RTX Reactor v0.3 Alpha (Release)

RTX Reactor's third major release is here, fission!
Packed to the brim with fixes, improvement (& radiating with immense energy), this update is another significant point in the evolution of RTX Reactor, alongside a brand new key feature!

RTX Reactor v0.3 Release Notes (Nov 20, 2023)

• Introducing Quantized Heightmap Generation:
- An algorithm capable of producing heightmaps similar to hand-made human work. This avoids the pitfalls of simple greyscaling or contrast adjustments, resulting generation of high-quality heightmaps.

Example different styles of resource packs:

- This feature is only applicable to resource pack with resolution of 32x and lower.
Please note that just like detailed MER generation from previous alpha, this is another important pillar & foundation for RTX Reactor that requires adjustments through lots of testing, so expect it to be improved upon as time goes on.

• Added mipmap remover:
All generated resource packs will now have their mipmap removed, resulting in increased clarity in the distance. This is especially important as textures now boast more details.

• Updated unique pack icon creation from 0.2.X alphas, now with a fresh and improved design that better complements RTX Reactor's theme.

• Material Generation Fixes & Improvements:
- Fixed a few blocks such as glow lichens not glowing or showing correct materials, expanded and improved materials for existing blocks (up-to Minecraft version 1.20)
- Updated RTX Reactor's water generator for slightly improved results, fixed possibility of faulty results were being produced, leading to inappropriate underwater shadows being cast.

- Resolved an issue where regular glass would appear black in some resource packs. (This issue was originally identified with Faithful 32x, however this fix should apply to any resource pack)

• Stability Overhaul & Underlying Changes:
- This update comes with numerous underlying changes that will make RTX Reactor radically more
stable. (Which is also a much-needed groundwork for a future Ul update) -- addressed all issues reported by you that would've prevented RTX Reactor from functioning properly.
- Addressed rare cases where Manifest.json would become invalid.
- Fixed subpacks being torn apart.
- Resolved issues causing errors when re-running RTX Reactor without fully closing it beforehand.
Underlying Changes include:
- Resource pack's basic information now indicate RTX Reactor was used to generate the RTX resource pack.
- You can now run only a single instance of RTX Reactor v0.3.X at a time, this is to prevent possibility of a few issues when attempting to generate multiple packs at a time.

• Resource Pack Handling
- Subpacks are now functional with RTX Reactor & properly generated. Many resource packs on the internet use subpacks to enable different options, you can now continue use those subpacks with RTX.
- More robust mcpack and zip handling, resulting in minimized chance of any related error.
- Generated resource packs now receive a unique identifier and name, this change alongside unique icons allows convenient coexistence of RTX and non-RTX versions of your favorite resource packs in your Minecraft installations.

• General Tweaks / Performance Improvements:
- RTX Reactor now attempts automatically to open and import the most recently-generated pack into the default Minecraft app when user answers 'No' to the  "Create another RTX resource pack?" dialogue.
- Texts have been updated with more information & QoL changes, such as where the generated resource pack is stored, generation duration, pack name, etc...

- Significantly reduced resulting pack file size in some cases.
- Increased generation speed by 2x, however I must note:
During development, the speed improvements were quickly countered with the addition of Quantized Heightmap Generation. So while with this update all packs now take roughly x1.6 more time to be generated (on average, compared to v0.2.2) the reality is things could've taken much longer. As I explained in the previous post, as the process keeps getting more and more complex, this is expected, it might even take 10 minutes with future updates, or if the pack is large it could take an hour on a slower computer, so once again, please have patience after pressing enter, and wait for RTX Reactor to do its job, it might seem stuck at times but it is diligently at work!

Lastly a reminder:
RTX Reactor requires .NET 6.0 - Download and Install .NET 6.0 Desktop Runtime from Microsoft's Website.
If you don't know how RTX Reactor works, consider reading older RTX Reactor release posts, they contain useful information you might be looking for and can help clear up confusions.

Developer's Notes:
This update was initially intended as an endeavor to refine various aspects of the previous version, but after a while as the development progressed & the scope of improvements expanded, it evolved into a more and more substantial update; so much so that I can confidently say RTX Reactor has truly reached the place where its time for everyone to get to enjoy their favorite resource packs with ray tracing to its fullest, although not quite out of alpha stage (yet, in the larger scope of things), this update is still a massive progress forward.

My perspective has also shifted, I now believe it is better to first establish all of the necessary key features before trying to improve upon them, so expect RTX Reactor's Normal map generation to arrive with the next major update. This change was also the reason I diverged from the initial intent of this release which was further refining MER generation & it contributed to the extended development timeline, deviating from the anticipation of a quick follow-up update that was mentioned in v0.2's post.
Aside from all of the new features, this update saves RTX Reactor from (almost) becoming a spaghetti mess & turns it into a refined piece of art (hence everything stability and performance related you've read in this post came with it) which now that I look back, it was all unintended consequences of many smaller changes coming together to make RTX Reactor better as a whole.

I also wanted to talk about the infrequency of RTX Reactor progress updates here on the Patreon website. I need to clarify, I generally prefer to reserve posts for major updates only accompanied by downloadable files. Instead, to keep everyone updated on the state of things I often use Discord. I recommend everyone (who hasn't already joined) to join the Vanilla RTX Discord community and connect their Discord account to their Patreon account to gain access to development channels, there I try my best to share updates with everyone without having to clutter the Patreon page and overwhelm your email inboxes with excessive posts. Keeping things tidy.

I will see you all in the next release post; as always, if you encounter any issues, feel free to reach out to me. We'll fix it! Any future hotfixes (if needed) or patches for v0.3.X will appear here in this same post.