Initial public commit.

README.md

@@ -61,11 +61,14 @@ Example:
 | keys | does |
 |------|------|
 | `W` / `S` | throttle: accelerate / decelerate forward speed (holds when released; `S` past zero goes into reverse) |
+| `X` | full stop (zero the camera's velocity) |
 | `A` / `D` | strafe left / right |
 | `Page Up` / `Page Down` | raise / lower camera altitude |
 | `←` / `→` | pan view left / right |
 | `↑` / `↓` | pan view up / down |
 | `[` / `]` | decrease / increase rendering distance |
+| `G` | toggle the floor-altitude indicator |
+| `Space` | drop a bomb |
 
 Velocity is held in world space, so panning the view with the arrow keys
 only changes where you look — it does not change the direction you are
@@ -97,13 +100,43 @@ on-screen heads-up display (drawn in the same vector style) lists every
 setting next to the key(s) that change it. The HUD fades out after 10
 seconds with no keypresses and snaps back as soon as you press a key.
 
+All settings (and the rendering distance) are saved to `~/.vectordesert.cfg`
+on exit and reloaded at startup, so the program resumes with the values from
+your last session. Command-line options still override the saved values for
+that run.
+
+## Bombs
+
+Press `Space` to drop a bomb. It falls from the sky onto a random spot in
+your field of view, between half the rendering distance and the full
+rendering distance away. When it strikes the ground it detonates into an
+animated, all-vector mushroom cloud twenty times the height of the tallest
+mountains, in an extremely bright random hue (additively blended so it
+glows):
+
+- an initial blinding fireball,
+- a rising stem with climbing vortex rings,
+- a billowing cap that stays joined to the stem — a rolling vortex torus
+  whose outer edge curls up and over — and keeps animating as the whole
+  cloud fades away.
+
+The blast **obliterates every mountain and cactus within the cloud's total
+radius** and **gouges a deep crater** — a steep-walled bowl with a raised
+rim thrown up above the surrounding surface — at the impact point. Every
+bomb leaves its own permanent crater, and craters never erase one another:
+repeated blasts in the same place **accumulate**, deepening and reshaping
+the crater. Drop as many as you like; the clouds animate and dissipate
+independently.
+
 ## Notes
 
 - **Arms scale with size:** the number of arms is derived from a cactus's
   normalized size, so the smallest cacti always have the fewest arms (down
   to a bare trunk) and the largest always reach `max-arms`.
 - The world is generated procedurally from a hash-based value-noise height
-  field, so it is effectively infinite — the camera flies forever.
+  field, so it is effectively infinite — the camera flies forever. As well
+  as mountain ranges rising above the plain, the terrain carves valleys and
+  basins below it (and bomb craters), so it has real depth, not just relief.
 - Distance fog fades distant geometry into the dusk sky for depth.
 
 ## Performance