Sand

[Stroam]

Sand you find in nature is pretty much the same the world over. In VS it's different depending on rock type. What do you all think about removing all the sand types from the vanilla game in favor of generic sand and then maybe using the current sand types as colored sand for decoration purposes?

[redram]

Not sure what the goal here is.  Avoid the mongrel deserts where you have something like a shale sand suddenly become a very light sand?  Make different sand colors more readily available via dying, vs having to trek around looking for the exact color you want?

[heptagonrus]

I am also not sure what the benefits would be, e.g. freeing few block ids probably isn't a significant improvement.
Aside from that, for believeability - well I know that there are about 3 sand types irl: yellow (orange-ish) sand, white sand (more pure probably) and black sand near volcanoes.
Idk if it is really true.

Anyway I would be fne with one sand color. The only sand I really enjoyed using in TFC wash the green sand, because I love green blocks.

[Stroam]

Goal is to make terrain generation look more natural, simplify things a bit, and believability.

[redram]

I guess it doesn't offend my believability all that much with the color changes, but I'd be fine with a more unified sand situation, sure.  I do think it'd be nice to still have black sand, maybe as a rare occurrence around basalt islands in the ocean (assuming we have oceans at some point).  Maybe also a sand the same color as sandstone.  Because sandstone.

[tony Liberatto]

Actually, coloured sands are a real phenomenon as you can see here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/seven-coloured-earths

I actually had coloured sand in my native place. For me, different sand colours are natural and expected. There is a beach I use to go when I was a kid that had many dunes of different colours.

 

[Stroam]

looks like an area high in sulfur compounds. I notice nothing is growing on it despite it being a lush area.

yes there are exceptions. Maybe change the sand on worldgen to sandstone sand everywhere instead.

[Milo Christiansen]

As I understand it red sands are common quartz sands contaminated with high levels of iron, black is volcanic (basalt generally), common "yellow" sand is simply quartz sand from a variety of sources (for example granite), and white sands are often coral or shell based.

Non-quartz sands are pretty rare.

 

[tony Liberatto]

Yes, the colour of the sand depends on the minerals present in that area. 

Dark sand will be common in areas with dark minerals and lighter sands the same. Actually blue or purple sand is very rare, but they do exist.

There is a beach 2 hours distant from where I spent my infancy where you can find 12 different colours of sand. they are naturally formed and the place is a World attraction.

The name is Morro Branco, that translates as White Hill. Natural Erosion caved some interesting places there.

If I understand correctly the plan for VS is to add more rock types with their variations in gravel and sand.

I understand that Stroam issue is not actually because he thinks is not natural to have so many different sand and gravel colours, but because he is trying to create a mod that would combine Stone with sand or gravel to create a stone path block. With so many combinations he will have to create one block and file for each with the respective recipes. It's a lot of work and I understand his frustration. 

I just think that the solution is not to diminish the variety. 

there must be some other way to achieve the end result. Some ideas:

Make the blocks to use a stone overlay on top of dirt, not sand or gravel. this would reduce the number of blocks considerably.  Is it possible to code a dynamic block? So the block would be created in-game? It would take the sand or gravel base and apply the stone overlay on top. that's how Bioxx dealt with having ores spawning on so many different stone types.

 

[Stroam]

It has nothing to do with the mod. It's just always bugged me seeing vast deserts having unusual sand color. It's going to bug me more if the same happens with beaches. Also, each sand is based on rocks with different break patterns. Which means some of the sand would be smooth and round like quartz sand and some of it would be jagged like lunar soil which completely changes the properties of the sand. 
I'm posting this topic here as a petition to get the sand changed for the default vanilla worldgen. I could make a mod to change it to how I like but I figured if it bothered me perhaps it bothered others.

[tony Liberatto]

Ahh, I see. It's a question of personal taste. That's OK them.

I understand the feeling, but for my self, I like the variety. I actually can't wait to have all the other rock types included in the game with all the sand and gravel types. TFC even had one type of dirt for each stone type.

I think if it bothers you and maybe some others it would be worth to make a mod to substitute all types of sand and gravel to just one type. But I would not like this change for the game. You would be removing something that is already there. 

[Saraty]

yea, im also not too fond of an idea about reverting back to vanilla sand. Seeing a black desert in TFC was something truly impressive. Besides that, real life beaches can vary in color quite a bit.