Water simulation takes its cue from Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress in our voxel Nintendo game, Stone Shire. Instead of acting like real water in terms of flow, water level, and all that jazz, it simplifies the process into cellular automaton. When moving horizontally, it spreads until it eventually “runs out of flow”, and ends. However, if it falls over an edge, its flow is reset until it hits the next flat surface, which then it repeats. Simple yet simulates the flowing of water. I still give Notch props for coming up with such an effective method of 3d water simulation. We don’t go as detailed as making a pressure system like Dwarf Fortress has, but that may be in the future. For now, we’re more focused on making the cpu processes as efficient as possible, especially when monsters and animals are added next.
Below are the test videos of the water we currently have working. The first video showcases an earlier development, and the second shows it more refined and similar to how Minecraft does its water. We have yet to add deformation to the mesh so it looks like tilting sloping water rather than a step of cube-sized water blocks, but that is coming soon in a future patch.