Greetings friends, gratitude for your continued interest and support of Astral Terra. We have been working on a couple BIG updates over the last few weeks which is why we did not push out an update at the end of last week (usually we try to do one every 2 weeks).
The first big update is almost done and is a big improvement on our already awesome voxel terrain. Optimizations, a new transvoxel method combined with a new terrain LOD system allows us to make much larger terrains. It also allowed us to reduce the size of the voxels in a chunk, therefore giving players finer refinement with the Terraformer and smaller blocks with the build tools. The original scale for the voxel terrain was 1 real world unit = 1.5 voxel units. Characters stand 2 units tall (non dwarves anyway heh) - therefore 2 blocks stacked would = 3 real world units tall. Now 2 blocks stacked = 2 real world units tall (same height as a player). We're working on Doors and a few other items right now, as well as some bugs, to make sure everything fits correctly again. :) With a much further draw rate and higher density for tree cover, the overall look for the environment has improved as well. Lastly, we also have built out a new Nordic type of biome that's snowy and mountainous. The biome contrasts very nicely against every other biome and can be found between the Forest and the Canyon biomes. This rounds out our biomes to 4 now - Nordic (snow), Canyon, Forest and Tropical. Here are some screenshots showing off the new features, we hope to have the big update out to you guys by the end of next week (Feb. 5th)!
New thick tree cover in the Forest Biome.
Much larger draw distance on the Epic Canyons biome.
New Nordic/Snow Biome
New Nordic/Snow Biome
New Nordic/Snow Biome
Overhead showing large terrain. Player is in the center.