Suggestions

Wohooooo!
This is fantastic Taron!
THANK YOU for putting this out!@#$%^
Oh man!..... so mesmerizing to watch it go
It is indeed like watching a ghost paint
Yeah!

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[Taron]

Isn't it fun!
Yeah, still just a really coarse prototype, of course, but the beginning is made.
Thank you for pushing me the perfect way, Stavros! ...this stuff really is a whole lot of fun to develop. I'm a wee bit bracing myself for reports of disasters, of course, hahaha.

Kind of black magic if you don't know it's "just" math.

[Taron]

...and who says it's "just" math?!
But, yeah, there are some really curious things you can do, which would be really awesome for animation or what ever could use variations of the same element. I've done a little test, where I painted a little character with totally a random image brush, set to have some chaos and random selection of images. Letting Verve paint this guy over and over in a new layer every time, you get a set of countless variations of the same character. It's really kind of amazing! Same goes for entire background paintings. I feel there's something I can build from that.
But here's something else I realized again... (besides [ctrl]+[shift]+[m] for auto levels, hahahaha, totally forgot about that) ...I changed my refresh system some time ago, rather than waiting for vertical blank, I just hooked up Hertz timer fixed to 60FPS. BUT I can make the Hertz a variable, so you can actually determine the speed of Verve. It's crazy and dangerous, because you could go to the max of your graphics card and it will heat up quite well. However....very wicked, if you want to redraw very quickly, for example, hahaha.
Also...I don't know how many of you remember or even noticed that, but if you turn off Drying for the fluids and turn the Drying speed to zero or near zero, you do get endless fluids. This becomes relevant once I hook up an official Hertz (speed) parameter, because the fluids look ridiculous, if they dry to fast. You will then, too, find out just how fast my routines really are!

Verve = the 2D vivide aquarium!

[Taron]

Don't give me ideas!

CTRL + SHIFT + LMB blends everything, also bumps. Even though a correct simulation, this looks most often ugly.
That results for me in using blending only, if layer bumps are on 0.
What about blending colors only?
If I put "build up" on 0 i.e. it still flattens the bumps massively.
Controlling blended bumps by "build up" would be a chance to avoid bump blending if wanted or make it super soft while color blending is strong.
I love to blend a lot, because smudging moves colors around too much for my taste.

Even though it is naturally not correct - we are in a digital world.

Thinking further on - a lock bump function could also help to keep the interesting brush structure without fighting continuously with bumps.

[Taron]

There are various methods you can use to paint and blend. But there certainly is room for expansion, of course.
The funny part is the trouble with what one really wants, you know. If I want to do flat paintings, I use (=) mode, rather than (>) mode. I used to have (=) on by default, but then some folks were confused by that. Anyhow, in this mode your build-up amount will be equaled, essentially eliminating bumps under your brush.

However, I always use pen pressure opacity, when I do average, because this allows the blending of colors without entirely flattening the bumps!

Anyway, I know what you mean and I like the idea of using the "build up" amount to control what happens with Averaging, too! Interesting thought!
I'll investigate. Thanks, Knacki!

There more I think about it...
Wasn't there a way to fake bumps on a clear layer?
Painting in flat and adding 3D brush strokes later on an extra layer?
Kind of stupid, but a workaround.

[Taron]

Pahaha, yeah, that would work, too...but...well...why?!
Nah, we'll figure something out.