Mod Feedback [1.12][1.11.2][1.10.2][1.8.9][1.7.10] Dynamic Surroundings Info/Support

[OreCruncher]

Welcome to Dynamic Surroundings!
This mod is based on the Better Rain mod by Wirsbo. Since he hasn’t been active I developed a mod based on what he has done.

Versions of this mod are available for 1.7.10, 1.8.9, 1.10.2, 1.11.2, 1.12!

You can find a Wiki for Dynamic Surroundings here.

Features

• When it starts to rain in Minecraft, Dynamic Surroundings generates a storm intensity value. This intensity governs things like texture selection, particle effects, sound, sky darkness, and volume while it is raining.
• Storm intensity affects rainfall, snowfall, and dust storms in the desert.
• Deserts have dust storms when it is storming. The intensity determines the type of sand particle texture that is used as well as the thickness of the desert “fog”.
• At night Auroras can spawn if a player is standing in a “polar” biome, such as Taiga or Ice Field. The size, shape, and coloration can change per Aurora spawned. The brightness of an aurora is affected by the moon phase.
• As a player moves to higher elevations it gets a little bit hazy. Haze increases with elevation as well as rain intensity.
• These atmospheric effects only happen if the dimension has a sky. This means it doesn’t apply to The Nether or The End.
• Firejets randomly spawn on top of lava source blocks. These jets spew fire or lava spark particle effects.
• Bubblejets randomly spawn at the bottom of oceans and lakes.
• Biome fog - some biomes are configured to have background fog that obscure vision.
• Biome sounds. Biomes can have specific sounds that play while standing in them. The sound played can be different night or day, rain or shine. Forests have birds chirping, beaches have waves, swamps have crickets...
• Block specific sound effects - ice and packed ice will generate ice cracking sounds; lily pads give off frog croaks; soul sand has demonic laughter; redstone ore hisses.
• Rainfall on Netherrack can produce lava sparks; rainfall on Soul Sand produces no splash.
• Reddish dust in the Nether similar to the fog in Deserts.
• Modpack authors can configure biome behavior by using Json configuration files.
• Modpack authors can configure dimension parameters by using Json configuration files.
• Configuration option to disable the reset of weather when player(s) sleep.
• Configuration option to disable a player's potion effect particles from their field of view.
• Configuration option to adjust the range that special effects will spawn.

Keep in mind that this mod alters the player's visual and audible experience in Minecraft and does not alter the mechanics of biomes. The player has a high degree of control and can customize their precipitation experience to suit their temperament.

Coming Up
Working on making the configuration easier for modpack authors.

Credits

• Better Rain mod by Wirsbo
• Aurora Rubealis by MrRube

Screen Captures
Calm Rain

Heavy Rain

Light Snowfall

Blowing Sand

Aurora w/Calm Snow

Firejets in the Nether

Fireflies and Speech Bubble (1.10.2 only)

Potion HUD

Download
Dynamic Surroundings can be downloaded from CurseForge.

Modpacks
Dynamic Surroundings is licensed MIT. This means that you are free to include in modpacks and there are no requirements about giving credit or linking pack to any page. However, if you feel compelled to give credit I won't mind. Just keep in mind that Wirsbo was the first to develop the idea so I can't rightly claim my thoughts are original.

 

[OreCruncher]

Hey folks! I am looking for a new name for the mod. Since the first release the mod has gained features that moved it pretty far away from the core precipitation modification of Minecraft. Weigh in with your thoughts and ideas at this link.

 

[Amaxter]

I have to say I absolutely LOVE your mod, I develop a mod pack called Simply Minecraft focused on rediscovering the beauty of the natural world and when combined with Better Foliage, custom skies, dynamic lighting, and custom shading it looks stunning. I look up in the sky and see an aurora, the nether is more alive than ever with spurts coming out of lava, and the desert feels like a desert now with sandstorms. Man is this mod an awesome environmental showpiece, love that you've kept developing it and made it so much more!

 

[OreCruncher]

Thank you! The problem with a mod like this is knowing when to stop.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I originally found out about this mod from Iskandar, and I must say, I absolutely LOVE it!

From the day it was created, rain was an annoying mechanic. The noise was too monotonous, too loud, and too annoying. You've completely changed that, and added in some atmosphere to the game.

I've added it to my pack, ShneekeyCraft, on the ATLauncher, and it has gotten very positive response so far. This is one of those mods that is subtle yet significant. Particularly for LPers... I would NEVER want to LP with vanilla rain ever again. One of DW20's most constant complaints was how rain made it hard to record video. Your mod changes that. Congratulations.

Honestly, I don't know if you need to do anything more than what you have done. You don't want to fall victim to feeping creaturitis (too many creeping features).

With the name of 'dynamic surroundings', it sounds like you're wanting to change, or create, ambient sounds. I'm all for this! That cave noise is annoying and obnoxious. I'm sure you can do MUCH better. While you're at it, biome-dependent ambient noises like birds chirping in the forests, frogs croaking in the swamps, cicadas and crickets at night, and find some appropriate cave noises.

 

[OreCruncher]

Thanks!

Honestly, I don't know if you need to do anything more than what you have done. You don't want to fall victim to feeping creaturitis (too many creeping features).

There are other things that I do want to do with the mod, but it is not a large list. Main focus is changing sound and tweaking the visuals without resorting to shaders. No plans to add new blocks or mechanics.

With the name of 'dynamic surroundings', it sounds like you're wanting to change, or create, ambient sounds. I'm all for this! That cave noise is annoying and obnoxious.

It does also add visuals, like fire jets over lava and bubbles at the bottom of water that seem to come to the ground. There are other visual effects planned as well assuming I can figure out a decent mechanic for doing them. And I am planning to tackle the underground.

While you're at it, biome-dependent ambient noises like birds chirping in the forests, frogs croaking in the swamps, cicadas and crickets at night, and find some appropriate cave noises.

Check out the latest BETAs for biome sounds.

Yesterday I was testing my pack that has Wild Caves. I stood in an ice cave in an abandoned mine shaft listening to the ice crack. Also, if you haven't looked at SoundFilters I suggest you do.

 

[OreCruncher]

Dynamic Surroundings 1.7.10-1.0.3.2 and 1.8.9-2.0.3.2 have been released!

New Features

• Biome fog - some biomes are configured to have background fog that obscure vision.
• Biome sounds. Biomes can have specific sounds that play while standing in them. The sound played can be different night or day, rain or shine. Forests have birds chirping, beaches have waves, swamps have crickets...
• Block specific sound effects - ice and packed ice will generate ice cracking sounds; lily pads give off frog croaks; soul sand has demonic laughter; redstone ore hisses.
• Rainfall on Netherrack can produce lava sparks; rainfall on Soul Sand produces no splash.
• Reddish dust in the Nether similar to the fog in Deserts.
• Modpack authors can configure biome behavior by using Json configuration files.
• Modpack authors can configure dimension parameters by using Json configuration files.
• Configuration option to disable the reset of weather when player(s) sleep.
• Configuration option to disable a player's potion effect particles from their field of view.
• Configuration option to adjust the range that special effects will spawn.

 

[Leolele99]

I really like the mod but there is one big problem with it: You need to make the different type of Surroundings merge better. For example I noticed you have like an indoor surrounding which has those wood noises and stuff. But now I had a little pond inside my house and you frog/swamp surrounding was triggered even tho it was one floor above. If you could work on that I would love you.

Also take a look at the mods called "Sound Filters" and "Presence Footsteps". Both havent been updated in months and at least one of them has its source code publicly available. If you could somehow include their features in your mod that would be amazing. I am especially reffering to the reverb in caves from the sound filters.

Thanks for reading and bye ^^

Leo

 

[OreCruncher]

Actually what is happening is that the frog croak you are hearing is tied to the lily pads you have in your pond. It is a block sound effect and isn't associated with any biome. I was thinking about adding additional filtering so that a sound would not play if "inside". BTW, the floor squeeks you hear are also block sounds for wood planks/stairs that get triggered when you walk on them.

I am aware of Sound Filters - I use it myself. I had thoughts of rolling those features into my mod. I am not sure that Sound Filters is abandoned - it may not take much maintenance. If indeed it is abandoned I could see about including those features.

I haven't looked at Presence Footsteps in a long time. I would have to go back and visit what it does. I am currently extending block step sound effects to include sounds for walking on leaf blocks and moving through grass.

 

[Leolele99]

Thanks for your quick reply.
Actually I just checked and foun out I might be wrong about sound filters mod since it was updated like a month ago. Even tho it still seems to have some bugs (idk if they only happen when ur mod is installed aswell). Basicly the underwater muffling still exist but there is another underwater sound in sound filters mod that seems to be getting overwritten by your mod ^^ If you could fix those bugs I would be really happy

Leo, a modpack maker interested in your mod ^^

 

[OreCruncher]

Overwritten? You mean playing at the same time? I know that Dynamic Surroundings has underwater background sounds so they will be playing along with whatever is being done by Sound Filters.

 

[Leolele99]

For me those underwater sounds disappear (same for lava) even tho the sound underwater still get muffeled. Also a lot of your ambient sound seem to have a "higher priority" than the sound filter mod. For example your sounds seem to not be muffeled underwater or reverb in caves. I could be wrong about the second part but I know for sure that I dont hear any underwater sounds form sound filters anymore ^^

 

[Leolele99]

Actually I just found out that it doesnt have to be your mod causing this problem with the underwater sound. Im running it in a modpack/heavily modded enviroment. But I had the sounds once, then I installed your mod and the footsteps one and then it didnt work, but after I removed both mods again rn I still couldnt bring the underwater sounds back. So its probably just in my enviroment, but nethertheless please consider working with the modders of sound filters to make both mods work together perfectly ^^

 

[Leolele99]

Another little tweak for you: If the mod thinks you are in an indoor szenario it removes biome fogs. So for example if you have like a little swamp shack and you go in it the green fog is removed. This destroyes a lot of immersion. Especially when there are nearly no walls (eg in a pavillion village). I would be happy if that could be reworked in a future version

 

[OreCruncher]

Another little tweak for you: If the mod thinks you are in an indoor szenario it removes biome fogs. So for example if you have like a little swamp shack and you go in it the green fog is removed. This destroyes a lot of immersion. Especially when there are nearly no walls (eg in a pavillion village). I would be happy if that could be reworked in a future version

The problem that is trying to be solved is if a player builds a base in biome that has fog or fog like effects - like deserts when there is a sandstorm - they wouldn't want the fog on the inside of the building. So to solve that I created an "inside" biome. The way the mod determines the player is "inside" is looking in the 7x7 area above the players head to see if those blocks can see the sky. In the version you are using if 50% of those blocks can't see the sky, the player is inside. In the version I am currently working on if the area has to be about 60% in an attempt to address the issue of a player being outside a building but under an overhang of 1 block.

The other angle in all this is K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). The more complicated the algorithm the more it costs to "maintain" not to mention the increased amount of processing that is done during that tick to figure things out. There are enough "fat" modpacks out there that need every scrap of CPU to maintain client performance and I am trying to avoid introducing a lot of overhead.

This all being said I haven't given up on trying to improve things. It's a bit of a tricky problem based on the requirements I am setting.

 

[Wraithflay]

The problem that is trying to be solved is if a player builds a base in biome that has fog or fog like effects - like deserts when there is a sandstorm - they wouldn't want the fog on the inside of the building. So to solve that I created an "inside" biome. The way the mod determines the player is "inside" is looking in the 7x7 area above the players head to see if those blocks can see the sky. In the version you are using if 50% of those blocks can't see the sky, the player is inside. In the version I am currently working on if the area has to be about 60% in an attempt to address the issue of a player being outside a building but under an overhang of 1 block.

The other angle in all this is K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). The more complicated the algorithm the more it costs to "maintain" not to mention the increased amount of processing that is done during that tick to figure things out. There are enough "fat" modpacks out there that need every scrap of CPU to maintain client performance and I am trying to avoid introducing a lot of overhead.

This all being said I haven't given up on trying to improve things. It's a bit of a tricky problem based on the requirements I am setting.

I see both sides of this argument, and I am very glad I'm not the one trying to program it, heh. I tend to err towards performance over features, if only because I'm used to having an ancient rig (which was finally updated, but old habits die hard). No matter which path is chosen, I'm still pretty happy with the things I've seen coming out of this mod, however!

 

[Leolele99]

@OreCruncher I have no problems with your decissions. I just try to report everything I see and try to make improvement suggestions whenever I can. I mean Id rather give too much feedback than not enough. I really (and I mean REALLY) love this mod and I cant wait what it will going to be like in the future. And I really really apreciate your very fast and regular updates on your mod ^^

 

[OreCruncher]

No worries on my part. Your feedback is really appreciated.

The reason for my explanation is that a lot of times I see mod authors do the "because I said so" without offering insight as to the why's/wherefores of the decision. Throughout my software career I find that explaining a the decision a bit is better than silence - sometimes a new idea will pop out. And in this case an idea did pop out.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Personally, I think the mod is must-install just for the changes to the rain alone. The ambient fog and sounds are just icing on the cake. It changes ran from 'ermegherd, must cut recording because I cannot be heard' to 'ahh, a relaxing rainstorm...'.

Maybe have different types of droplet noises if you are under a leaf block while raining to reflect occasionally getting larger drops fall on you through the canopy?

 

[Leolele99]

No worries on my part. Your feedback is really appreciated.

The reason for my explanation is that a lot of times I see mod authors do the "because I said so" without offering insight as to the why's/wherefores of the decision. Throughout my software career I find that explaining a the decision a bit is better than silence - sometimes a new idea will pop out. And in this case an idea did pop out.

I really like it. It gives me (a coding noob) insight in what you are doing. makes me understand it a lot better. ^^