Sneak-peek: 3D Map Shading (+ optimizations)
Added 2021-02-03 13:24:29 +0000 UTCHello everyone,
I'm currently working on another map shading update, which became possible thanks to many optimizations that are also coming with it. The new shading will now also include horizontal slopes in the calculations, in addition to vertical ones. This results in a more realistic depth to the image. You can see the comparisons of the new (slightly outdated) and the old shading modes in the screenshots (1st and 3rd - new). It's more noticeable when zoomed in. Although I tried to preserve the same aesthetic, it's only possible to a certain degree (to be improved though!). So I can easily see some users still preferring the old 2D shading over the new one, so the old shading will still be available as an option.
The optimizations that enabled me to do this were actually necessary for the improved world map zoom-out that I'm still working on, but I decided to release this early as a separate update. I might do similar things in the future, so that the changes come more gradually, making debugging easier.
The optimizations themselves should significantly reduce the frequency of map regions being reloaded/regenerated, which sometimes presented itself to the user only by slowing down map loading. No longer will regions reloads be requested for the purpose of recalculating slope shading. Approximate slopes will be used instead, which works way better than I expected. Changing settings that affect how the world map looks and/or resource packs will no longer reload regions that were already generated (since the update) with the same settings and resource packs. In older versions, toggling a setting back and forth would cause a global reload. I'm going to add an option for requesting similar global reloads though.
Feel free to let me know what you think!
Thank you for your support!
