Small Progress Update – Procedural Generation Walls

We have a small progress update to share for one of the big features that we’ve been working on – procedural generation walls! Previously, our walls for the game were functioning more as individual objects rather than one big connected piece. This was a quick and easy solution, but not viable for long-term optimization and stability, and it did introduce quite a few bugs. Sooner or later, we needed to switch to a better method for handling walls in the game, and that’s when we decided to work on a procedural generation wall mesh system. This effectively improves the game’s optimization by automatically combing connected walls into one object rather than hundreds of individual ones per each segment. Additionally, it also allows for complex shapes to form as each segment is actually two triangles formed together. These can be height adjusted, width adjusted, and eventually we’ll add more shape functionality as well – this is useful for unique situations where you need a complexly-shaped wall, most commonly for “roof walls”, the wall generated underneath exposed portions of a roof. By joining segments together automatically, this allows the game to render walls on-the-fly when building, and the game can interpret exactly how each segment should meet. Previously, the engine would need to perform a quick asset swap for creating corner-walls, which introduced lots of problems with texturing and rendering. With this new procedural generation wall system, we can deliver a more optimized game with more creative freedom!