Volumes

Volumes are invisible 3D “zones” or “triggers” that cause various effects when objects enter or leave them. For example, oxygenVolumes refill the player’s oxygen when they enter (used for the various oxygen-generating trees in the game), forces.directionalVolumes push players and other physics objects in a specific direction (used by both Nomai artificial gravity surfaces and tractor beams), revealVolumes unlock ship log facts when the player enters or observes them (used everywhere in the game), and more.

New Horizons makes adding volumes to your planets easy; just specify them like you would for a prop but under Volumes instead of Props. For example, to add an oxygen volume at certain location:

planets/My Cool Planet.json

{
    "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Outer-Wilds-New-Horizons/new-horizons/main/NewHorizons/Schemas/body_schema.json",
    "name" : "My Cool Planet",
    "Volumes": {
        "oxygenVolumes": [
            {
                "position": {"x": 399.4909, "y": -1.562098, "z": 20.11444},
                "radius": 30,
                "treeVolume": true,
                "playRefillAudio": true
            }
        ]
    }
}

Listing out every type of volume is outside the scope of this guide, but you can see every supported type of volume and the properties they need in the VolumesModule schema.

Volume Shapes

By default, volumes are spherical, and you can specify the radius of that sphere with the radius property. If you want to use a different shape for your volume, such as a box or capsule, you can specify your volume’s shape like so:

planets/My Cool Planet.json

{
    "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Outer-Wilds-New-Horizons/new-horizons/main/NewHorizons/Schemas/body_schema.json",
    "name" : "My Cool Planet",
    "Volumes": {
        "forces": {
            "directionalVolumes": [
                {
                    "rename": "ArtificialGravitySurface",
                    "force": 8,
                    "playGravityCrystalAudio": true,
                    "shape": {
                        "type": "box",
                        "size": {
                            "x": 15.0,
                            "y": 10.0,
                            "z": 5.0
                        },
                        "offset": {
                            "x": 0,
                            "y": 5.0,
                            "z": 0
                        }
                    },
                    "position": { "x": 0, "y": -110, "z": 0 },
                    "rotation": { "x": 180, "y": 0, "z": 0 }
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

The supported shape types are: sphere, box, capsule, cylinder, cone, hemisphere, hemicapsule, and ring. See the ShapeInfo schema for the full list of properties available to define each shape.

Note that sphere, box, and capsule shapes are more reliable and efficient than other shapes, so prefer using them whenever possible.

Debugging

To visualize the shapes of your volumes in-game, use the Collider Visualizer mod. It will display a wireframe of the shapes around you so you can see precisely where they are and reposition or resize them as needed.