Developing a procedural mountain forest for my game

[@TheZachWitt]

This made me think of some dev talks from Breath of the Wild developers about how they created player focus by putting interesting places to go to in the horizon so that users would want to explore something and then once they got there a new point of interest was hidden on the horizon behind that so that users always felt like there was something to explore after they had finished exploring something else.

[@edwardrocca]

This is a concept I recently realised in real life; I live in the Netherlands which has very flat landscape and going for walks bores me, but when I'm back home in the UK I go for walks all the time. When a landscape has hills and height variation, you have peaks and valleys on your journey that give you moments to look around, survey where you're going, and see the progress that you've made already. Also many great landmarks are on top of hills as their purpose was to keep an eye on the surroundings, so your horizon is naturally more dynamic and populated with points of interest!

[@runevision]

Yep! Something for me to look into at some point. Though I need to have some points of interest first.

[@runevision]

@@edwardrocca Same here. Walks have been more interesting since I moved from Denmark to Finland :)

[@VRnamek]

I agree. flat is very boring. Hopefully this is Unreal Engine and I can use UEVR mod to fix that... Tho there's an upcoming project like that for Unity too

[@georgelionon9050]

@@edwardrocca Me too, especially in the Netherlands I tend to get lost very easily, this was before the smartphone age.. while at other place, I will just orient myself to the nearest elevation.

[@intyrnet]

looks incredible. add mushrooms to pick up that activate that rainbow forest colors as a feature!

[@nirodha7028]

Hahaha great idea

[@AlexGorskov]

And you can see forest spirits etc

[@jdos5643]

The landscapes needs a field of red tulips also sunflowers wildflowers roses and geranium gardens it would be perfect. Also birds and bird sounds

[@acathosh]

I wonder if you could bake a multiple lightmaps from different times of day and combine them into a texture. Then use that only as a mask for grass growth. And inverse as a bushes / ferns mask. Could be a cool thing to try out.

[@acathosh]

I wonder if you could bake one or multiple lightmaps from different times of day and combine them into a texture. Then use that only as a mask for grass growth. And inverse as a bushes / ferns mask. Could be a cool thing to try out.

[@Soraphis91]

Something I often see in video games: Grass inside a dense forest. Grass does not grow in forests. forest grounds are usually covered by large piles of leaves (or needles) and grass does not get enough light to actually grow. You'd see grass at the edge to a forest. inside the forest you will find usually bushes, ferns, saplings.

[@runevision]

You know, I've ranted about this exact thing myself. To add a bit of nuance though, it's common for there to be a little bit of grass on forest floors, just not dense coverage. And if you look at 2:02 in the video, you can see there's only spotty grass in the forest there. Maybe the balance is not perfect currently, but it's definitely something I've designed for already.

[@jocjoc5587]

It's not uncommon for forest floors to be covered by moss though!

[@ObsceneSuperMatt]

@@jocjoc5587 Only in very humid biomes!

[@ahmeni512]

@@runevision I think anyone who's got your mantra of "In the beginning it looked rather unnatural but everything has to start somewhere" is gonna get there!

[@MikeDiswhoibe1]

It also needs to look pleasing to some extent. Grass in a dense forest feels special. A balance would be good.

[@ocarina0001]

Right now this is probably the best type of game you could be making, I kinda feel like it's something a lot of people are wanting and I think you're doing a great job at encapsulating what people want from a project like this. Keep us updated, I'm subscribed so I can't wait to see more on this.

[@IdoN0TneedTherapy]

I think adding paths is a stroke of genius. It transforms the world into something lived in. On top of that - it is a very nice looking landscape to begin with.

[@benrex777productions9]

Of all the devlogs I watched, you got by far the most realistic looking landscapes. I really love it.

[@warfox]

This is my dream game... an open-world game featuring beautiful music, where you just explore and take in the breathtaking views of the world. Gradually, the game will introduce elements like animals, bugs, and other details...

[@G7ue]

People really sleeping on how much adding a few butterflies flapping around adds to a games ambiance.

[@tigergaj]

Same here, ever since I played death stranding for the first time; I've been obsessed with a walking simulator that focuses on beauty of the landscape and actually interesting walking mechanics.

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

@@G7ue I can still remember just being there in the breathtaking world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance... IMHO still the best forest / nature out there and I'd love to have full VR support for that game to get an even more immersive experience. I spent hours just walking through the forests, listening, watching fireflies at night and whatnot. This is easily heading right into that direction, just without the "actual game" being a medieval story thing ^^

[@ddev7376]

Just play no mans sky😊

[@tigergaj]

@@ddev7376 that game is so boring 😭

[@RealTwiner]

This is just surreal to me. Its like someone plucked my project out of my mind. You approach a few things differently than i intended toz youre definitely farther along and in less time, whcih is slightly demoralizing. You tiuch in important concepts about artistic control in procedural environments and making sure that can be expressed. I think your end goal is a bit different than mine, but we are building the same technology to get there. Procedural can be amazing, and awe inspiring, its not all repetition, its just that the tools we have cant accomolish better, and we have to build those tools ourselves to achieve our goals.

[@CDbiggen]

Looks great, peaceful. There were times in breath of the wild i would spend time walking through some of the safer wooded areas with water nearby for the tranquil feel they had, however they were often too small and had enemies not far away.

[@nathanfranck5822]

The paths into the forest and river crossings are huge multipliers on the comfiness and believability of the space! Love it 😊

[@prunabluepepper]

FYI: a realistic green landscape lives off of groundwater. You should add a watertable simulation. The density and type of vegetation then depends on the availability of the water. Right now you have trees growing where they shouldn't and not grow where they should. The erosion and water speed is a good feature. You can also look into water traps such as Dolines (Sinkholes, Swallet). Where water goes only party depends on pathfinding. In real nature it also depends on soil permeability. You could design different soils and rocks with individual permeability and rock-hardness. This would also simultaneously help with shaping the world, as you can calculate erosion by water or wind much easier. If you wanna talk more about that reach out. CET.

[@runevision]

I’m designing the landscape based on level design principles, I’m not aiming for realistic simulation based on how things work in the real world.

[@prunabluepepper]

@@runevision Hi, yes I agree. I was thinking about level design too. Functional-design as well as aesthetic design. What makes a level a good level? It is sufficient to look good? And if yes, what does look good to a player? In my mind I was thinking that you could achieve easier level design by setting terrain types up with real world behaviour, because that behaviour should help with the procedural creation of the landscape. But since I studied geology and not programming, I don't know if that would actually work.

[@runevision]

@@prunabluepepperProgramming-wise it could work, but like I said, what you describe is not actually what I want. I think you may have misunderstood the term level design, as it is not about looks, but rather about how a virtual space supports and interacts with a game’s mechanics. Since I haven’t shown game mechanics in this video though, it’s not meaningful to try to discuss level design for this game here in the comments.

[@prunabluepepper]

@@runevision yeah, I have the feeling we're talking two different worlds😅 your world looks very lush and welcoming. I think it would be great fun to explore it in virtual reality. All the best to you and I hope you've got great success with this idea.

[@Yoctopory]

Wow. Your fluffy water foam is probably the best I have seen in a game

[@TheRealSpaceC]

Terrain like this for a hunting game would be amazing

[@runevision]

Sorry, no hunting here

[@neolynxer]

As a fellow coder i admire the amount of work you've done. That intersection of the river and the road must've been a nightmare for a lot of cases. I would love to hear about your optimization techniques. I'm sure it's a lot of Jobs and Burst (if you are still on Unity).

[@runevision]

Thanks! Yeah the road-river intersection code is some of the most complicated so far. About optimization, I'm using c# multithreading instead of Unity's Job system, because I need to be able to spawn jobs from other threads than the main thread. I actually haven't looked into Burst yet, but it's on my todo list. My focus has more been on making the existing multi-threading work well (avoiding things blocking each other) and removing as many allocations as I could by using pooling etc.

[@neolynxer]

@@runevision as someone who've done a lot of pooled memory management with c# threadpool jobs in the past (for mesh generation), i feel your pain and i would recommend to explore Unity's Jobs with NativeCollections and Burst. You don't do managed memory pooling there. It teaches you to linearize memory layout to make it cache-frendly. And Burst is just magic: One line of code and you get an insane boost in performance for absolutely free. I fully switched to Unity Job System and i'm happy i did. Oh yeah and GC is not an issu there.

[@joeroeinski1107]

@@runevision You definitely want to use Burst. I've had massive improvements in performance using it, and it doesn't need to be multithreaded with jobs. I once had a painting system for a splatoon clone, regular C# took a few milliseconds whereas Burst took 0.08ms (especially since the native containers can be used for providing image data, meaning no marshalling was required).

[@runevision]

@@joeroeinski1107 Sure, it's on my todo list to look into. The challenge is that many of the algorithms I use rely on data structures that I don't know how to use without classes, and as you know, Burst doesn't support classes. So the restrictions can be a lot of work to find ways to work around.

[@maxvandoorn7002]

I've also recently switched over to Burst instead of C# threads, and I may be able to give some tips to alleviate your concerns. What I do to avoid having to deal with multi threading / async awaiting is by having a monobehaviour which can have Burst jobs submitted to it, and then it just polls them every frame (or performs a synchronous wait if the job reached its frame execution limit). As for the datastructures requiring classes that you mentioned: a lot can be done with pointers and [DisableNativePointerRestriction], it allowed me to easily create a sparse octree for example. You will probably have to wrap these in a [NativeContainer], but the docs explain quite a lot.

[@watsedhaene]

Hi, I am a sound designer for games and something I also struggle with is the sound of long dynamic rivers. I would love to see how you set up the 4-point system, if you're willing to share it. So far this project looks amazing, very nicely done!

[@runevision]

Thanks! I wrote a bit about the water audio in this thread: mastodon.gamedev.place/@runevision/111385723239705835

[@UliTroyo]

Very impressive! Your landscapes look like my childhood memories. I’m thrilled this is procedurally generated; these results would have been exciting even if they were made by hand! I love how natural the grass looks. And the water foam!

[@Blackholefourspam]

Awesome! Maybe try shrinking the trees near the mountain summits? at a point irl, you see only really dense, short, pines. It doesn’t look like your mountains are designed to actually be all that tall in the sense that it only takes minutes to scale them, but if you want that mountain range esthetic, that’s what I would do.

[@runevision]

I'm not going for bare mountains. I'm more inspired by mountains covered in trees, either because the mountains are actually not very tall (perhaps more cliffs really), or because it's in tropical regions. In the end, I'm not beholden to any real locations or logic though; I just try to create the vibe I want, and it includes lots of trees. :)

[@TheEmptyHoliness]

I love the colors!! Great work, keep it up, looking forward to the finished game!

[@kevnar]

I've been waiting for a game like this for years, since Minecraft came out. Sometimes, I just want to walk down a trail and see the world. No zombies. No cannibals. No enemy soldiers. Just a nice walk in the beautiful woods. Lovely. Shut up and take my money. Now you just have to add points of interest. Cabins in the woods. Scenic look-outs. Ruins. Ancient statues. Castles. Picnic spots. Somewhere for the trails to lead to. 😁 So excited to see this project develop!

[@francescofocher]

I'm playing Eye of the Temple right now and I think that's one of the best game ideas I've ever seen! I love it!!!

[@hycron1234]

I love how smooth the camera movement is. Most games give me motion sickness, this is so nice to watch.

[@runevision]

Oh nice, glad to hear the camera smoothness is working well for you! The camera also has some head bobbing motion, but this is not bothering you?

[@hycron1234]

@@runevision - The head bobbing is actually really good, and even more immersive, the real test will be indoor environments like caves or buildings. But usually I can see some kind of screen tearing or missing frames in games like fallout or starfield. It makes me so sick. Almost like it is the way they render the frames when panning left and right. 🤔

[@grandfather3978]

@@runevisionfor me the head bobbing didn’t match the player’s movement speed, it feels too slow for how quick you move

[@runevision]

@@grandfather3978 Right, the head bobbing matches the footstep sounds, which are also unrealistically slow for the camera's speed. I didn't want to make it feel like the player is sprinting, but I also didn't want the camera movement to feel like a crawl (at realistic walking speed). So it's artistic license.

[@magebe]

As a passionate hiker and gamer, I have to say that this just looks amazing. I'm looking forward to the finished product.

[@niuage]

This is so cool, I love the attention to details, especially what you did for the water, but really, for all of it.

[@Livedcactus]

I've literally dreamed of a game of just exploring an endless beautiful forest, i really hope you can continue to make this amazing game

[@jdos5643]

Do you know if this is available for purchase?

[@mosesfox52]

It took me a while to realize what was bothering me. Something looked off. Adding more types of plants I think is the solution. I know it’s all a work in progress but, more plants would definitely help. Bushes, flowers, sapling. Maybe the occasional insect or bird.

[@runevision]

Sure, all in good time.

[@Gwilo]

beautiful little game, excited to see the progression over the next few years

[@virtualshowdown]

I think for something this early it already looks stunning! When standing on the top of a mountain looking in the distance really looks awesome and I am looking forward to seeing more! And the audio of the water is really convincing

[@ZuluboProductions]

This is awesome! I love the water shader and the look of the waterfalls. Very tasty foam

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

You know it's gonna be a great thing if the Vertigo dev turns up :)

[@Ermude10]

This is really impressive! Well done! I think the water pathfinding trick with the 5m radius was really clever. Another thought I had was to artificially raise the water level during the generation phase to simulate high water levels. It could then also get out from strange local minimas and "carve" out natural paths similar to your radius idea.

[@triplestandart7613]

Wow that was an easy subscribe. Quite a lot happening in just one devlog. And all the terrain plus the placement of the bridge is procedurally generated? Incredible!

[@marwi_123]

It looks beautiful and the video is very nice to watch - relaxing scenery. Im looking forward to more

[@GrahamOfLegend]

This is already so beautiful and chill. Exploring a new land never gets old. Have fun world building!!

[@Beatsbasteln]

Omg, you have no idea how desperately I crave peaceful game experiences like that. It's like no man's sky, but without the oversaturated scifi-feel. Nms when it just came out also had a great sense of lonelyness, but in a positive way. You could explore worlds and it always felt like no one expected you to do anything with it. They changed it after the shitstorm to make it more engaging and now you can't come close to a planet anymore without fearing that someone or something wants you to solve a problem. I just want to explore a virtual world that tries to convince the player with its pure procedural algorithm, just like how real falling drops of rain trickling down the different levels of tree heights seduces your ears with a noise enriched by the depth of infinite voices. a game that comes close to that will never require you to do a mission.

[@runevision]

I'm glad you like what you see. I do have plans for light puzzle gameplay though, it's just not implemented here yet. However, I'm leaning towards making always possible to ignore the gameplay and just travel further if one should wish to. Except for certain restricted areas that do require gameplay progress to access. I hope it'll strike a balance where people can enjoy it whether they just want a chill 100% exploration experience or also want a sense of purpose and progression.

[@Beatsbasteln]

@@runevision sounds good to me :) i just like when games manage to make you feel insignificant. like you're not the chosen one with some sort of fate, but only there because you happened to not be somewhere else. elite dangerous also has this appeal, but unfortunately the visual component of that game is really limited to essentially just the darkness of space

[@KingJellyfishII]

you took the words right out of my mouth. Does such a genre of "ambient games" exist? I'm now inspired to have a crack at my own version.

[@jdos5643]

I want this game so bad.

[@TheChrille2]

I feel this would be amazing in a VR version. Imagine walking on a treadmill hiking through beautiful landscapes like this.

[@Dylan-go2hi]

yeah.. just go outside at that point

[@TheChrille2]

@@Dylan-go2hi But if you live in a city it can take quite a time just to get to somewhat decent nature

[@Qewbicle]

@@Dylan-go2hi Sorry Dylan, I'd have to agree with the other person, @TheChrille2. There's enough of us that work long hours and deal with long traffic. When I lived outside of the city, 5 hours total commute for the day, live in the city, an hour each way, work a 12-16, there's no way I'm driving away from my home more than an hour when I can relax for an hour in a scaped space. Sometimes when I know I'll only get 4 hours of sleep, back to back, for weeks, that hour relaxing is precious.

[@jaromor8808]

It is satisfying to see someone paying attention to these -details- things!

[@DardanAirlines]

Excellent work! Always wanted to do something like this, graduate from tiling height maps. Love the audio placement for the water.

[@BestMentalism]

wow man that is so amazing and calming it could become not just a game but an actual tool for mental health

[@Xeogin]

I love this, one of my main "wants" for a VR experience is a forest like this to walk around in and chill. The closest I have now is Valheim with the VR and HD texture mods. I hope you add wind with tree sway; it breathes so much life into a forest.

[@onionike4198]

This looks amazing, I look forward to future updates. The technical feats are impressive as well. I can tell a lot of effort went into this project.

[@Vincent_Frog]

Really nice work, looking forward to seeing what you do with this project! There's plenty of beautiful inspiration around you in nature and you've captured that amazingly

[@darrennew8211]

Very cool to see you doing this cool stuff decades after talking to you on the pov-ray newsgroups. Nifty!

[@runevision]

Hi Darren, fun seeing you here after all these years :)

[@RyanHellyer]

Wow, that's amazing! Hopefully this is the future of gaming. I love the idea of a game like GTA used this type of system. The ability to roam has far as you like, seems like a lot of fun.

[@madmax404]

Nice! I kind of yearn to do something like this in more than a few ways from scratch myself. I feel like procedurally created landscapes that work both in small and large scales are the a really fascinating way of the machine becoming "more creative" than the creator. The creativity might be "fake" but the human brain still can't wait to look around the corner. Because we can assign meaning to noise that has interesting enough layered structures.

[@Darilon12]

Great work! Stunning result. The narrow fast flowing streams look very natural. Maybe Paths in mountainous tarain should get narrow as well.

[@Notallowed101]

Holy shit. Procedurally generated rivers, travelling down hill in this way - I'm almost certain I've not seen this done elsewhere yet. Seriously would love to see you tackle more than just a forest. With what you've got you could easily create other biomes by playing with elevation, water, tree models and colour. A nice idea would be to add details to the paths, like patchy grass, puddles, mud, stones and debris like twigs and leaves at the edges of the paths. Different kinds of paths would be cool too. I've personally always like thin, hidden paths between bushes. The kind you have to find the right route through. I find some games let you walk straight through many bushes that in real life you'd have to cut or climb slowly through. Kingdom Come Deliverance has great examples of "solid" bushes, that create the unique scenario of trying to find the route into a collection of trees, as the edges of forests usually have walls of bushes and saplings you'd need to push through.

[@Matojeje]

This looks so calming and wonderful! I'd love to just openly ride my bike through an environment like this

[@ruslansmirnov9006]

yeah, upgrading bike parts after completing missions, or stalking other bikers in a multiplayer setting, sabotaging bike riders while on foot... cool

[@Moist_Noodles]

This is incredible! I usually have videos on to one side while I work, but this stole my attention from start, to finish!

[@runevision]

Thanks! This is my first video in a "classic KZbin format" so I'm happy to hear it seems to work well. :)

[@Noizzed]

There's something really nostalgic about your forest, don't know what it is, but it makes me want to lose myself exploring it

[@gageracer]

I would love to have something like this in VR where I can just walk and enjoy the view forever.

[@meh2285]

Fascinating technology. I'd love for you to go into more detail about how you flatten the terrain across the paths. Might make an interesting video for you to go in depth about the process.

[@ItsLucaIguess]

I would love to play this game, it looks just so peaceful and it has some amazing views.

[@oswaldcobblepot764]

I just want to say that i love it. Can't wait to see some progress on this !

[@DoChDev]

Great job so far, I've seen various posts of individual features before, but it is nice to see them all together.

[@Lus0rius]

I love how that looks, it's both realistic and artistic ! Just something I spotted along the video (eg. at 6:26), your rivers sometimes have a cliff going down on one side, where real rivers erode both sides pretty equally, so its forms a little valley.

[@runevision]

Thanks! Yeah I'm not going for complete realism with regard to how the rovers flow, and my level-design-centric approach to placing them is not compatible with that either. So I settle for "doesn't look too weird, if you don't think too much about it".

[@Lus0rius]

@@runevision I see, thanks for answering :)

[@samnelson7428]

It's crazy you've been working on this for a decade. That's awesome. My dream is this, but on planets in an infinite universe (alongside other biomes.)

[@BurakD]

You gotta be kidding me, it's just a masterpiece to me. I am also a developer and I can imagine how frustrating would it be to code.

[@Linguistie]

oblivion lookin good

[@tiefensucht]

What a lovely nature, very well done! Now we need lots of animals and most important birds and grass & leaves movement.

[@runevision]

Thanks! I plan to add creatures later. There is already grass and leaves movement, but it's subtle. In real life I also find it to be very subtle, except in stormy weather.

[@tiefensucht]

Do you plan some kind of alpha test in the near future? @@runevision

[@runevision]

@@tiefensucht The game is in very early stages - none of the gameplay I have planned is even in it yet. I don't expect to start alpha testing in 2024.

[@Lux-le7kb]

Looks really good, i love your streams and bridges, really relaxing to look at. Can’t wait to see what you add next

[@Yvola]

You definitely need rocks, more dense around water and especially at the top of waterfalls. Looks awesome so far.

[@MattJoyce01]

I have always enjoyed terrain generation, and I love what you have created. Curious to learn what the game part will be. Bravo.

[@runevision]

Thanks, glad you like it! If you'd like to read a little about the ideas for the game, check out the first link in the description.

[@MattJoyce01]

@@runevisionwhat a lovely read. Really interesting to be shown how algorithms are developed. I watch the video again and am wondering if you plan to add various detritus to the floor. pebbles, rocks, holders. Twigs, branches, fallen trunks. I think it would be interesting to think about where these would be, and what quantity of what size.

[@runevision]

@@MattJoyce01 Adding more models like that is something I'd like to do at some point. It's won't be my focus as the next thing to work on (that's more about large scale structure and preparing for adding gameplay), but one day :)

[@JakkoTB]

Wow man, impressive how realistic you got that water to look and sound, and how it all looks like handcrafted map. Also loved eye of the temple btw! Awesome work!

[@TheBaldr]

I tried making a game like this. It stems back from playing DayZ and always having the nickname "Walking Simulator", but when DayZ standalone came along they really flushed out the map and put in hiking trails. It was really fun to follow those trails. I decided I wanted to make a game where you could explore hiking trails through a park and I called it Hiking Simulator. I only got part of the map done before I got bored with the project. Basically just the parking area around the trail head and about 30 meters of trails leading off.

[@Skeffles]

Wow, this looks fantastic! The water in particular looks great, and it was fascinating hearing about how to approached it.

[@anoukk_]

this looks like something that would already just work as a relaxing walking sim

[@oBCHANo]

An important part of water visual effects is the fact that water flows faster when shallower too, with deeper parts slowing it down, on steep slopes though it's not gonna be noticeable.

[@runevision]

Right, flow speed is an inverse function of the cross section area, which depends on both width and depth.

[@KingJellyfishII]

This is such an awesome project. The landscape looks compelling and interesting, it makes me want to explore. Good luck with the continued development!

[@bourbonbobo]

Lovely chill devlog, looking forward to seeing more of this.

[@LairOTech]

I like well crafted nature in games and this already makes me want to explore what is out there. Your observations and recreation of how water flows looks really good. I can think of a few games that could use your input for better water design ;)

[@jackcanterville6470]

This is amazing! I look forward to it, will buy it day1 :)

[@Juz3000]

Impressive procedural generation! Cant wait to see more.

[@anorax8]

Really looking forward to this completing, progress looks amazing!!

[@leonamvonborowsky7559]

in the distance the colors remind me a lot of Oblivion. Very pretty!

[@runevision]

Ha, you're not the first to make specifically that comparison :)

[@nickmudd]

The environment looks beautiful!

[@G7ue]

I'm a sucker for good procedural world gen. You did an outstanding job! Not just on the water, but the overall landscape too! I would've believed you if you said those mountains were hand crafted! What's the gameplay planned to be like? I assume a chill exploration walking simulator? I am definitely interested in the project, and excited to see what you add next! Maybe some fences along the edge of paths near cliffs? Safety is important!

[@runevision]

Hi! And thanks! Check out the first link in the description for some info on the planned gameplay. There will be light exploration-based puzzles. And yeah, I'd like to add fences at the edges to some sections, though not consistently.

[@MrKohlenstoff]

Really beautiful, amazing job! And love the style of the video, so calmly and well explained, thank you. 👌

[@pandarenBrewmaster62]

Well done! Really love how the streams look!

[@SeanStClair-cr9jl]

Been following this for a little while now, love this latest video format!! You're actually starting to generate a following, and you deserve it; this environment looks really unique!

[@Salutis_rev]

it looks like your speedwalking, very very fast in the start of the vid, still cant wait to watch!

[@wudimusic]

Wow, that waterfall amazes me ! Great work!

[@bob-ji7ks]

Great stuff! big fan of the solution to audio for the water

[@maplecarter4231]

this game looks like it would be dope to walk around in using vr , natural locomotion, and a treadmill

[@FireCatSoftware]

Inspirational! Looking forward to seeing your progress going forward! :D

[@whyv9338]

The procedural terrain is looking really good, as if it was hand sculpted. Something I noticed though was that I felt the rocky grass texture didn't match that well with the foliage textures. Since the ground texture is more noisy/realistic, while the foliage and bark has a more lowpoly/monotone texture. It might be worth testing out other textures to see if it looks better.

[@runevision]

Yep, I’ve not yet settled on a coherent style for the game. I’ll be experimenting and changing a lot of things.

[@joeldeakin2003]

You mentioned different grass shades in different areas, what if you had different plants that generate in specific areas too and include a little 'handbook' of sorts for players to find them on their travels. If you want to go further, maybe even animals. I dont know how much wildlife you want to even add to this but I think it would be so sweet to have things to just see whilst youre on your walk. Doesn't have to be something crazy complex but just something to do while on the hike. I love the build so far though!

[@jamesbaconreid]

wow this is something else... i want to explore this world.. So cool!

[@Draxel]

I'm glad to see a Dane not forgetting the mountains and valleys! 😄 This looks really great.

[@TheGrandCOL]

I definitely subscribed (also followed you on twitter), I'm a developer and this game look so calm and soothing... Looking forward for more updates and I'd love to play when it comes out!

[@Levi7hart]

looks really pretty and cool, would love if you wrote more on like how you did it type thing

[@runevision]

Thanks! Check out my blog linked in the description and if you want even more, you can check out my posts on the r/proceduralgeneration subreddit, and my posts on Mastodon. I'm "runevision" everywhere.

[@CrzyMan_Personal]

Wow, hiking simulator. "take a hike"? It's really cool. This would be an amazing vr game

[@olivergretz]

Would be great if there will be an early access soon ... just to walk around in the forest!

[@zenzen4982]

For 3:57 I prefer the Before. The After looks better in all other scenarios, but here the After looks like it is some foam bath or something. And the Before really stunned me when it was shown earlier in the video at that spot.

[@match_mc114]

This is BEAUTIFUL! Would love to see this turn into a survival game.

[@runevision]

Thanks! Though this won't be a survival game I'm afraid.

[@mmoboxs]

The water alone is super impressive

[@VividNation]

A little tip from a Landscaper, on each stree elevate the ground a little as the roods usualy bulge up the ground. also place some simple varying grass patches or flowers around the trees as the lack of nutrition and abundance of leaf nutrition around the trees changethe microclimate.

[@runevision]

The terrain cannot represent anything smaller than half a meter, so I can't make a bulge centered on a tree trunk, unless the trunk is so large that 25 cm imprecision doesn't matter. It's something I can experiment with if I add very large trees to the game, which I'd like to. Grass and flowers have the same limitation, though the imprecision should matter less there. But I thought there's less grass under trees rather than more, since it gets buried in the leaves?

[@VividNation]

@@runevision usualy theres less grass yes soooooo lets say differnt types of plants who love shade and not direct sunlight. So each tree changes its surrounding plantlife a lil. Hmm i understand you have a fixed groundmap resolution ? like a greyscale heightmap?

[@runevision]

@@VividNation Yeah the heightmaps is 2 units per meter and the texture maps (which determines which texture is used, e.g. grass / forest floor / rock / gravel) is also 2 units per meter.

[@ThomasChilcote]

This game looks cooler than any game I saw announced last year!

[@GreySectoid]

Looking really nice, I find terrain generation most fun one can have with programming.

[@HardCandy01]

Two thoughts immediately came, flowers! Bird sounds!

[@mattschoolfield4776]

Looks amazing. Great job!

[@Kade_Bauman]

This reminds me of Oblivion in the best way possible