Crazy water viscosity in ONI

[rgduck]

Any chance for a fix to the viscosity and surface tension of water?

At the moment, water is more viscous than molasses is in real life. Check out the 3-foot bubble in the attached picture, maintained only by surface tension. If you saw something like that at an aquarium, you'd know for sure that something was wrong with the universe simulation you're living in.

My guess is that there's a parameter somewhere that determines viscosity, and maybe another for surface tension. Those just need to be changed for water. Is that wrong? Is this actually a surprisingly difficult fix?

PS: I tried searching for this issue and found only one (closed) post, in which someone had responded that, while unrealistic, the fluid dynamics don't meaningfully impact gameplay. I disagree with that because dupes feel so strongly about getting their feet wet. The current fluid dynamics result in water remaining where it shouldn't be in real life (waterfalls hanging forever, water surface not flattening out in a large pool, etc). In situations where dupe stress is a challenge, it's frustrating for water to behave in such an inconveniently unrealistic way.

[troyandabed]

I don't think this is related to viscosity/surface tension but rather liquid/gas interactions. The engine wants to avoid deleting any gas, the gas can't push liquid blocks out of the way (except when moving up), and liquids, as far as I know, won't swap with gas tiles horizontally, because liquids move horizontally by 'spilling' which attempts to merge gas up when it's in the way. But since it can't be moved up, the gas stays where it is. Remove the tile above the gas block and it will probably find a way to push the gas up and out, then the block can be rebuilt without gas there.

[Racso5]

It’s worth repeating the fact that game physics will never match RL physics, but on the other hand I understand that suspension of disbelief is an important component of gaming experiences.

For this particular issue of fluid viscosity and surface tension, it should be noted that the asteroids in a game of ONI are relatively small bodies and therefore possess relatively weak gravitational forces. Thus I believe the real question that should be asked is: does anyone know if RL fluids in low gravity behave anything similar to the fluids in ONI?

[Zarquan]

Yeah, this is more like a bubble trapped under a surface.  But since the game works in tiles, the bubble has to be that size.

If you go deep in to ONI, I think it is important to know that it has its own physical laws resulting in its own weirdness.  While the real world influences the rules, the rules are their own.  Just because something doesn't match reality means that it is wrong.  The most important one is substance per tile.  Since there is CO2 in that tile and the CO2 has nowhere to go, it can't move and the water can't even out.

If you deconstruct the tile above it, the gas can escape and the water will level out.

EDIT:  Also, surface tension doesn't really exist in ONI.

[gabberworld]

you could just build airflow tile or something like this should work as well

if

[rgduck]

Thanks for the responses. FYI, I inadvertently duplicated this post here, and Fradow pointed me to this useful post about fluid dynamics in ONI.

On 8/2/2021 at 10:06 PM, Racso5 said:

For this particular issue of fluid viscosity and surface tension, it should be noted that the asteroids in a game of ONI are relatively small bodies and therefore possess relatively weak gravitational forces. Thus I believe the real question that should be asked is: does anyone know if RL fluids in low gravity behave anything similar to the fluids in ONI?

That's an interesting point. Lower gravity and higher viscosity might be functionally equivalent for the purposes that are of interest to the player (or at least to me).

Most importantly, I suspect they would both have the same effect on how quickly 1. the surface of a pool flattens out and 2. liquid drains off a not-quite-flat surface.