v0.35.0 20 October 2026

Realistic fish, a fish's shadow, the Sanctuary on High

• The Sanctuary & its games
• Fishing

• Every fish rebuilt.
  • Each of the 24 species now belongs to a family that sets its build: minnow, roach, perch, carp, trout, pike, gar, eel, catfish, sturgeon, lurker, angler, ribbon or veil.
  • Body: lofted from a side and top profile through a spline, so the head flows into the body. It has a blunt head, the girth a third of the way back and a slim wrist before the tail.
  • Shading: smooth-shaded and countershaded in vertex colour: a dark back, the species' colour on the flanks and a pale belly. There is also a lateral line, a gill edge on the flanks, a mouth and a faint scale lattice.
  • Markings:
  • perch bars
  • pike spots
  • koi patches
  • trout spots, red on the Bonefin
  • catfish speckles
  • scabs on the Scabscale
  • sturgeon scutes
  • Fins: fans with rays that fade translucent at the edges:
  • the family's tail: forked, square, rounded, shark-like, veiled or an eel's point
  • spiny then soft dorsals on perch and lurkers, the dorsal set far back on pike and gar, and an adipose fin on trout and salmon
  • a continuous fringe on eels, and a red ribbon on the Bishop and the Abbess
  • anal fins, and pectoral and pelvic pairs swept back along the body
  • Eyes have an iris and a pupil, set into the head.
  • Barbels and feelers sweep back: the catfish's whiskers, the carp's and the sturgeon's.
  • Every species keeps its feature: crown, mitre, lures, runes, veins, teeth, veils, wings and tentacles.
  • Cost: one mesh for the body and one for all the fins (plus spots), so a fish is a handful of draw calls.
• The fish's shadow is a fish. The spinning dark rectangle under the bobber is gone.
  • It's a fish's outline, feathered at the edges, with a tail that beats as it swims.
  • It swims head first along its path, weaving as it closes in. Before, it was turned to face the bobber and spun on the spot.
  • As the bite nears, it beats faster, tightens its circle and darkens.
• The Sanctuary on High no longer drowns in haze.
  • High's volumetric fog was tuned for the forest. In the keep, dozens of lanterns each lit their share of it: the courtyard went pink and flat, the sky vanished, and the mountains became black cut-outs against it.
  • The keep now gets a thin, dark haze that leaves the sky alone. The lanterns barely feed it, and the hearth a little more, for a soft glow round the fire.
  • High now looks like Medium, plus ambient occlusion and that glow.

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