Where’s my Lava Flow?

Written 17 July, 2008

Where’s my Lava Flow?

Pele was pouting.

“Whatever is the matter, volcano goddess?” It pays to pay attention to Pele.

“I’ve no lava flow,” she pouted. “I had a lava flow where we used to live. Why don’t I have a lava flow here on Whimsy?”

“Sheesh,” I said. “I can’t do everything at once. Haven’t I been working for weeks on teaching you to throw rocks?”

“And now I can,” she said, “and if I don’t have a lava flow by this time tomorrow I’ll be tossing a bunch of them.”

“Okay, okay!” I said.

And so now Pele has a lava flow on her southern flank.

This one is better, I think, than the old one on Forsaken, if only because I now know more or less what I’m doing when I build. More or less.

The only major difference is I added a little glow to the moving lava at the top of the stream—not much, just .08 for the highest (and hottest) section, and .06, .04, and .02 for the lava further down the mountain. The effect is subtle, but nice on dark nights.

I’ve toyed with the idea of adding an ability to change texture so the lava flow can run hot sometimes and be mostly solid at others, but what the heck; Pele is satisfied, and so am I.