BetterOreMining

This mod adds a ripple that outlines the ore around you on each hit, even when it's buried. No ore left behind!

Short clips are in DEMONSTRATION.md.

Features

• Hitting the ground, a rock or ore sends a glowing ring across all ore within 8 meters, through the ground too.
• The ring wraps the outer shape of the vein and the walls you've already dug out.
• Green means the ore is at or above the ground, red means it's buried 2 meters or more.
• Works on every ore, plus scrap iron, copper scrap, soft tissue and obsidian.

Configuration

The settings are in BepInEx/config/JevMods.BetterOreMining.cfg, created on first launch.

• Ripple.Radius: how far the ripple spreads from where you hit, in meters (default 8).
• Ripple.WaveSpeed: how fast it spreads, in meters per second (default 4.5).
• Ripple.RingWidth: how thick the ring is, in meters (default 2).
• Ripple.Opacity: how strong the ring is at its brightest, from 0 to 1 (default 0.8).
• Colors.Visible: ring color on ore at or above the ground (default green, 33FF59FF).
• Colors.Blocked: ring color on ore buried 2 meters or deeper (default red, FF261AFF). Ore in between gets a mix of the two.

Colors are RGBA hex values written as RRGGBBAA, for example FF0000FF for solid red. The last pair is the alpha, but the ring takes its strength from Ripple.Opacity.

Feedback

Found a bug or have an idea for a change? Open an issue on the GitHub issues page. I'll go through everything as fast as I can.

Building from source

To build you need Windows, the .NET SDK 8 or newer (with the .NET Framework 4.8 developer pack), Valheim and BepInEx. The easiest way to get BepInEx is to install BepInExPack_Valheim in a Thunderstore Mod Manager profile.

git clone https://github.com/JevMods/BetterOreMining.git
cd BetterOreMining
dotnet build src/BetterOreMining -c Release

Then copy src/BetterOreMining/bin/Release/BetterOreMining.dll and the src/BetterOreMining/bin/Release/assets folder into a BepInEx/plugins/BetterOreMining folder.

The build looks for Valheim through Steam and for BepInEx in the Default profile of the Thunderstore Mod Manager. If yours live elsewhere, pass the paths:

dotnet build src/BetterOreMining -c Release -p:ValheimDir="D:\Games\Valheim" -p:BepInExDir="D:\Games\Valheim\BepInEx"

You can also set the VALHEIM_INSTALL environment variable. With no Valheim install at all, point ManagedDir at the valheim_server_Data/Managed folder of the free Valheim Dedicated Server (Steam app 896660). The GitHub workflow does exactly that.

The ripple shader comes prebuilt in src/BetterOreMining/assets, and its source is in shaders. To rebuild it, make a Unity 6000.0.75f1 project, put Ripple.shader in its Assets folder and BuildBundle.cs in Assets/Editor, set the BUNDLE_OUT environment variable to an output folder and run:

Unity -batchmode -quit -projectPath <project> -buildTarget Win64 -executeMethod BuildBundle.Build

Notes

• Client-side: only the player who wants the ripple needs to install it.
• Source: https://github.com/JevMods/BetterOreMining

Changelog

1.0.0

• First release: pickaxe hits send a ripple that outlines nearby ore through the ground, and pickaxe swings reach buried ore.