Mods / Seamarks -- Beacons & Lighthouses
- Tags:
- Author:
- Fowl
- Side:
- Both
- Created:
- 4 days ago
- Last modified:
- 3 days ago
- Downloads:
- 239
-
Recommended download (for Vintage Story 1.22.0 - 1.22.3):
seamarks-0.0.1.zip 1-click install
This mod allows players to create beacons (including lighthouses) that are visible outside of normal render distance to help navigate around the world. It's intended to help players who play without the vanilla map (and with great mods like Frontier's Map) to better navigate oceans and may eventually be a handy world building feature for RP servers. These beacons produce blips of light that persist even after the chunk containing the beacon is unloaded or the world restarts
The mod introduces two types of beacons: fire pits and oil lamps. Fire beacons are fueled by wood/coal/peat and can be seen from a few hundred blocks away. Lamp beacons (based on Argand lamps used in lighthouses) are fueled by oil (linseed and olive oils in base game, other modded oils should be compatible) and can be improved by lining the reflector with plates (similar to lanterns) or by adding a Fresnel lens overtop to produce light visible from up to thousands of blocks away.
Lamp beacons only point in one direction but they can be mechanically powered like querns to spin and be seen from all angles.
The beacons and the Fresnel lens will eventually have their own models; currently they reuse base game shapes. The lens will also eventually require more in-depth steps to create; right now it's just crafted with glass and a chisel. The goal is to get it running on multiplayer servers however it's only been tested in singleplayer so far.
View distance, fuel efficiency, and other settings are configurable.
"Yer fond of me lobster, ain't ye?"
Chunk-independent rendering of the beacon blips is modeled on Farseer's far-terrain renderer
QoL animation trigger when staring at a lamp beacon inspired by Salty's Sun Gaze
| Mod Version | Mod Identifier | For Game version | Downloads | Released | Changelog | Download | 1-click mod install* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0.1 | seamarks | 239 | 3 days ago | seamarks-0.0.1.zip | 1-click install | ||
|
Initial release | |||||||
I've been wanting to see working lighthouses in these block games for years, delighted to see someone come up with a solution!
After some testing I can say I'm pretty satisfied with the effect, though I did double the default ranges - I usually run at 800 view distance, meaning I can see the object of the fire beacon and the blocks around it long before I see the glare from it's light. The range of the oil lamp seemed perfect for the islands I was testing on, but I doubt I'll be unhappy about seeing it from twice as far away.
Speaking of, the fire beacon doesn't seem to be working quite right, the beacon effect often going out despite being fuelled, and still casting local light.
Configlib support would be nice, and I'm looking forward to the beacons getting bespoke models in the future. A good start for a great mod!
I'll definitely double the ranges of the beacons before the next release. The oil lamp will probably start at 1000, go to 1500 after adding the lens, and go up to 2000 with 4 electrum plates added.
I'll also check out the fire beacon, I probably messed something up when I made it extinguish in the rain. I just figured out ConfigLib support for my other mod so that should be easy to integrate before the next release as well. I plan to look for a really talented VS modeler to commission for the two beacons and lens models. I might attempt to make my own crude placeholder models until then.
Thanks for the feedback!
Will this conflict with ChunkLOD, which is a fork of Farseer?
In my testing it works and even properly occludes so a beacon behind a ChunkLOD mountain shouldn't be visible as expected 👍
Sounds awesome. I'm playing with a custom mod which disables player icon on map, as well as map auto-movement or re-centering, so finding my way back if I decide to take a boat trip might be challenging. Going to try this
whats the performance impact like?
It's pretty light weight, I haven't noticed any drops in performance at all in testing.
Neat I was just thinking how I needed a working lighthouse for my current game which has me using the the Frontier's map mod installed and I spawned in on a island chain that I made my base on so this was needed.
Great!