Alpha 0.9.1 — water that moves

Water changes used to be a colour change: four seconds, and the water was clean. You started one and looked away.

Now it runs in three phases, the level really drops, and what that exposes is there to see on the tank wall. On top of that, the shimmering of textures at a distance is gone – that grainy crawl that moved along as you did.

Water that moves

• Water changes now run in three phases: draining, filling, settling – 15 seconds instead of 4. The level visibly drops and rises again instead of the colour simply switching over.
• The water surface is no longer the slab from the tank model. It now has a contour against the tank wall – only that lets the level fall at all. The freshly exposed strip on the wall is dark and wet; it does not dry instantly, and the permanent waterline above it stays put.
• The fish come along. Their upper swimming limit follows the level, as do the valve and the net. The level is purely visual and is not saved – a save made mid-change loads normally.
• Real water comes out of the valve now: a jet, detaching droplets, an impact crown, splashes and spray instead of the previous smooth cylinder. Plus a floor drain grate in the tank.
• Ring waves. Whatever enters the water sends out ripples, up to eight at a time.
• While filling, the water clears from a front instead of brightening everywhere at once. While draining, a vortex forms over the outlet, and the surface swells locally above the air stone.

No more shimmering

• Textures shimmered at a distance and with every step. Most visibly on the hall gate, the corrugated walls, and outside on the meadow and mountain ridge. The reason: 21 texture sets had no downscaled intermediate levels. The graphics card had to sample from full resolution and hit a different pixel on the slightest turn of the head. Measured, the shimmering dropped by 45 % on the gate, 40 % on the gable and 71 % out on the yard. And because downscaled levels also take up less room, the fix costs no video memory – it saves some.

Fixed

• The aerator and the water change were shifting the whole game's dice. Both drew random numbers for their visuals several times per second from the same pool as everything else – including the generation of new fish. They now roll separately.
• The water surface jumped whenever the agitation changed – and the longer a session ran, the further it jumped. Wave time is now carried along instead of being derived from the runtime.
• The damp line on the tank sat 5 cm too high.
• The algae line also stained the tank's outer walls. Water never stood there; it now stays on the inside.
• The foam edge on spawning tanks, carrying tubs and harvest tubs did nothing – the mask lay on the wrong axis and measured the mesh's thickness instead of its surface.
• You could jump straight through the office ceiling. It was the only part of the office that had a picture but no body.

As always: if anything looks off, tell us. Crash reports with a log are especially valuable.