warm biomes with trees there could be the sound of crickets. This is another little effect to make you feel like you are not alone, and that this world you are in is very much alive.
6. Birds chirping in the morning. Similar to how crickets happen at night, at sunrise in warm biomes with trees you would hear birds chirping, but not see them. Another effect to show life in the world.
And that's all I've thought of. Tell me what you think, feedback is always appreciated.
Everything looks fairly simple to add, especially the bird/cricket and wind ambiance.
How would the occasional blowing leaf be added, though? Would it be a part of the weather?
It'd work similarly to how lightning works in storms. When the wind is present, a leaf has the possibility of being generated. Note that I say possiblity, as this does not always happen.
I like these ideas. MC could use some more ambient noise, in my opinion.
1. This is the only one I'm not sure about. I always thought this was part of the look of the game. Maybe a better picture of what exactly you mean would be better. Do you mean just modifying the texture, or subsurfing the mesh, or using real-time volumetrics to do such an effect? I'm assuming not the last one, since that's an expensive effect. A method I can think of would be to do maybe two iterations of subsurfing and then having a custom shader modify the alpha value of the cloud based on the surface normal. Textures would certainly be easier, and not add strain to the GPU to process more geometry.
2. I do like this idea. And, like you said, the system's already there.
3 & 4. These are pretty good ideas. You could expand the wind effect so that it would affect any particles that appear during gusts of wind (i.e, when breaking stone, all the bits that come off will fly a bit to the left instead of dropping straight down when there's wind that direction). Also, in conjunction with the flying leaves: In the desert - tumbleweeds! Maybe, I don't know how that would pull off a fade-out as well as a leaf, but maybe.
5 & 6 I like as well. I suppose the length or intensity of the sound could vary based on biome. The grassier the biome, the more crickets. The more trees (like you already said) the more birds.
I ove this idea, though I''m not sure about the leaf idea. I can only imagine fleeing from a horde of zombies as the crickets chirp as they flee with me >:smile.gif:, sounds awesome (pun intended)
I like these ideas. MC could use some more ambient noise, in my opinion.
1. This is the only one I'm not sure about. I always thought this was part of the look of the game. Maybe a better picture of what exactly you mean would be better. Do you mean just modifying the texture, or subsurfing the mesh, or using real-time volumetrics to do such an effect? I'm assuming not the last one, since that's an expensive effect. A method I can think of would be to do maybe two iterations of subsurfing and then having a custom shader modify the alpha value of the cloud based on the surface normal. Textures would certainly be easier, and not add strain to the GPU to process more geometry.
2. I do like this idea. And, like you said, the system's already there.
3 & 4. These are pretty good ideas. You could expand the wind effect so that it would affect any particles that appear during gusts of wind (i.e, when breaking stone, all the bits that come off will fly a bit to the left instead of dropping straight down when there's wind that direction). Also, in conjunction with the flying leaves: In the desert - tumbleweeds! Maybe, I don't know how that would pull off a fade-out as well as a leaf, but maybe.
5 & 6 I like as well. I suppose the length or intensity of the sound could vary based on biome. The grassier the biome, the more crickets. The more trees (like you already said) the more birds.
You do know that the clouds follow a texture in the game's files? That makes them one of the few things in the game not procedurally generated. If I wanted to, I could go in and replace the game's cloud file with an epic face picture, and when I go in game I will look up and see the epic face. All I am suggesting is that people go into that texture file and make the edges of the clouds transparent, while keeping the center white.
You do know that the clouds follow a texture in the game's files? That makes them one of the few things in the game not procedurally generated. If I wanted to, I could go in and replace the game's cloud file with an epic face picture, and when I go in game I will look up and see the epic face. All I am suggesting is that people go into that texture file and make the edges of the clouds transparent, while keeping the center white.
I actually didn't think about them not being procedural, nor did I know they existed as a texture. That sounds a lot easier now! I probably overthought it anyway. It'd probably look better if you put it at a higher resolution just to make fading at the edges smoother.
1. Transparent clouds. This is a simple change to the texture for the clouds. By making them get more transparent at the rims of the clouds, you could improve the look of the game with more lofty, airy looking clouds, rather than flying white chunks.
2. Clouds turn orangeish-pink at sunset/rise. By changing the color of the clouds at sunset and sunrise to an orangeish-pink, the game gives a better transition to the purpleish blue colored clouds of the night. The mechanics to change the color of clouds is already in use, so this would be very easy to add.
3. Sound of the wind. Occassionally, players should hear the sound of wind rushing by their ear. This could only happen at at least sea level, and should happen more often in flat biomes such as tundras, deserts, and savannas (plains). This cannot happen when it is raining or snowing.
4. Occassional leaf blowing by. When the wind goes by the characters ear, there could be a chance of seeing a leaf fly by the player. This leaf would behave like rain, save that it flys by horizontally before fading out into transparency. This only happens in biomes with trees.
5. The sound of crickets. At night in warm biomes with trees there could be the sound of crickets. This is another little effect to make you feel like you are not alone, and that this world you are in is very much alive.
6. Birds chirping in the morning. Similar to how crickets happen at night, at sunrise in warm biomes with trees you would hear birds chirping, but not see them. Another effect to show life in the world.
And that's all I've thought of. Tell me what you think, feedback is always appreciated.
It'd work similarly to how lightning works in storms. When the wind is present, a leaf has the possibility of being generated. Note that I say possiblity, as this does not always happen.
1. This is the only one I'm not sure about. I always thought this was part of the look of the game. Maybe a better picture of what exactly you mean would be better. Do you mean just modifying the texture, or subsurfing the mesh, or using real-time volumetrics to do such an effect? I'm assuming not the last one, since that's an expensive effect. A method I can think of would be to do maybe two iterations of subsurfing and then having a custom shader modify the alpha value of the cloud based on the surface normal. Textures would certainly be easier, and not add strain to the GPU to process more geometry.
2. I do like this idea. And, like you said, the system's already there.
3 & 4. These are pretty good ideas. You could expand the wind effect so that it would affect any particles that appear during gusts of wind (i.e, when breaking stone, all the bits that come off will fly a bit to the left instead of dropping straight down when there's wind that direction). Also, in conjunction with the flying leaves: In the desert - tumbleweeds! Maybe, I don't know how that would pull off a fade-out as well as a leaf, but maybe.
5 & 6 I like as well. I suppose the length or intensity of the sound could vary based on biome. The grassier the biome, the more crickets. The more trees (like you already said) the more birds.
You do know that the clouds follow a texture in the game's files? That makes them one of the few things in the game not procedurally generated. If I wanted to, I could go in and replace the game's cloud file with an epic face picture, and when I go in game I will look up and see the epic face. All I am suggesting is that people go into that texture file and make the edges of the clouds transparent, while keeping the center white.
I actually didn't think about them not being procedural, nor did I know they existed as a texture. That sounds a lot easier now! I probably overthought it anyway. It'd probably look better if you put it at a higher resolution just to make fading at the edges smoother.