Summary:
In which passage through space leaves a trail; planets and moons depict both "atmospheres" and their crystal spheres; the look-and-feel of the Ossuary Moon is reworked; a "splatting" shader is made; and a race is progressed.
Greetings and salutations!
This week's screenshot shows an addition to the appearances of planets and moons: an "atmosphere" beyond their radii, and beyond that, a suggestion of their solar system's crystal sphere.
The week just past had perhaps two main thrusts--one visual, one gameplay:
Let us start, then, with the visual thrust of the week just past, which itself had multiple elements.
First, and as shown in the screenshot above, planets and moons now depict an "atmosphere" at their edges, shading then into the colour of the relevant crystal sphere.
Next, a minor change has been made to the player's passage through "space": as was already the case on the moons, the player now leaves in their wake a trail, tenuous in the thin medium between the moons.
Perhaps most salient of the visual changes in the week just past, however, was one that I believe that I last week mentioned as having begun: a reworking of the look-and-feel of the Ossuary Moon.
For the most part, this involved a lot of painting, either re-shading extant textures or--in one case--re-doing them near from scratch.
But, at last--so many bones!--I believe that I have it done! And indeed, I find that I'm rather happier with this look!
What do you think?
On the shader-side, in the week just past I put together a "splatting" shader--one that takes a multi-layer image and uses a noise-texture to blend between its layers. This, in combination with some warping of texture-coordinates, allows me to reduce apparent repetition in certain surfaces.
Here below you should see it as applied to stone:
Right now, that shader is used in the "Vertical Slice Moon". Specifically, it's currently used in the "Hall of Flow"--and that location was the setting for the main chunk of the gameplay work done in the week just past.
Specifically, that work went into the "race" minigame that is shown in the "Hall of Flow": the track was altered, both in shape and in challenges, and the logic behind the race was developed.
As things stand, between logic implemented previously and in the week just past, the player can now: Begin the race, with a count-down to its start; "cheat", prematurely ending the race; do three laps--with blue flames counting those; and complete the race, earning access to a reward.
There's more to do, I daresay, but I think that it's coming along! ^_^
And once again, a number of things were done that don't seem worth detailing here!
That, then, is all for this week--stay well, and thank you for reading! ^_^
