GPU-Rendered Vegetation Distribution System For A Unity Game

Game Developer August Håkansson has once again demonstrated shaders' magic with this idea for offloading vegetation distribution directly onto the GPU using a noise texture and Sprite Atlas.

The developer explained that it's all in HLSL, some adapted from other shaders, some from scratch, and for those new to shaders, here's a simpler explanation of how it works:

As this is more of a tech show-off, here's how it looks inside the actual game called Beyond The Plastic Wall, a puzzler about "hope, decay, and the things we cannot fix" created by Motvind Studios:

August Håkansson has previously tackled the challenge of creating natural-looking clusters of various vegetation types with differing heights and colors. He experimented with several methods but finally discovered how to use noise textures to do almost all of that directly in the shader using only a single material.

In Beyond The Plastic Wall, you take on the role of a young scavenger embarking on a journey across a strange continent that will lead you to the last city at the end of the world. As you advance through the story, you'll need to repair, manipulate, and solve various mechanical and tactile puzzles, which will become increasingly challenging as you delve deeper into the game.

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