Giving the waterfall splash its original lifetime
The water effect gained original animation, flicker and deactivation behavior, alongside a correction to body and shadow visibility.
Retrospective on October 12, 2026. Published here on October 25, 2026.
The waterfall splash is an original water actor, not another character sprite. Build 0.12 added its source frame sequence, delays, visibility changes and deactivation.
Its original blank frame and body-flicker rule are preserved. When the effect deactivates, the pool still retains its ownership record; the later refresh must not accidentally respawn it.
This work also corrected a renderer assumption: one original visibility flag filters shadows, not the whole character body. The Java body gate now follows the separate source rules.
What changed
- Implemented the bounded water animation and its exact source deactivation path.
- Separated body visibility from shadow-only flags.
- Retained source object ownership after the effect ends.
What we verified
- The water suite passed 381,343 assertions, with source guards and independent original-frame checks.
What remains unfinished
- Full shadow output, hardware parity and general actor effects remained unfinished.
Next in the rebuild
Implement the opening palette callback and ordinary character animation.