New terrain generation for the vents by Patryk26g · Pull Request #6591 · Revolutionary-Games/Thrive

Patryk26g · 2025-12-20T12:39:14Z

This PR does sevelar things:

Changes vents terrain generation - now vent-like shapes appear in the vents. The chunks don't have collision shapes, instead one big sphere collision shape appears in the middle instead. Thanks to that the number of collision checks is significantly reduced and microbes won't get stuch on the terrain, they will just slide off,
Increases grid cell size so that these vents can spawn more randomly instead of a grid pattern,
Significantly reduces area in which chunks spawn
Changes spawning logic quite a lot
Lowers and increases the background plane a bit, so that chunks can spawn a bit more under the microbe plane (should we stick with that?)

Example terrain:

Area of terrain generation before:

And after:

Left to do:

Investingate "unfetched members" prints
Do save compatibility

Progress Checklist

Note: before starting this checklist the PR should be marked as non-draft.

PR author has checked that this PR works as intended and doesn't
break existing features:
https://wiki.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/wiki/Testing_Checklist
(this is important as to not waste the time of Thrive team
members reviewing this PR)
Initial code review passed (this and further items should not be checked by the PR author)
Functionality is confirmed working by another person (see above checklist link)
Final code review is passed and code conforms to the
styleguide.

Before merging all CI jobs should finish on this PR without errors, if
there are automatically detected style issues they should be fixed by
the PR author. Merging must follow our
styleguide.

… their size, refactor some code, add comments

…bugging code

revolutionary-bot · 2025-12-20T12:39:17Z

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PRs may be merged after multiple programmers have approved the changes (especially making sure to ensure style guide conformance and gameplay testing are good). If there are no active experienced programmers who can perform merges, PRs may need to wait until the lead programmer is back to be merged.

Patryk26g · 2025-12-20T15:33:33Z

I have tested it with previous saves and it works as intended

hhyyrylainen · 2025-12-20T18:23:54Z

Does the terrain area now at least extend as far as the spawn system spawns stuff? Because otherwise a microbe might spawn and then as the player moves a bit it might get dumped under a mountain of spawned terrain.

hhyyrylainen · 2025-12-20T19:07:31Z

src/engine/common_components/CollisionShapeLoader.cs


    public string CollisionResourcePath;

+    public bool SkipCollisionLoading;


I think it would be clearer to just not set this component for stuff that doesn't want to collide...

Edit: and of course it would be more efficient as well to not create the physics component either for purely visual stuff.

I'm pretty sure I tried it and I was getting an error because of it but I'll try

With the new ECS framework, you need to tell it the list of components beforehand, so you'll need a variant of the spawn method that uses a different component list, otherwise it'll blow up. For example for the normal chunks I needed to write quite a complex component list selection algorithm but this should be a simpler case that can be done with a single if branch.

Okay thanks, I have created new spawn variant

Patryk26g · 2025-12-20T19:27:14Z

Does the terrain area now at least extend as far as the spawn system spawns stuff? Because otherwise a microbe might spawn and then as the player moves a bit it might get dumped under a mountain of spawned terrain.

When I was messing with the sphere collision radius set to big numbers, if a chunk spawned inside it it would be pushed out of the collision shape, so I guess the same would happen with the microbe. I will test it though.

hhyyrylainen · 2025-12-20T19:39:56Z

When I was messing with the sphere collision radius set to big numbers, if a chunk spawned inside it it would be pushed out of the collision shape, so I guess the same would happen with the microbe. I will test it though.

That's usually the case but when there are multiple physics bodies overlapping, it can get permanently stuck. For example cell colonies have a much higher chance of being permanently stuck than single cells. So I imagine cell colonies or multicellular species to be more susceptible to this bug. Which is why I would like the terrain area to be big enough so that terrain already exists before the spawn system triggers for it. This is because I made the spawn system explicitly ask the terrain system that it doesn't try to spawn stuff overlapping terrain (though it uses a fixed radius so it needs a bit improving for multicellular).

Patryk26g · 2025-12-21T15:49:50Z

That's usually the case but when there are multiple physics bodies overlapping, it can get permanently stuck. For example ...
I have tested it with multicellular and didnt notice any issues but I increased the spawning area just to be sure

hhyyrylainen

I didn't yet read the microbe terrain system changes as the diff shows the entire file as new. But here's some overall comments about the other parts of the architecture and how I kind of don't really like how many parts of the system have been dismantled.

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:07:32Z

simulation_parameters/Constants.cs

+    public const float TERRAIN_GRID_SIZE_X = 330;
+    public const float TERRAIN_GRID_SIZE_Z = 315;


These grid sizes seem a bit specific... Any reason why not a round number like 300?

well, when I was messing with it it used to be more rectangular since the screens are wider, so that chunks would spawn further horizontally and less vertically (for example 200x300 but with such low difference now it doesn't make sense to keep it)

That doesn't fully make sense to me because the spawn system spawn radius is a circle, so having more horizontal space doesn't really help with stuck-in-terrain spawns...

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:08:09Z

simulation_parameters/Constants.cs

+    public const int TERRAIN_VENT_SEGMENTS = 6;
+    public const int TERRAIN_VENT_RINGS_MAX = 5;
+    public const int TERRAIN_VENT_RINGS_MIN = 2;
+    public const int TERRAIN_SECOND_VENT_RINGS_MIN_THRESHOLD = 3;
+    public const float TERRAIN_SECOND_VENT_CHANCE = 0.4f;
+    public const int TERRAIN_VENT_OVERLAP_MARGIN = 2;
+    public const int TERRAIN_VENT_RING_HEIGHT_REDUCTION = 10;
+    public const int TERRAIN_VENT_OUTER_RING_HEIGHT = -27;


I haven't read all the code yet, but my impression is that these would be nice to configure from the JSON.

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:08:24Z

simulation_parameters/microbe_stage/biomes.json

      "PotentialClusters": [
        {
          "RelativeChance": 1,
+          "SpawnStrategy": 1,


Please use enum value names here in the JSON so that it is easy to read.

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:08:37Z

src/microbe_stage/MicrobeCamera.tscn

 current = true

 [node name="BackgroundPlane" parent="." instance=ExtResource("2_yrakl")]
+transform = Transform3D(1.1, 0, 0, 0, 1.1, 0, 0, 0, 1.1, 0, 0, -10)


What's this change?

Like I said in the description, I lowered the background image a bit

Ah, okay.
Did you test with the max multicellular zoom out distance to see if the edges of the plane are visible?

Well, I also increased the size of the background to negate it but I will have to check

Somehow I missed that. Otherwise I would have made sure the size to UV ratio is the same so that the visuals aren't stretched differently than before.

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:09:22Z

src/microbe_stage/TerrainConfiguration.cs

        public readonly float Radius;

-        [JsonProperty]
-        public readonly Vector3 RelativePosition;


Why are you removing the advanced chunk configuration from the JSON?

What was the need to include the relativePosition and Rotation there? It can be configured programatically anyway (and it is done so)

unless we want to also define complex structures using only json. If so, I can revert it

unless we want to also define complex structures using only json. If so, I can revert it

That's exactly it. I wanted the JSON to be used to define complex structures.

Okay that makes sense. But I guess it is okay to have 2 ways to define the terrain shapes? One by having it done programmatically like the vents and the other statically in the json?

I'd say that it would make sense to modify the chunk configuration so that it is either a single chunk or a procedurally generated shape.
Or just flat out not permit the sub-group definitions if the spawn shape is one that is automatically calculated.

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:10:09Z

src/microbe_stage/systems/MicrobeTerrainSpawn.ShapesLogic.cs

+/// <summary>
+///   Handles terrain spawning shapes logic
+/// </summary>
+public partial class MicrobeTerrainSystem


Why did you rename the file this system is in but not the class? You should probably revert the file name back. That should also give a more useful diff.

I didn't rename the file, I created second one creating a partial class because in my opinion there was too many lines of code for one file

Partial class files should be named ClassName.PurposeOfPartial.cs so that they are grouped next to each other.

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:10:34Z

src/microbe_stage/systems/MicrobeTerrainSpawn.ShapesLogic.cs.uid

And if renaming back, this file sohuld probably be deleted.

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:11:54Z

src/microbe_stage/Spawners.cs

+        var entity = worldSimulation.CreateEntityDeferred(entityRecorder, TerrainWithCustomCollisionSignature);
+
+        Quaternion rotation;
+        if (chunkConfiguration.RandomizeRotation)


Why did you remove the base rotation feature? Devon said that some of the chunks were clearly meant to also rotate horizontally etc. so I don't think that feature makes sense to remove from this base code...

Honestly, I must have forgot about that...

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:12:39Z

src/microbe_stage/Spawners.cs

        typeof(MicrobeTerrainChunk), typeof(PredefinedVisuals), typeof(Physics), typeof(PhysicsShapeHolder),
        typeof(CollisionShapeLoader), typeof(StaticBodyMarker));

+    private static readonly Signature TerrainWithCustomCollisionSignature = new(typeof(WorldPosition),


I'm reading this and this looks to be the exact same as the TerrainSignature, so why does this exist?

It doesn't have CollisionShapeLoader

Ah, apparently I'm blind then. Still, I recommend changing the name to TerrainWithoutCollisionSignature for clarity as to what the purpose of this is.

hhyyrylainen · 2026-01-07T10:14:05Z

src/microbe_stage/Spawners.cs

+        entityRecorder.Set(entity, new PredefinedVisuals
+        {
+            VisualIdentifier = VisualResourceIdentifier.None,
+        });


This is just a waste if this is meant to be just a collision to even have the visual component in it.

True, I guess I will need to create another signature for that

Patryk26g · 2026-01-18T18:14:29Z

Still haven't fixed all things so please don't review it yet

# Conflicts: # src/microbe_stage/MicrobeCamera.tscn

Patryk26g added 10 commits December 4, 2025 23:09

Cave and vents terrain prototypes

477978e

Spawning improvements

0f7edad

File structure changes

a1da19d

Change spawn logic

9ed168f

Spawn changes

c523691

Merge branch 'refs/heads/master' into new_terrains

e20d081

Optimize collision shapes and lower the microbe background plane down

1829868

Revert to previous grid spawning logic, fix grid borders and increase…

831d473

… their size, refactor some code, add comments

Remove new cave terrain generation (will be in a different PR) and de…

dde59ef

…bugging code

Code cleanup

fb1d39c

github-project-automation bot added this to Thrive Planning Dec 20, 2025

github-project-automation bot moved this to In progress in Thrive Planning Dec 20, 2025

Patryk26g added 3 commits December 20, 2025 13:41

Blank lines before comments

deeadaf

Fix error prints

7012875

Fix despawning I just messed up

06c27ee

hhyyrylainen added this to the Release 1.0.1 milestone Dec 20, 2025

hhyyrylainen added the review label Dec 20, 2025

hhyyrylainen reviewed Dec 20, 2025

View reviewed changes

Patryk26g added 2 commits December 21, 2025 16:32

Improve spawning of chunks without collisions

8cf131e

Increase terrain spawning area

55f1fd6

Remove comment

531004b

hhyyrylainen requested changes Jan 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

Patryk26g added 2 commits January 16, 2026 23:29

Merge branch 'master' into new_terrains

3663457

Revert some changes

fca6495

Patryk26g marked this pull request as draft January 18, 2026 18:14

Patryk26g added 2 commits February 3, 2026 17:43

Merge branch 'master' into new_terrains

c75715a

# Conflicts: # src/microbe_stage/MicrobeCamera.tscn

Fixes

082a4f3


		public string CollisionResourcePath;

		public bool SkipCollisionLoading;

		public const float TERRAIN_GRID_SIZE_X = 330;
		public const float TERRAIN_GRID_SIZE_Z = 315;

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Patryk26g commented Dec 20, 2025 •

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