Hey all!

This week, to complement the spline-based pathing, we’ve been focusing on adding ditches to our Advanced PCG Forest and how they interact with the landscape deformation system. I’m pretty excited about this one since it adds a lot of natural variation to the environment and brings the forest one step closer to feeling like a real, dynamic environment 

I’ve got 99 problems but a ditch ain’t one!

State of PCG Ditch Generation and Landscape Deformation

At first glance, ditches might not seem like a game-changer, but they actually add a lot more depth (pun intended!) to the terrain. In forests, ditches form naturally due to erosion, rainfall, or old animal trails, and these subtle details are crucial in making an environment feel organic. So, we decided to integrate a spline-based ditch system that works along with our procedural generation of paths.

The idea is that players walking through the forest will occasionally encounter these dips in the terrain, whether it be areas covered in leaves, root systems, debris, etc. These types of features give realism and life to environments rather than what we usually see in games that use relatively simple and flat terrains. The challenge was making sure these ditches could dynamically conform to the landscape, meaning the depth, curvature, and placement would all vary based on the underlying terrain’s features.

What’s Next?

We will continue to work and fine tune this system alongside the other PCG systems that we have discussed in previous devlogs. We hope with all of these systems combined that you will be able to build beautiful and performant environments for your projects. If you think of something that you think we should add, please let us know in the comments or chat with us in Discord. Your feedback is always appreciated!

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Next week, we will take a look at…

With kind regards,

Eric Ruts