It probably almost sounds like the title of a Young Sheldon episode, but it’s today’s Vanillaccurate news update.
As I might have told you already I introduced some custom water in Vanillaccurate a while ago, which was mostly used for the RTX variants of my packs.
I decided to add it to the Vanillaccurate base pack for some specific shaderpacks that didn’t have a water shader but who supported normal mapping and at the very least smooth reflections (even if it’s just the sky and/or sun/moon), like the Fraction shader from Zombye.
Unfortunately it seemed to cause some issues for some users, or others just didn’t like the vanilla water to be overridden. So I decided to revert that change but still keep it for cauldron water.
For this reason, the next VA release will not have custom water anymore. I had to create new models for cauldrons so they could use a custom texture instead of the default one. The Bedrock (so-called RTX) packs will of course keep the custom water as it is.
(on the right side, current Vanillaccurate Bedrock RTX cauldron water for reference)
(click the images to get a larger preview)
The other block I redesigned is the sweet berry bush, that’s using 4 different growth stages.
This one’s a bit tricky because adding POM on a natural block like this, that’s using cutout/stencil transparency, is not easy when said block is large enough to reach the edges. It causes tiling issues/repeating pattern at an angle if the heightmap is not 100% at the edges, but doing so when there’s material at the edges will look very weird.
Using a smooth slope is not always the right solution. So I had to cut some corners and find an acceptable compromise.
I trimmed some of the most problematic original pixels then generated a bush-like pattern by following the edges of the trimmed alpha mask. I allowed for some of the foliage to spill beyond said mask to give it a more natural look but of course I kept the overall vanilla shape.
HardTop Vanillaccurate 