J3553x

Hello everyone, I’d like to request a mod that dynamically changes how certain terrain blocks are rendered and meshed in Vintage Story. The idea is to introduce a simplified “marching cubes” style system to create PSX-style slopes and hills for sedimentary blocks while keeping everything else cubic. Vintage Story is such a unironically pretty game and I've weirdly been feeling nostalgic while playing. I'm starting to miss my old Playstation, Gamecube, and the OG xBox. BUT, I don't want to change every surface of the block. I only want to adjust the top points leaving the bottom of the cubes to be square. This is VERY important. When I was thinking about how to explain this idea, or if there were any examples I could give, one of my friends pointed out the "No Cubes" mod for Minecraft and when I looked it up I thought, "Ew, f*ck no. Didn't Optifine have an add-on or option or something that implemented a lite isosurface extraction method that only changed the top of blocks?" and apparently I'm from a different timeline, because he had no idea what I was talking about and we literally used it for a year. But when I tried looking it up I've gotten 0 hits, So.. I would like to do it for Vintage Story. The Cube-World look is Iconically Minecraft. Lets get Vintage Story that retro vintage look. Purpose of the Mod Make all of the natural clay, soil, gravel, sand, and path blocks (collectively “sedimentary blocks”) render dynamically with sloped tops in addition to flat cubes. This should NOT include manufactured dirt blocks, or manufactured blocks of any kind. And will likely need to exclude the listed sedimentary blocks blocks if there is a block above it. This would allow hills, banks, dunes, and other soft terrain to look more natural, without changing stone, wood, metal, or crafted blocks. Desired Behavior Only the top four vertices and their middling points are allowed to shift. If sedimentary blocks share diagonal neighbors, their shared vertices dynamically adjust, creating simple slope shapes. Based on combinations of raised/lowered corners and center points, sedimentary blocks should be able to form all of these simple slope shapes: Flat cube (default). Single wedge / slope (one side slopes downward). Standing wedge / ridge (two central vertices raised with the corners lowered). Corner ramp (one corner raised/3 corners lowered). Diagonal ramp (one corner lowered/ 3 corners raised). Pyramid / standing peak (all corners lowered around a raised center, or vice versa). The goal is to cover all possible wedge/angle variations that can be formed with only top-vertex adjustments. Shapes should connect smoothly between sedimentary blocks, forming soft hills, rolling landscapes, and beachfronts that gently breaks into the water. Non-sedimentary blocks (stone, ores, trees, constructed blocks, etc.) always remain perfect cubes and prevent slopes from forming against them. Snow will also need to build up accordingly otherwise, due to the exclusion rule, the whole game will revert back to being Minecraft during the winter season. Which would be crazy. Why? I don't even know. I just don't feel it while I'm playing. I'm tired of Minecraft, Dawg. Lets be real. It's been 15 years. This game is gorgeous and with the texture details of the game, it's incredibly beautiful terrain generation, lighting, and water.. Why Cube? Voxels are cool and there are definitely some interesting uses for them. I specifically love the chisel work I can do. I also really love the blacksmithing in game. But does everything have to be cubes? We can mix it up a little.. Just no circles and cylinders. Sharp shapes and objects only. It would also have the added benefit of optimizing the amount of faces rendered. By one, but thats still one less thing rendered. Especially when you consider how many blocks you render at a any given time. The game also stutters more when you start chiseling tf out of stuff. I'm rambling at this point. I got the idea while wanting to go home and play Vintage Story at a party. So I'm kinda drunk. But please.. Don't let my dreams be memes.