Distortions: 1.25.1 & End-of-Year Recap

Hello again! It's been a while since the last block of Patreon news, given that casual updates and discussion on the Discord usually don't translate well to Patreon announcements. 

As very little discussion makes it here, it's probably time to share where Distortions is at now.

First, let's do a quick recap of progress, broken down by game version:
1.17.1: For those unaware, this was the latest moddable version for quite some time. As such, most incremental releases were made for this version. Many things changed, most notably the visuals and core functionality of the mod.

1.20.0: This release added some experimental options for recording with Replay and the (then) paid access Hollywood render mod.

1.21.0: Two releases were made for this version. The main addition was a new option for high performance "fake distortions" was introduced. This was repurposed from a much earlier project from September 2021.

1.24.0: Numerous improvements were made to shockwave particles, now making them much more usable in VR. This would also require a temporary workaround to force objects with a transparent render queue to show in distortions.

1.25.1: The long-awaited Offline Mode is finished and implemented. This update allows the mod to be used without an internet connection or during service maintenance.


Before sounding off for the year, I'd like to share a couple things on the roadmap.

Next year, I'd like to rework how rendering is handled by the mod. The Built-in Render Pipeline's doesn't offer much control over when exactly the contents of the screen buffer can be copied, so the current approach prevents objects with a transparent render queue (> 3000) from appearing. There are a few approaches that I'd like to try out. One would offer reasonably fast performance at the cost of requiring 3D asset creators to put some thought into how their effects should be rendered.  

The other approach functions a lot more similarly to GrabPass - offering a much greater degree of accuracy. This allows modellers to port over their PC creations with less effort, but would be slower than the current method.

Finally, I should mention that progress is still ongoing for the parent project of Distortions. For those unaware, the early-access Distortions mod is a decoupled piece of a larger toolset for modders and 3D artists. It's probably one of my most enjoyable projects to work on. I'll share more details on a future date, so keep an eye out for updates for that.

With that out the way, I offer my best wishes for 2023.
Happy Holidays!