James Pham
Bi-Weekly Blog 10/14/17: Instagram page and ...
Bi-Weekly Blog 10/14/17: Instagram page and other things

Bi-Weekly Blog 10/14/17: Instagram page and other things

Guess what? Blog 4 actually went up on schedule! And with the release of the Beta branch for Continuum as well as a brand new Instagram page, we have a lot more things to talk about. For now, lets start off with whats been happening with Nova.

Nova Renderer: Now with lightmaps and water geometry, and different block-states (debug)

Nova Renderer: Now with lightmaps and water geometry, and different block-states (debug)

So as you can tell from above, Nova Renderer is getting somewhere, now with proper transparent glass, water geometry, and being able to show different block-states properly like open and closed doors, cornered stairs, etc. David is also planning on switching back to a Vulkan renderer vs OpenGL 4.6, hoping to bring more benefits to multi-core processors.

That's all for now on Nova, lets move on to Pulchra.

 

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The progress of Pulchra has been pretty odd so to speak. although many textures are complete, Josh wants to re-do or enhance a lot of them, as well as work on all of them at the same time instead of focusing on 1 texture, then moving to the next. The next update is anticipated to launch some time next month.

 

Continuum 2.0 Beta 1

Continuum 2.0 Beta 1

Continuum 2.0 Beta 2

Continuum 2.0 Beta 2

Beta 2 is due for launch tomorrow, with several optimizations to volumetric light and volumetric clouds as a whole. Although not as big as promised, I guarantee that we have something big in store coming soon.

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We have an Instagram account! Now you may be wondering, what would we ever do with an Instagram account? We have decided to host screenshot contests! In which you send us screenshots through any possible means such as Facebook, Discord, Instagram, etc. and we feature a winner every month!

 

The winner chosen will either receive

Tier 1 of Pulchra + some unannounced extra perks (which will also come to Tier 2 and 3)

An upgrade from Tier 1 to Tier 2,

Or an upgrade from Tier 2 to Tier 3,

anyone with Tier 3 will win a $25 gift card to use on whatever they please.

The main rules are:

The screenshot must be using Continuum Shader 1.3 or 2.0,

 You can submit as many entries as you want,

You can only win once,

Any image editing will result in immediate disqualification, meaning that all mods and resource packs are fair game. 

 

That's just about all we have for this week, Check in on Halloween for a special update with Continuum.

-James

Bi-Weekly Blog 9/26/17: Secrets

Hey guys, welcome to blog post 3. Unlike Half-Life 3, this blog post actually managed to be finalized (in valve time). No worries, this was only a hiccup in our schedule due to other unforeseen circumstances. Anyways, Now with all that out of the way, we can discuss the current status of Nova Renderer, Pulchra, and Continuum.

David has been hard at work continuing the development of Nova Renderer, and with so much behind the scenes, you guys haven't actually seen anything yet. However, today marks the day in which Nova Renderer has reached a playable stage!

As you can see, Nova clearly renders blocks now, and chunks load a little bit slower than Minecraft right now, which is impressive considering that most of the development time right now is grabbing assets from the Minecraft client, and actually rendering blocks was done in a relatively small amount of time, so expect greater chunk loading times soon!

 

Now onto Pulchra,

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More on that later...

 

Finally, onto Continuum

The performance of Continuum as of now has been significantly impacted by about 40-50 fps,

This is the FPS of latest build of Continuum at default settings

This is the FPS of latest build of Continuum at default settings

This is the FPS at which volumetric clouds are disabled

This is the FPS at which volumetric clouds are disabled

This is the FPS at which the Volumetric Renderer found in blog post 1 is disabled

This is the FPS at which the Volumetric Renderer found in blog post 1 is disabled

Performance is not doing so well right now, The shader is rendering air, moisture in the air, earth shadow, and the biggest culprit here is the Volumetric light being rendered from clouds, as well as the cloud shadows being cast. This will all be fixed in due time but for now, it is best that you disable Volumetric Renderer as well as Global Illumination.

 

That's all for now, you may have noticed that this blog seemed a lot more anti climactic then anticipated... The plan was to talk about 3 more topics that happen to be a lot more secretive than I thought, so maybe in the next blog, I could possibly cover some of these vague details. But for now, This is the end of blog post 3, tune on October 13th to find out some details about whats next for this company ;)

 

-James

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Bi-Weekly Blog 8/18/17: Status updates on Continuum, and the new blog standard.

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Hey guys, Welcome to Blog Post 2. This weeks post is going to be shorter than last time and future blog posts will likely stay this particular length because the first blog was actually meant to be split into two parts

The new standard of blogs will go over updates on Continuum products, with other topics such as company stuff being separate blogs, meaning you could possibly get 2 blogs in 2 weeks!

With that out of the way, lets discuss the status of Continuum's updates...

As you can see, there has been a significant drop in Continuum alpha build updates. With Continuum Graphics finally being registered as a company, there is still lots of legal work to be finished before we can get back on track with the frequency of updates. Rest assured, this legal work will likely be completed sometime next week so be on the look out for a flood of updates.

As you can see, there has been a significant drop in Continuum alpha build updates. With Continuum Graphics finally being registered as a company, there is still lots of legal work to be finished before we can get back on track with the frequency of updates. Rest assured, this legal work will likely be completed sometime next week so be on the look out for a flood of updates.

You can see that there is mention of optimization in these past few weeks, therefore, I would like to show you some of the progress the team has made over the past 2 weeks with the build at launch versus the most recent one.

This was the build available for download at launch.

This was the build available for download at launch.

This is the new build found today, much better...

This is the new build found today, much better...

Note that the FPS on the most recent build with Pulchra at 512x resolution gives about the same FPS as the first build

Note that the FPS on the most recent build with Pulchra at 512x resolution gives about the same FPS as the first build

Some more screenshots if you needed those.

Well that's all we have for this week, check in on the next 2 weeks to discuss the current status Nova Renderer.

-James

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Bi-Weekly Blog 8/4/17: Continuum 2.0 Features and more!

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We have a Discord server! Continuum has launched an official discord server for better interaction with the community as well as better support, Click here to join!

We have a Discord server!

Continuum has launched an official discord server for better interaction with the community as well as better support, Click here to join!

The Pulchra Revisited PBR Extension is now available for Continuum! The PBR Module is now available for download! All blocks now have proper specular mapping meaning that Pulchra fully supports the new versions of Continuum 2.0. The PBR Module is available for all resolutions for free, download it now in the Google Drive folder.

The Pulchra Revisited PBR Extension is now available for Continuum!

The PBR Module is now available for download! All blocks now have proper specular mapping meaning that Pulchra fully supports the new versions of Continuum 2.0. The PBR Module is available for all resolutions for free, download it now in the Google Drive folder.

The new direction of Continuum 2.0 After many months of development, Alpha builds of Continuum 2.0 have finally been released. In these months, we have cleaned up and replaced nearly all prior code from Continuum version 1.3. The new direction of Continuum is very unique in contrast to our previous works. We will be moving to a fully PBR back-end while preserving the artistic style found in previous versions. Current features found in alpha builds, as well as planned features, will be using highly advanced techniques found in many AAA games. With research from Frostbite, Unreal, Nvidia, Disney, and Pixar Animations, we have come up with what will be the most sophisticated graphics processing ever to be introduced to Minecraft. For starters, Continuum 2.0 has moved to a photometric pipeline,which means that all inputs are supplied with real world values such as color temperature measured in kelvin. This will introduce proper integration of all light sources and correction of light ratios that are based off of real world values, which in turn, allows for a more natural and realistic feel in Minecraft. With this new photometric pipeline, we can accurately simulate how certain things should look if they were to be seen through a real world camera or a human eye. Current implementations will contain an Auto and Manual camera mode, as well as an Eye Adaptation mode to be found in later builds. In Manual Camera, mode the shader will behave like a real world,  full manual camera with camera controls such as Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO, Allowing you to capture the perfect screenshot. Not to mention the modifiable 3D lut and tone map, that allows for complex, customizable color grading that will give you full control over the look and feel. You can even choose to share presets with others using our convenient and simple library system.

The new direction of Continuum 2.0

After many months of development, Alpha builds of Continuum 2.0 have finally been released. In these months, we have cleaned up and replaced nearly all prior code from Continuum version 1.3. The new direction of Continuum is very unique in contrast to our previous works. We will be moving to a fully PBR back-end while preserving the artistic style found in previous versions. Current features found in alpha builds, as well as planned features, will be using highly advanced techniques found in many AAA games. With research from Frostbite, Unreal, Nvidia, Disney, and Pixar Animations, we have come up with what will be the most sophisticated graphics processing ever to be introduced to Minecraft.

For starters, Continuum 2.0 has moved to a photometric pipeline,which means that all inputs are supplied with real world values such as color temperature measured in kelvin. This will introduce proper integration of all light sources and correction of light ratios that are based off of real world values, which in turn, allows for a more natural and realistic feel in Minecraft. With this new photometric pipeline, we can accurately simulate how certain things should look if they were to be seen through a real world camera or a human eye. Current implementations will contain an Auto and Manual camera mode, as well as an Eye Adaptation mode to be found in later builds. In Manual Camera, mode the shader will behave like a real world,  full manual camera with camera controls such as Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO, Allowing you to capture the perfect screenshot. Not to mention the modifiable 3D lut and tone map, that allows for complex, customizable color grading that will give you full control over the look and feel. You can even choose to share presets with others using our convenient and simple library system.

This feature ties quite nicely into the next section which going over our PBR Camera Post Processing. With inputs to the camera, we can accurately recreate common lens effects like Depth of Field (DOF). The DOF in Continuum will be customizable on a per blade basis, allowing for a custom aperture shape which in turn allows for complex bokeh images. Other effects such as bloom, motion blur, and film grain are also all done on a physical basis to allow for a proper filmic feel. However, in the Eye Adaptation mode, we are currently researching methods to have the player camera adapt in the same way the eye does based the human eye’s response to different wavelengths and powers. Talking about the PBR back-end, The revamped lighting system starts with the primary light source in the game, the sun. The sun is provided with a configurable Lux and temperature (Changing these will break accuracy from earth however if you are simulating a place that is not earth it is totally acceptable :p). The sunlight is then absorbed and scattered by the atmosphere, creating an accurate PBR sky. Both the sun and the moon are then used to light the PBR clouds which is the last step in our sky lighting systems. These clouds will be highly configurable in both density type and size, allowing you to create nearly any weather condition you can dream of.

This feature ties quite nicely into the next section which going over our PBR Camera Post Processing. With inputs to the camera, we can accurately recreate common lens effects like Depth of Field (DOF). The DOF in Continuum will be customizable on a per blade basis, allowing for a custom aperture shape which in turn allows for complex bokeh images. Other effects such as bloom, motion blur, and film grain are also all done on a physical basis to allow for a proper filmic feel. However, in the Eye Adaptation mode, we are currently researching methods to have the player camera adapt in the same way the eye does based the human eye’s response to different wavelengths and powers.

Talking about the PBR back-end, The revamped lighting system starts with the primary light source in the game, the sun. The sun is provided with a configurable Lux and temperature (Changing these will break accuracy from earth however if you are simulating a place that is not earth it is totally acceptable :p). The sunlight is then absorbed and scattered by the atmosphere, creating an accurate PBR sky. Both the sun and the moon are then used to light the PBR clouds which is the last step in our sky lighting systems. These clouds will be highly configurable in both density type and size, allowing you to create nearly any weather condition you can dream of.

Our Volumetric weather system will simulate wind fronts based on the Beaufort scale. This scale is the scientific standard of driving different wind conditions, where 0 equals virtually no wind while 11 is the equivalent of a hurricane. This volumetric weather system will drive things like water surface simulation, clouds, and waving vegetation. The surface has a ton of PBR lighting techniques such as proper directional diffuse sampling of all light sources including the sun, sky, clouds, and torches/glowstone. All ambient light is gathered by a new method of ambient occlusion a member of our team came up with (Based on the Burley BRDF and Alchemy Ambient Obscurance methods). This ensures proper and natural lighting that can be found in your Minecraft world  

Our Volumetric weather system will simulate wind fronts based on the Beaufort scale. This scale is the scientific standard of driving different wind conditions, where 0 equals virtually no wind while 11 is the equivalent of a hurricane. This volumetric weather system will drive things like water surface simulation, clouds, and waving vegetation.

The surface has a ton of PBR lighting techniques such as proper directional diffuse sampling of all light sources including the sun, sky, clouds, and torches/glowstone. All ambient light is gathered by a new method of ambient occlusion a member of our team came up with (Based on the Burley BRDF and Alchemy Ambient Obscurance methods). This ensures proper and natural lighting that can be found in your Minecraft world

 

The shadow method that Continuum will be using is Variance Shadow Maps (VSM). This method is outstanding for its great reduction of aliasing and peter panning. On top of that, we will also be adapting a new Dual PCSS method we have come up with, featuring fully proper stained glass shadows with proper penumbras. As a bonus, we will also be doing small scale ray traced shadows for those small needed details. Continuum will also use a new kind of specular reflection method that we believe is the most superior. This method is not only a fully PBR SSR ray tracer, it also allows for us to create a shadow space ray tracer as well, allowing for offscreen reflections. All reflections will be fitted with a dual layer GGX BRDF using a height correlated Smith approximation. The dual layers will allow for proper withering on surfaces whenever raining or near water. All air in continuum will be rendered using volumetrics, having proper volumetric atmospheric scattering, fog, and larger rain particles. All scattering done underwater will be volumetric as well, responding to the waters waves creating gorgeous underwater caustics and light shafts. Clouds will also influence shadows and volumetric scattering allowing for the morning rays to pierce through the clouds.

The shadow method that Continuum will be using is Variance Shadow Maps (VSM). This method is outstanding for its great reduction of aliasing and peter panning. On top of that, we will also be adapting a new Dual PCSS method we have come up with, featuring fully proper stained glass shadows with proper penumbras. As a bonus, we will also be doing small scale ray traced shadows for those small needed details.

Continuum will also use a new kind of specular reflection method that we believe is the most superior. This method is not only a fully PBR SSR ray tracer, it also allows for us to create a shadow space ray tracer as well, allowing for offscreen reflections. All reflections will be fitted with a dual layer GGX BRDF using a height correlated Smith approximation. The dual layers will allow for proper withering on surfaces whenever raining or near water.

All air in continuum will be rendered using volumetrics, having proper volumetric atmospheric scattering, fog, and larger rain particles. All scattering done underwater will be volumetric as well, responding to the waters waves creating gorgeous underwater caustics and light shafts. Clouds will also influence shadows and volumetric scattering allowing for the morning rays to pierce through the clouds.

These are the main features that will be added through Alpha and Beta and will be fully prepared for Continuum 2.0s full release in early Q1 of 2018.

CONTINUUM 2.0'S FEATURE LIST:

  • Full Artist Customizability
  • Customizable Color Grading using known softwares.
  • Fully PBR and customizable Camera Systems.
  • Photometric Lighting Systems.
  • PBR Eye Adaptation.
  • PBR Post Process Effects.
  • PBR diffuse lighting.
  • PBR specular lighting.
  • PBR Global Illumination.
  • PBR Sky, Clouds, and Atmospherics.
  • PBR Weather Systems.
  • PBR Volumetrics.
  • PBR Dual Layer rough Refraction.
  • Real Parallax Occlusion Mapping.
  • Dual PCSS.
  • Colored light/volumetrics.
  • Dual Layer Reflectance for simulating weathering on objects.
  • Full PBR texture support from resource pack makers.
  • Cinematic and Photography Tools.

 

That's all the time we have for today, Check in two weeks from now to find out what we're up to.

-James

Pulchra Revisited Update v6.4.17

v6.4.17 Update Log

  • Added cactus bottom, side and top
  • Added command block textures (POM is going to be fixed)
  • Added clay
  • Added daylight detector
  • Added dead bush textures with three variants
  • Added end brick
  • Replaced end stone
  • Added fern
  • Replaced hardened clay
  • Added hay block side and top
  • Added packed ice
  • Added jukebox (WIP)
  • Added acacia, big/dark oak, birch, jungle, oak and spruce log tops
  • Added mob spawner
  • Replaced brick
  • Added nether brick (WIP)
  • Replaced netherrack
  • Added noteblock
  • Replaced all planks
  • Replaced all red sandstone and added carved red sandstone variants
  • Replaced all sandstone and added carved sandstone variants
  • Added slime
  • Added soul sand (WIP)
  • Created new module that adds Better Foliage mod support.
  • Added cat tales to Better Foliage module
  • Replaced font
  • Tweaked POM levels
  • Added "No Glass Texture" module which removes the glass textures

Pulchra Revisited Update v5.16.17

v5.16.17 Update Log

  • Removed "Glass Fix" module
  • Added built in "Glass Fix" to "Blocks" module
  • Added more biome specific textures for sand
  • Added a biome specific texture for coarse dirt
  • Replaced cobblestone texture
  • Added mossy cobblestone texture
  • Replaced farmland textures (wet/dry)
  • Replaced glowstone texture
  • Replaced gravel texture
  • Replaced iron block texture
  • Replaced acacia log texture
  • Replaced big/dark oak texture
  • Replaced and added all stonebrick textures except for carved
  • Added red sandstone placeholder textures
  • Added sandstone placeholder texture
  • Added ice
  • Added lapis storage block
  • Added netherrack
  • Added magma
  • Added sand to "Blocks" module since it was missing
  • Tweaked POM levels
  • Added snow and biome specific texture
  • Added bedrock
  • Fixed biome specific textures replacing incorrect blocks
  • Fixed "Font" module

Pulchra Revisited Update v5.12.17

v5.12.17 Update Log:

  • Updated module icons (Optifine module icons are a WIP)

  • Improved performance on the resourcepack selection screen

  • Updated pack.mcmeta files to give more information for certain modules

  • Removed version number from pack.mcmeta files

  • Fixed download issues (all modules will be in zip format)

  • POM adjustments

  • Added all plank textures

  • Renamed MCPatcher module to be Optifine

New Website, What Are We Up To?

We have a new website, welcome to it.

If any of the download links don't work, or you notice anything else unusual about the website, smash the "Contact" button in the upper right.

We started work on a Continuum Cleanup recently. It's in its early stages, but already showing a reasonable performance boost over Continuum 1.3 (144 FPS up from 132 FPS). Continuum 1.3 is a monster, past coding practices of its beginner developers have accumulated into over 13,000 lines of incoherent and unoptimized code. I am confident we can reach at least a 50% performance boost in the end, and hopefully we can fix most of the bugs once the code is structured.

Ebin is on hiatus currently, I just haven't felt like working on it. Joey has been investigating GLSL extensions and thinks it might be possible to backport Ebin to GLSL version 120. Basically, Intel compatibility might be on the way in Ebin.

 

- BruceKnowsHow

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