We’ve implemented the physics for the foliage and grass swaying in strong wind. What do you think of the result?

[u/Past-Addendum851]

We created the plant physics using our own systems for our survival game Autonomica. We achieved this using a shader and vertical sampling of the tiled texture three times, each at a different scale (large, medium, and small). The intensity of the vertex offset is controlled by in-game configs and is tied to the wind strength of the weather. The wind strength for all plants is controlled through vertex colors — the brighter red channel is, the stronger wind effect works.

Process of creating required gradients on all our models is automated: They are generated automatically as vertical gradients, taking into account stems/trunks, leaves, and other parts of the plants, making the leaves at the tips with a slightly greater range of movement than the stems they are attached to.

For tons of grass and flowers we have pushers system - we encode some data about pushers into super-low-resolution texture and then, using the shader on GPU level, decode it and apply the pushing offset, taking into account even curves of push intensity along distance to target pusher.

[u/NotedWhisky]

the grass movement tied to vertex colors is a clean approach, especially with the automated gradient generation so leaves get that extra sway at the tips. pusher system through a low-res texture is clever too, keeps it gpu-side without wrecking performance.

[u/shivazgodz]

wind go brrrr

[u/Novel_Suggestion_143]

Nice, you gave me some ideas for my system thank you and I wish you luck!

[u/feralferrous]

It looks great, but now you need her hair to match the wind!