It has been a minute since the last update, but I have been busy in the meantime! It, once again, is a bit of everything as I’m aiming to have at least a good base result for all the assets that I want to include. Now that the launch of version 1.0 of Parkitect has been announced, I have put more work into making stuff - over making these update posts (which can be quite time consuming, in the end).
My goal is to have a “beta” version of the mod out around Parkitect’s launch. Because there are some new territories to explore and figure out (the animated objects in this mod), it would be helpful to have some testers, and get some feedback. More about this at a later date.
Another thing that took (too) long is giving the “aquarium mod” a proper name. I never really liked that name, the double “m” didn’t really work for me. I had a bunch of ideas, but although “aquarium” (in general) is a well-known international-ish word.. it was kinda hard to be creative with it, without making a complicated looking word. Another thing that made it harder was that others already came up with good variations using the word “aqua”. Or, another example that potentially made it less easy to find my mod was words like “aquarium kit”. This is of course kit hobbyists use to build fish tanks. Adding the word “mod” would dive into actual aquarium modifications.
So, after a lot of time pondering in the back of my mind - and with the help of the lovely folks in the Parkitect Discord - AquaDeco is the chosen name. It’s what it says on the tin, while being short and easy to spell and find. Still need to get used to it, but that will happen with time.
Now, that was all the admin. Onto the more exciting things! I’m not gonna dwell on every little thing, but I’m sure you’re ok with that. In a short while you are able to observe it all for yourself anyway! :)
Although I’m not done with the tunnel set, here is another look at some more pieces. This is still just a sample from a test to see what is needed, and what is not. Sometimes you don’t need as much objects as you think, if you “cut them up” in the right ways. I’m working on a new iteration that is more optimized, and also has junctions and slopes. I will share those when the set is finished.
Besides exteriors, the main course of this mod pack is the livestock. Here are a couple of new animals that I’ve added!
This serpentine-like fish likes to lurk between the rocks. It seems to yawn continuously, but it actually needs to open it’s mouth to help it’s breathing.
This is still a work in progress. As you can see in the clip above, they don’t move a lot. This is the reason why I chose this particular species (so it’s works well with mod limitations), but I’d like to give them a bit of locomotion - in place.
I have done some experiments with path following and other solutions, but now that we have the “waving” shader - which has been implemented on the vanilla flags - I thought this might be a better option. But I have not tried using shaders yet, and I am not sure if this will work in this case. Regardless, I’m happy with the result so far. Compared to these initial derpy looking ones:
Granted, the deformation that makes them look more like Muppets is a thing Unity decided - to optimise. I know now how to counter this, but anyhow - these first ones have a higher polycount, and they’re badly animated. Moving on!
I once had an aquarium, and there are some fishes that are commonly represented on displays and packaging. Pretty much icons of the freshwater, brackish, and saltwater variety. One of those “famous” freshwater fish is the..
You might’ve spotted a couple in the moray eel preview, I need to re-do it’s texture. I was trying to get the vertical stripes on, but it doesn’t look good and adds unnecessary polygons. Thankfully I have found a better way to do these things (I’m learning new techniques as I go along).
But I am happy with the perpetual circular motion! You can stack a couple of them on the same tile to keep them contained and all moving like a shoal.
There is more to show, but I’ll end it here for now. I’m still catching up (and setting up this Tumblr) and I don’t want to make a single monster post. So keep you’re eyeballs peeled for more!
As always I’d love to hear what you think, and I’m open to suggestions etc. I don’t think you can do that on Tumblr, but I will always make a post on the Parkitect sub-reddit letting you know about updates over on this site. So, leave a comment on Reddit - I’ll be there to observe and answer them.
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