Vanilla RTX v1.20.5 Autumn's End Quality Update Release Notes

Before we get to the changelogs, a message from the creator, cubeir:
Today marks the third birthday of Vanilla RTX! Autumn's End takes Vanilla RTX another step closer to truly realizing the long-standing vision of an ideal baseline Minecraft RTX resource pack. It is a huge update. Vanilla RTX, now starting its fourth year, has crossed 4 million downloads (at least ones verifiable by me) world-wide. All of this became possible and I was enabled to make this project make it what it is today, because of you, and generous support of my Patrons, for what started as Truly Vanilla RTX, truly thank you!

• Launch of the Experimentals Option:
This is a new subpack which will be used for anything experimental from here on out.
Future features in experimentals subpack option might not be intended for every-day gameplay, so they may or may not be added to Vanilla RTX, think of it as a playground for testing and exploration. Keep an eye out on the changelogs for information on what's new in experimentals.
You can enable this option through the updated resource pack settings menu.

• The first bulk of new experimental features and updates arrives:
• Implemented dynamic sun azimuth, allowing diagonal shadows and a more dynamic day-night cycle, significantly enhancing your gameplay experience by bringing more realistic outdoors lighting.
The previous sun angle was at 0°, which led to shadows lining up with blocks, resulting in far less than ideal visuals. The new sun azimuth leads to possibility of diagonal godrays/shadows, the sunlight will now pass in various directions instead of being parallel with the entire Minecraft world, making the environment much more dynamic.
Known issue: At certain times of day, the sun's directional light may momentarily appear to come from the opposite direction, this will be addressed in a future update.
This feature does not require preview or enabling world experimental options!
You can enable it right now on both preview and regular version of Minecraft, no additional experimental toggle is required in the world options!
All you need to do is to change Vanilla RTX's settings to experimental & you will be able to use this feature on servers, worlds and realms.
• Default materials for unsupported textures will appear fully rough.
• Implemented a workaround fix for decorated pot texture bug.

• Prismarine has undergone a major overhaul with significant improvements.
- Materials for all prismarine blocks (Sea lantern, rough prismarine, prismarine bricks and dark prismarine) have been revamped, as a result:
- Rough prismarine now boasts more details.
- Consistency issues between prismarine blocks have been resolved; all prismarine blocks now share a unified appearance.
- Incorrect height values on rough prismarine heightmap have been corrected.
- Prismarine bricks and Dark Prismarine normal maps have been revamped; angles on dark prismarine have been fixed & perfected; prismarine bricks now sport a completely new look.

• End Portal material no longer appears glossy, it is now pitch black instead.
Notes: It is not possible to faithfully recreate the green moving dots of default graphics, however a void black replacement can still be thought of as a suitable alternative to the (likely unintentional) default oily material.

• Updated Manifest and Metadata & Restructured Vanilla RTX
- Added URL and License to the official repository & new PBR capabilities required for new experimental features.
• Added new short, comprehensive description of each subpack in resource pack's setting menu, can be viewed underneath the slider while changing subpacks.
• Modified all jsons within the package to be in an standard and human-readable format.

• Updated mushroom blocks (stem, red, brown, inside and red/brown fungi)
- Normal maps have been overhauled for better natural aesthetics & improved tiling.
- Decreased all heightmap contrast with more subtle details.
- Updated MERs, added missing details, all mushroom blocks now appear consistent.

• Revamped Observer
- Different types of stone parts & redstone parts now match their respective materials.
- Remade all heightmaps along with new hand made normal maps to be up to the standard.

• Mortar texture parts on cobblestone related blocks (such as Pistons, Dropper, Dispenser, Furnaces, etc...) now have been updated for enhanced detail and consistency.
• Issus with tall seagrass top and bottom normal maps appearing disconnected have been fixed; similar issues with Kelp top have also been addressed; missing information for some normal maps has been filled in.
• Adjustments to regular bricks and pots roughness to more closely match other types of bricks
• Updated Cobblestone and Mossy Cobblestone MERs, added in missing details
• Corrected a wrong emissive pixel on sculk catalyst side.
• New icons!
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• Other Notes:
- Temporarily removed optional patches as they undergo some changes.
Don't worry, they will return on a separate page soon! each with a dedicated description for clarity on features and functionality of patches. This is being done to make this page cleaner, less cluttered and more focused solely on Vanilla RTX.
Glowing Ores and Clear Glass remain here for the time being, however they too will eventually be moved to a new page.
- Added a new short trailer for Autumn's End Quality Update.
- Added and replaced many images to more accurately represent and showcase latest versions of Vanilla RTX -- Updated cover image to Autumn's End.
- Fixed typos, updated text, updated and shrunk patron's list.