PeterWolf's Planes

1.4.0

🎈 Hot Air Balloon (Balon na gorące powietrze)

• New Aircraft Type: Added the steerable Hot Air Balloon (peterwolfs_planes:hot_air_balloon) complete with full survival crafting recipe, recipe book integration, and creative tab placement.
• Buoyancy & Thermal Inertia: Realistic aerostat thermodynamics simulation with high thermal capacity. Holding W or Space fires the twin burners to heat the envelope and initiate climb. Releasing the controls maintains buoyancy for minutes with very slow passive cooling. Sinking without the valve open is restricted to a gentle, safe drift (~0.7 m/s); rapid descent (~4.4 m/s) only occurs when intentionally opening the crown parachute valve (S).
• Shader Shadow & Lighting Stability: Overhauled the balloon geometry into true 3D solids with mathematically verified normals. Eliminated co-planar duplicate quads across the wicker walls, leather rim, corner posts, burner frame, and envelope shells, completely eliminating shadow-map acne and shadow flickering under Iris, Sodium, and shaderpacks.
• Upright Standing Pilot Stance: Balloon pilots (players and villager pilots) now stand upright on the basket floor instead of sitting down, placing the leather rim at natural chest level with full 360° unobstructed horizon views in first and third person.
• Dedicated Balloon Instrumentation HUD: Cleaned up the HUD by removing the aircraft mouse-steering crosshair/stick widget, centering flight instrumentation (altitude, speed, vertical speed) and displaying live burner and vent status.
• Atmospheric & Wind Currents Integration: Integrates directly with pw_wind_n_sails wind system and ambient airflow for smooth drift flights across the world.
• Dual Envelope Styles (Modern & Classic):
  • Modern Aerodynamic Envelope (Default): High-resolution Catmull-Rom spline envelope mesh (48 rings × 36 segments) featuring vibrant multi-colored vertical gores.
  • Classic Envelope: Traditional rounded Montgolfier silhouette.
  • Dynamic Toggle Commands: /planes balloon envelope [modern|classic] and quick shortcut /balloonenvelope to switch envelope styles in real time.
• High-Detail Double-Sided Basket & Rigging: Fully opaque woven wicker basket walls and floor (rendered double-sided with zero transparency or culling gaps from both interior and exterior perspectives), padded leather rim, corner load posts, dual propane fuel tanks, suspension cables, and dynamic animated flame cones.