Vanilla Enhanced 1.08 - Version Log

Underwater Effects Update

New Features

• Advanced Underwater Caustics System

  • Dual-layer caustics patterns with realistic light refraction
  • Wave-based modulation for dynamic underwater lighting
  • Depth-based fallback that fades with distance
  • Day/night adaptive caustics (only visible during daytime with sufficient skylight)

• Improved Underwater Atmosphere

  • Realistic blue water tinting with day/night variations
  • Exponential depth fog for better visibility gradient
  • Underwater particle simulation using procedural noise
  • God rays effect (light shafts) when looking upward underwater

• Enhanced Water Visuals

  • More natural water color tones (blue-cyan spectrum)
  • Dynamic tinting based on world time
  • Better color blending between shallow and deep water
  • Improved caustics visibility and brightness

Improvements

• Optimized caustics calculation for better performance
• Refined underwater fog distance curve for smoother transitions
• Better integration of caustics with existing lighting system
• Enhanced depth-based color grading underwater

Configuration

• Added CAUSTICS_STRENGTH slider (0.0 - 2.0)
• Added WATER_CLARITY slider (0.5 - 2.0)
• Added WAVE_HEIGHT slider (0.0 - 2.0)
• Added UNDERWATER_TINT slider (0.5 - 2.0)

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Version 1.01 - Wind Animation Safety Update

Bug Fixes

• Critical: Fixed water blocks incorrectly applying wind animation
• Critical: Fixed ice blocks being affected by foliage animation
• Critical: Fixed chest blocks having unwanted vertex displacement

Improvements

• Added explicit block ID blacklist system (shouldNotWave function)
• Implemented safer block ID validation (range checking)
• Added additional safety checks for invalid block IDs
• Improved wind animation filtering to prevent edge cases

Technical Changes

• Separated block exclusion logic from inclusion logic
• Added water, flowing water, ice, chests, and glass to blocked blocks list
• Enhanced vertex shader safety with multi-level ID validation
• Better handling of edge cases in block ID detection

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Version 1.0 - Initial Release

Core Features

Dynamic Sky System

• Smooth day/night cycle transitions with custom color gradients
• Time-based sky color phases (morning, day, evening, night)
• Volumetric cloud rendering with fbm noise
• Dynamic cloud colors that change throughout the day
• Rain weather integration with desaturation effects

Advanced Lighting & PBR

• Physical-based rendering for metallic and reflective surfaces
• Dynamic specular highlights from sun and moon
• Torch light with warm color temperature and rim lighting
• Multi-light source support (sky, block, torch)
• Normal map integration for enhanced surface detail
• Adaptive specular power based on time of day

Foliage Animation

• Wind-based animation for grass, leaves, flowers, and crops
• Block-specific animation patterns (leaves sway differently than grass)
• Multi-frequency wind waves for natural movement
• Vertex height-based displacement (tops move more than bases)
• Vertical bobbing for added realism
• Support for multiple foliage types:
  • Tall grass and wheat
  • Tree leaves (both types)
  • Flowers (roses, dandelions)
  • Vines with hanging movement
  • Lily pads with floating motion
  • Saplings and dead bushes
  • Sugar cane

Color Grading & Atmosphere

• Day/night ambient color tinting
• Depth-based atmospheric perspective
• Distance fog with warm tint in low light
• Enhanced lightmap processing with gamma correction
• Torch light color bleeding
• Rain desaturation effect
• Dynamic contrast and saturation adjustments

Performance

• Optimized noise functions for caustics and clouds
• Efficient fbm implementation for procedural details
• Conditional shader paths based on light levels
• Smart PBR strength blending

Configuration Options

• PBR reflection intensity control
• Wind animation strength adjustment
• Rain saturation control
• Day/night color intensity
• Torch warmth temperature
• Cloud density control
• Multiple performance toggles

Technical Specifications

• GLSL Version 120 compatibility
• Support for Optifine shader system
• Custom uniforms for world state
• Attribute support for block entities
• Normal and specular map integration

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Future Planned Features

• Water wave animation and displacement
• Screen-space reflections for water
• Improved rain particles and splash effects
• Additional weather effects (fog, mist)
• Biome-specific color tinting
• Enhanced night sky with stars
• Aurora borealis in specific biomes

🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v1.00 - Full Release Changelog

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• Small things are changed,
• Contrast changed.
• Weather changed.

🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v0.97 - Changelog

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🔆 Sun / Moon Direction Fix:

• Now properly uses sunPosition and moonPosition uniforms when available.
• If unavailable, a reliable fallback calculation is applied.
• Sun movement now follows the correct east-to-west trajectory using cos / sin.

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🔥 Torch PBR Fix:

• Torch light is now fully omnidirectional (radiates in all directions).
• Added rim lighting for torches, enhancing glow realism.
• Softer specular highlights (power reduced from 64 → 16).
• Introduced a minimum ambient value (0.2) for consistent visibility.

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👁️ View Direction Correction:

• viewDir now correctly computed as: normalize(cameraPosition - worldPos)
• All calculations are now consistent in world space.

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💎 Reflection Calculation Fix:

• Proper reflection vector using: reflect(-lightDirection, normal)
• Accurate specular highlights based on: dot(viewDir, reflectionDir)
• Ensures reflections respond correctly to camera angle.

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✅ Overall Impact:

• Sunlight and moonlight now illuminate from the correct directions.
• Torches provide consistent, realistic lighting from all angles.
• Specular reflections behave properly based on camera perspective.
• No more north-locked lighting artifacts — lighting directions now feel natural.

🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v0.8 - Release Notes

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Day-Night lights fixed.

PBR strength decreased.

Added volumetric clouds.

Big bugs are fixed.

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🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v0.72 - Release Notes

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Sun/Moon light direction fixed.

PBR strength changed.

Sun light's PBR improved.

Small bugs are fixed.

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🌿 Vanilla Enhanced Shader v0.6 - Release Notes

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🔄 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).

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✨ 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.

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🎯 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.

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📊 Performance & Compatibility:

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

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🔮 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

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🔄 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.

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✨ 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.).

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❌ 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.

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🎯 Tweaks & Improvements:

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

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📊 Performance & Compatibility:

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

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🔮 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

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🔄 General Overview:

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

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🔆 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.

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📊 Performance & Compatibility:

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

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🚧 Roadmap for v0.5:

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

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