Patch Notes: Grass that belongs
The grass
- Grass is no longer dark. Up close, tufts of grass used to look almost black against the ground they grew from, and darker still at dusk, in rain and in storms. Grass is now painted in the ground's own colours: the base of each tuft matches the ground under it, and the blades get lighter towards their sunlit tips.
- Grass blends into the land. Grass takes its colour from whatever ground it grows on, so it matches in every climate and season: the lush green of the woodlands, the grey-green of the mountains, the deep green of the swamps.
- No more yellow band. The grass a little way off used to show as a yellowish stripe across the field. Now the far grass fades into the ground's own colour.
- Grass is lit like the ground. At dawn, at dusk, under clouds and by moonlight, the grass now takes exactly the same light as the ground under it, with Enhanced lighting on or off.
- Shade falls on the grass. Grass in the shade of a tree, a wall or a passing cloud is now shaded like the ground around it, instead of staying in full sun.
- Rain doesn't darken the grass twice. Grass used to be darkened for bad weather on top of the dimmer light the weather already brings. Now it's darkened once, like everything else.
- Lanterns and torches light the grass. At night, grass near a lantern, a campfire or the torch in your hand now glows along with the ground under it, instead of staying dark beside the lit ground.
- Grass on hillsides. Grass on a slope facing away from the sun is now shaded like the slope, instead of staying as bright as grass on level ground.
- Texture mods. With a texture mod that replaces the ground, grass now takes its colours from the mod's ground.
- Classic lighting. With Enhanced lighting off, grass is no longer brighter and greener than it is with Enhanced lighting on.
The grass is under Sight in Features: Grass sets how much grass grows and its style (Pixel or Smooth). Both styles get the new colours and light.
Patch Notes: Real forests
The wilderness
- Trees grow together in forests. Trees used to be spread evenly over the whole map, one every few steps, all lined up in rows. Now they gather into woods, from small copses to forests a few kilometres across, with open grassland between them dotted with bushes, flowers, rocks and the odd lone tree.
- Forests run on from one area to the next. A forest doesn't stop where the land around you finishes loading.
- No more rows. Every tree and bush stands at its own spot, so a wood looks like a wood.
- Dungeons hide in the woods. Dungeons, ruins, shrines, graveyards, covens and World of Daggerfall's camps, forts and ruins are usually surrounded by forest, with a clearing round them big enough for their tents and walls. Towns, farms and taverns stand in cleared fields. World of Daggerfall's rock fields and mountains are scenery: the woods grow round them as anywhere else, but never through the rocks.
- Paths stay clear. No tree or bush grows on a road or a track.
- The Oblivion Gate keeps its clearing. No tree stands through the gate, its plinth or the Sigil Broker.
- Deserts are unchanged. The Desert and Subtropical lands keep Daggerfall's own scattered plants.
- Loggers chop in the woods. The day's trees to fell stand in the forests whenever there's a forest nearby. The lone trees of open land are only used where there's no wood at all.
Real forests is under The world in Features. It's on by default and takes effect when the world next loads. Turn it off to spread the trees evenly, as Daggerfall does.
Forests hold more trees than Daggerfall's even scatter, about two and a half times as many on average. If the outdoors runs slowly on your machine, turning Real forests off is one more way to lighten it.
Online note
- Online, Real forests is on for everyone, so everyone in a room walks the same woods and chops the same trees.
- If you have the game open from before this update, refresh the page so your woods match everyone else's.
What's Changed
Full Changelog: app-v0.1.5465...app-v0.1.5476