Devlog: Smoother Voxels + Biome River Channels
• Seth Blakely
manabat dev-log prototype world-generation biomes rivers
Quick but meaningful update this cycle — the world is starting to feel a lot more natural.
Voxel generation cleanup — shaved down the squareness that was creeping in. Nothing dramatic, but it crossed the threshold into “clean enough for prototype” territory and that’s what matters right now.
The bigger win is the river spline system, which is doing exactly what I hoped. Rather than the hydraulic erosion approach (deprecated now — complexity wasn’t earning its keep), rivers carve directly through the terrain via splines with real control over how they behave:
- Variable width and depth — adjustable properties with noise controls for organic variation
- Per-biome generation rules — mountain channels run narrow, deep, and jagged; plains channels are wide, shallow, and meandering. The world actually looks like water carved it over time.
- Waterfall thresholds respected — cliff edges stay intact. Rivers don’t slice through drops they shouldn’t.
Initial water plane generation is in too. Refinement is next.
Solid foundation building here. More soon.