Vanilla Enhanced

🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v0.8 - Release Notes

Day-Night lights fixed.

PBR strength decreased.

Added volumetric clouds.

Big bugs are fixed.

🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v0.72 - Release Notes

Sun/Moon light direction fixed.

PBR strength changed.

Sun light's PBR improved.

Small bugs are fixed.

🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v0.6 - Release Notes

🔄 General Overview:

• Builds upon the vanilla-inspired style with advanced Physically Based Rendering (PBR).
• Focuses on realistic light interaction, improved water reflections, and immersive visual depth.
• Maintains lightweight performance with broad GPU compatibility (#version 120 GLSL).

✨ NEW FEATURES & IMPROVEMENTS

🧪 Physically Based Rendering (PBR) Enhancements:

• Full dynamic PBR support integrating normal, specular, and roughness maps.
• Multiple light sources handled: sun, torch, lava/glow blocks with realistic specular highlights.
• Environmental reflections added for metallic surfaces with Fresnel effect.
• Normal mapping approximation added for richer surface detail.

🌬️ Dynamic Wind Effect (Experimental):

• Subtle color shifting for foliage and grass based on world position and wind simulation.
• Currently implemented but disabled by default (commented out).

🌊 Water Reflection & Wetness:

• Enhanced water reflection responding to rain and wetness.
• Fresnel-based wet reflection highlights add realism during rainfall.

🎨 Depth-Based Color Grading:

• Distance-dependent desaturation and tinting for atmospheric depth.
• Warmer tones applied underground; cooler tones near surface.

💎 Improved Ore Glow:

• Smoothed glow intensity with pulsating shimmer for ore blocks in low light.
• Expanded ore types and refined glow colors.

🚫 Removed / Changed:

• Ambient environment tint no longer changes dynamically based on in-game time to maintain consistent tones.

🎯 Minor Tweaks & Optimizations:

• Balanced tone-mapping and saturation for better PBR integration.
• Refined advanced lighting calculations and lightmap enhancement.
• Improved underwater color attenuation and fog blending.
• General shader code cleanup and optimization for better performance.

📊 Performance & Compatibility:

• Continues support for older GPUs with GLSL #version 120.
• PBR and lighting calculations optimized to minimize frame rate impact.

🔮 Roadmap for v0.7:

• Enable and refine dynamic wind effects.
• Add volumetric godrays (sunlight beams).
• Implement lightweight screen-space reflections.
• Add configurable user options for brightness, saturation, and wetness effects.

🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v0.5 - Release Notes

🔄 General Overview:

• Continues to stay true to the vanilla aesthetic, now with physically based rendering (PBR) support.
• Prioritizes clarity and light realism while keeping the shader light and fast.

✨ NEW FEATURES

🧪 Physically Based Rendering (PBR):

• 🧱 Basic PBR integration for terrain and blocks:
  • Normal, specular, and roughness maps supported.
  • Surfaces now respond dynamically to light angle and intensity.
• 💡 Real-time specular highlights and improved surface depth perception.
• 🕹️ PBR maps pulled from texture channels (normals, specular, etc.).

❌ Removed Features:

• 🌅 Dynamic ambient color by game time has been removed:
  • Lighting no longer shifts based on Minecraft's in-game time.
  • Ensures more stable and consistent environmental tones.

🎯 Tweaks & Improvements:

• 🌈 Balanced tone-mapping to better match new PBR lighting.
• ✏️ Minor code cleanups and optimization across shader passes.

📊 Performance & Compatibility:

• Still based on #version 120 GLSL for wide GPU support.
• PBR calculations are optimized to minimize performance loss.

🔮 Planned for v0.6:

• Volumetric godrays
• Lightweight screen-space reflections
• Configurable shader options (brightness, saturation, etc.)
• Smooth water caustics and reflection tweaks

🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v0.4 - Release Notes

🔄 General Overview:

• Faithful to vanilla style, but with significantly enhanced lighting, saturation, and vibrancy.
• Balanced for performance and quality, keeping a lightweight shader core.

🔆 UPDATES & FEATURES

🎨 Color & Lighting Enhancements:

• 📈 Improved saturation and contrast:
  • Colors are now vivid and lively instead of washed out.
  • Powered by saturation(..., 1.2) and contrast(..., 1.15) functions.
• ☀️ Dynamic day-night tinting:
  • Gradual and natural sky tint transitions throughout the time cycle.
  • Handled by getDayNightColor() function.

🌊 Underwater Visuals:

• 💧 New underwater tint and depth shading:
  • Replaces vanilla's flat water with deeper, immersive blue tones.
  • Realistic light attenuation using depthFade blending.
• 🌫️ Fog inside water for enhanced depth perception:
  • Color blending simulates realistic underwater vision limits.

🌦️ Weather & Fog Effects:

• 🌧️ Rain fog tint now gives a moody gray-blue filter to the world.
  • Applied via fogColor = mix(...) depending on rainStrength.
• 💦 Wetness effect post-rain: adds mild brightness and saturation for realism.

🕳️ Cave Environments:

• 🌌 Darkening and tinting in low skylight caves:
  • Faint purple shadows and flickering light in deep darkness.
  • frameTimeCounter adds a pulsing flicker effect.

📊 Performance & Compatibility:

• Built using #version 120 GLSL, works even on older GPUs.
• Focused on visual fidelity with minimal post-processing.

🚧 Roadmap for v0.5:

• Godrays (sunlight beams)\
• Simple SSR reflections\
• Layered distance fog\
• Smoother skybox transitions