Heat Haze!

Heat haze is something I'd wanted to add for a long long time; proper heat haze, not some cheesy substitute effect.

Today I got something that looks good and runs fast.  Right now I've just plugged it into the underwater code so that I can test it/experiment with it, but it definitely is going to happen.

I don't propose overdoing it and putting it on every single little thing that could potentially have it - a reasonably subtle shimmer over lava pools is enough.

One thing that needs doing is a proper render-to-texture interface for managing multiple layered effects.  It will have to co-exist with the underwater warp for starters, and the interface I have around that is nasty and dates back to my first experiments with render-to-texture without much dramatic change since.

I'll probably write some about that later on.

What does it look like?  Well, you really need to see it moving to get the full effect, but zoom in on this shot for an idea of it (the final version will add some blurring):