1.7 KiB
Ground Zero First-Pass Foliage
The Ground Zero demo map now has a first-pass foliage layer driven by terrain height and simple biome placement rules.
Implementation
- Native actor:
AAgrarianFoliagePatch - Map setup script:
Scripts/setup_ground_zero_demo_map.py - Map actor label:
AGR_GroundZeroFoliage_FirstPass - Mesh source: Unreal level prototyping meshes for now.
The actor uses hierarchical instanced static mesh components for three visible foliage groups:
- Trees: taller cylinder instances placed mostly on higher/hill terrain.
- Shrubs: low blocky scrub instances across valley and hillside terrain.
- Grass: small clump instances across the broader walkable tile.
Placement Rules
The first pass is intentionally deterministic. It uses the Ground Zero Unreal heightmap and a fixed random seed so repeated map setup runs produce the same foliage distribution.
The placement avoids the demo player start, shelter, campfire, resource nodes, and wildlife spawn area so the initial investor path remains readable.
Counts
- Trees:
42 - Shrubs:
96 - Grass clumps:
180
Follow-Up
This is a visual and performance-safe placeholder pass, not final ecology. The current prototype geometry now uses dedicated Ground Zero tree, shrub, and dry grass materials. The next biome/resource passes should replace prototype meshes with real coastal California scrub, grassland, woodland, and resource-specific assets, then tie spawn density to land-cover and hydrography data.
The natural environment variation pass adds nearby labeled accent actors for additional canopy, trunk, bush, grass mat, rock, and water silhouettes so the demo no longer depends only on one repeated foliage mesh per family.