Vertigone

VERTIGONE

A simple accessibility mod that tries to midigate the experience of the fear of heights, acrophobia, hypsophobia, and vertigo while playing; by giving you a customizable barrier below yourself to obscure the view.

How it works:

There is an opaque client sided circular (and Volumetric-like, 1.1.0) barrier below your character that will obstruct the direct view below. The idea being that you can't see the height, or rather the distance, to the ground. The barrier has soft edges that blend into the distance as a way to make it less intrusive, as well as trying to keep a similar color to the skybox. The barrier is customizable live in-game, letting you change the distance below, size, soft edge ratio, and opacity as you go. This allows you to for example change the height while playing, as you feel more or less comfortable in different situations. (Currently there is no way to see the "the fog" or other players through this barrier.)

How to customize:

• Change distance below, size, soft edge ratio, and opacity in the config (as well as live in-game).
• All the keybinds for in-game adjustment can be set and changed in the config. Height adjustment is set to the up and down arrow keys by default.
• Hold down any of the assigned keys to change the barrier live in-game.
• While adjusting in-game, you can hold down left shift to speed up the adjusting.
• You can toggle on and off the barrier (F8 by default).
• You can open a small display that shows you the values you are customizing while in-game (F9 by default).
• NEW 1.0.3 You can quickly hold to hide the barrier with a customizable key (F by default).
• NEW 1.1.0 Volumetric like barrier. Amount of layers used for the effect can be changed in the config.
• NEW 1.1.0 You can swap between the 2D and Volumetric barrier with a customizable key (F7 by default).

Why?

Accessibility. As it is a game about climbing great heights, it seems unnecessary to have a mod that strides against on of the core ideas of climbing a great height. The heights. But for many the game becomes a social experience amongst friends; more so than a game about climbing. That is one of the many reasons it is important to have the accessibility available, so even the people who can't normally play at all can still enjoy the social parts of the game. I initially created the mod for my partner so we could play the game together, and I figured it might be a nice tool for anyone who is unable to play for any reason that the mod might be able to help out with.

I hope that eventually the developers adds something similar and more polished in the game natively; like a downwards render distance. I'm not a programmer, it's a simple mod, with a simple solution, for a niche problem, because no one should have to feel left out.