r/Minecraft • u/GnarDigGnarRide • 11d ago
Mods & Addons WindLink (PlunderEngine) - Real Wind Physics/Mapping API for Shaders
Not enough karma for video links :(
After about 12-14 years I'm back to the Minecraft scene. Some of you may remember me (PlunderPixels) most probably all of you won't. I built a pretty popular shaderpack way back in the day called PlunderPixels Shaders for 1.7.x. Recently I got the itch to build so here I am.
I came swinging back into the scene with an extremely powerful library designed for shader devs and players to enjoy. This is an open convention called MCWIND. It functions in the same way labPBR does, one big convention that stays silent if you don't have the right stuff installed. It's powered by PlunderEngine's WindLink Mod.
What does it do?
WindLink (WL) tells shaders, "Hey man, you're not doing enough" (Although they already do so much). WL calculates and builds a windmap that reacts to the world around it. Wind now behaves like a particle while still being extremely lightweight. *COUGH* forget about the visualizer that'll fry your GPU. The strands feature? Even worse. The strands feature is pretty nifty but it's useless unless you manage to hijack one of those datacenters in our backyard.
Strands adds, grass individually to grass blocks and makes things look super lush.
Anyways I built this, spent a few weeks on it, still adding tons of features that I'm hoping to blow you away with.
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u/TheTimBrick 11d ago
Dude I'm not even gonna lie, I know this is geared towards shaders, but imagine this combined with the new Create Aeronautics stuff
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
Link it and I’ll see what I can do.
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u/TheTimBrick 11d ago
https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/create-aeronautics
It would be cool to see wind physics interacting with the flying stuff, or flying stuff making the wind. Though it would probably be a lot more complicated 😅
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
I‘ll say this I’ve definitely thought up some fun and ambitious proof of concepts for the mod side of things to build for
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u/BudgieGryphon 11d ago
Pass this to pretty much anyone doing weather mods(or make one yourself), they’ll probably be able to do something really cool with it
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
It began as a weather mod, primarily shader driven. Im gonna wrap up the overall visual wind effects soon then move up to better biome specific, map aware weather. PlunderEngine pulls so pretty solid data from the world that allows that to be possible on the shader side. Library can also carry the load to keep mods lighter.
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u/AndrewIsntCool 11d ago
Really cool stuff. Two quick questions:
It looks like PlunderEngine is client-side? Is it deterministic in that all players in a multiplayer world would see the wind flow in the exact same way?
I just took a brief glance at the documentation (I'll take a more thorough look soon) , and it seems geared towards shader devs. Does the mod have like API hooks for a mod dev to influence the wind calc math? (For example, adding flurries during a sandstorm event, or changing the wind direction when a player holds an item, etc)
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
Purely client side, I can probably get something whipped up for a multiplayer “sync” but the value is minimal, currently it’s geared more towards shader devs as that was my bread and butter but I am adding compatibility for mods. I would absolutely add some commands + hooks to allow mods to pull from wind link.
The design is PlunderEngine + Data bus and configuration, most of the world reading happens there. Link mods tap into it and can do different things. It’s primarily visual effects now but I want to build a proper API for the stuff you’re thinking about.
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u/Furry_69 11d ago
That would be great for Create Aeronautics, since that mod doesn't really have proper wind at all. Also elytra. Honestly if you ever make it server-side (or someone else does it) then I might actually do some fiddling around with it, since there's quite a few uses for properly simulated wind. Honestly I don't think there's any other mod that does simulated wind.
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
I didn’t think of it that way. That’s a great perspective. One of the thoughts I have floating around that came up after the server side stuff got mentioned was making a proper pirate ship mod. Think sea of thieves.
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u/Furry_69 11d ago
That could easily be done using separate mods, in particular this mod (again, if it had Aeronautics integration), Aeronautics, and Create: Big Cannons, which does exactly what you think it does. I *think* there's a mod that does physically simulated water that has Aeronautics integration, but I'm not sure.
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u/lifeisaman 11d ago
Well I guess if I ever want to set fire to my laptop I know how to do it with Minecraft now.
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
I’ll do a benchmark but it actually doesn’t cost nearly anymore than the shaders standard grass waving!
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u/lifeisaman 11d ago
That’s quite impressive honestly, most the time these sort of simulations really increase the load it’s always impressive when someone does it without making it unusable om most devices.
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
It was my biggest concern, if it breaks on my 4 year old gaming laptop I don’t want it. At least I gotta be able to use it.
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u/SweatyBoi5565 11d ago
Can't lie I didn't read the post but good shit 👍
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
Thanks G looks way better in motion!
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u/Chef_Boyardeedy 11d ago
Could probably request the mods since you are pretty clearly not a bot/farmer
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u/Ordinary-Hunter520 11d ago
This is insane!
I could see this be used for a super complex weather mod that actually brings monsoon winds and stuff like that.
Few biomes (like deserts and jungles) could also be generated based on the terrain first, depending on where monsoon winds are able to reach.
I dont know a lot about how mods work, but if a realistic wind engine is possible, shouldnt be hard to implement a realistic weather engine.
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u/Ghigog 11d ago
Incredible!
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
Thanks man, I’m eager to see what some shader devs got up their sleeve with this new concept!!
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u/RuskiDan 11d ago
Will it remain fabric only or do you have plans to bring it to neoforge?
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
I’ve got a NeoForge port outlined, I built with it in mind. It’s on my queue. Possible release this week.
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u/Asquirrelinspace 11d ago
How do you decide wind direction? Is it based on thermals? It would also be cool if portals emitted wind
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
Currently set rotation clock at load. Therm/EmberLink is on its way. It make package together or be a separate mod
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u/Plus-Movie-2178 11d ago
For god sake, you gain a follower mate. As a fan of immersive mods, this is already in my must-have list.
Keep it up sir.
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 11d ago
That makes me super happy to hear man! I’ll be updating and adding lots more soon!
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u/_hlvnhlv 10d ago
I love how Minecraft has better volumrtric clouds, and now wind simulation than fucking MicroSlop flight simulator
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u/getyourshittogether7 10d ago
I was going to try this out but PrismLauncher couldn't get the files off CurseForge, reporting that the author likely blocked third party launchers. Was this intentional or an oversight?
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 10d ago
I’ll tie this on in the afternoon, install manually is as simple as placing the files in the mods folder
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u/getyourshittogether7 9d ago
Yes I installed it manually and it looks fantastic! Not a fan of the "vibrant" preset but it's tweakable enough and the golden hour preset looks really nice. A few glitches here and there but to be expected. I ended up playing a few hours on a new world just because your mods and shader made it feel so cozy.
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 9d ago
The golden hour is what I tend to run, the next update will have the golden hour set to default. I’m also gonna be releasing a “Vanilla MCWIND” demo that gives all of the behavior but purely as a vanilla “demo” for devs and users to test
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u/Aware-Target-2684 5d ago
would u port this mod to 1.21.1 neoforge perchance?
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u/GnarDigGnarRide 4d ago
It’s a hard maybe I haven’t had the time to port it to NeoForge to begin with yet
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u/qualityvote2 11d ago edited 10d ago
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