Foliage

Foliage is configured per biome through Foliage Data Asset references.

Foliage Data Asset

A Foliage Data Asset contains a list of foliage entries. Each entry can define:

• one or more mesh variants
• density
• spawn distance
• scale range
• culling distance
• terrain alignment
• height and slope limits
• collision behavior
• rendering behavior
• optional LOD entries
• optional deterministic clustering across chunk boundaries

Mesh Variants

Each foliage entry has a Meshes array. Each mesh variant has:

Field	Description
Mesh	Static mesh to spawn.
Probability Weight	Relative selection weight, normalized among valid variants in the entry.

Each LOD entry has a Meshes array aligned by index with the base variants. An empty LOD slot falls back to the corresponding base mesh. LODs can also change activation distance, WPO state, and density scale.

Density Masks

Foliage density can be multiplied by a terrain vertex-color channel:

• None
• Red
• Green
• Blue
• Alpha

Invert Density Vertex Color Mask flips the mask so dark areas spawn more foliage and bright areas spawn less.

Use this together with Planet Vertex Color Output in the generation material.

Placement Filters

Common placement controls:

Setting	Description
Min Height / Max Height	Height range for spawning.
Min Slope / Max Slope	Slope range for spawning.
Align To Terrain	Rotates instances to terrain normals.
Depth Offset	Moves instances relative to the terrain surface.
Use Absolute Height	Treats height as always zero.
Uniform Scale	Uses one random value on all axes; when disabled, X/Y/Z are randomized independently inside the Scale interval.

Clustering

Enable Clustering to create deterministic groups that continue across chunk boundaries. Cluster Size Min and Cluster Size Max control the number of members; Cluster Radius controls their spread. The maximum is clamped to at least the minimum during asset validation.

Runtime Limits

The spawner can globally scale or limit foliage:

• Generate Foliage
• Global Foliage Density Scale
• Foliage Upload Batch Size
• Max Foliage Instances Per Chunk
• Max Concurrent GPU Generations
• Max Pooled Foliage ISM Components
• Max Pooled GPU Foliage Components

GPU and CPU Rendering Paths

Foliage can use GPU foliage components when collision is disabled. Use Force CPU ISMC if you need CPU-backed instanced static mesh components even without collision.

Pass Terrain Vertex Color To Custom Data exposes nearest terrain vertex color as four per-instance custom data floats.

Rendering controls also include:

• Enable WPO and WPO Disable Distance; a zero disable distance leaves WPO enabled at all distances
• Visible In Ray Tracing
• the spawner's Foliage Shadow Cache Mode: Accurate preserves animated WPO shadows, while Cached keeps rigid shadows cached for lower invalidation cost