Creeping Ivy

This category controls the topological "family tree" of the vine. 

• Ivy Max Vertex Limit: The maximum vertex limit for the Vine mesh itself. Since its generating a Dynamic Mesh component, it is not a nanite mesh, a safety measure not to explode your computer.

• Ivy Smoothing Iterations: How many times the smoothing algorithm runs. 0 disables smoothing. 2 to 3 provides highly organic curves. 

• Ivy Smoothing Strength: How aggressively each node is pulled toward its neighbors (0.0 to 1.0). 0.5 is a safe, natural default.

Note: Smoothing occurs before leaves are spawned, ensuring leaves always perfectly anchor to the relaxed curve.

• Tube Sides: The geometric resolution of the branch cylinder. 3 creates a cheap triangular vine, 8 creates a perfectly smooth round vine. 

• Min Thickness / Ivy Max Thickness: Defines the taper of the branches. The base of the vine will start at Max Thickness and smoothly taper down to Min Thickness at the tip. Secondary branches calculate their own relative thickness based on their depth. 

This category controls the topological "family tree" of the vine. 

• Ivy Seed: The master random seed. Changing this completely alters the shape and decisions of the vine while maintaining the same "rules." 

• Ivy Grow Iterations: The maximum lifespan of the simulation. Higher numbers mean longer vines. 

Ivy Max Branch Depth: Controls the hierarchy of branching.

• 0 = One single main vine.

• 1 = The main vine can spawn secondary branches.

• 2 = Secondary branches can spawn tertiary branches, and so on.

• Branching Probability: A modifier (0.0 to 1.0) dictating how often a branch decides to fork. The simulation uses a bell-curve weight, meaning branches are most likely to spawn from the middle of a parent vine rather than clumping at the base or tip. Note: The engine is hard-throttled to allow only one new branch per growth step globally to prevent infinite geometry explosions.

Note1: The value is inverted, the smaller the value the more vines would be spawned. 

These parameters act as the physical "forces" guiding the vine's searcher shoots through the environment. They are blended together every step. 

• Ivy Step Size: How far the vine advances per iteration. Smaller values create highly detailed, curvy vines but cost more performance. 

• Primary Weight: The vine's desire to grow in a straight, continuous line. High values create long, sweeping vines; low values create erratic, tangled clumps. 

• Random Weight: The amount of organic "wobble" or circumnutation added to each step. 

• Adhesion Weight: The strength of the vine's thigmotropism (desire to touch objects). High values will aggressively pull the vine flat against walls and floors. 

• Gravity Weight: How strongly the vine is pulled downward. This force scales dynamically; it applies heavily to mid-air floating branches but is minimized when the vine is safely anchored to a wall. 

• Ivy Max Adhesion Distance: The radius of the vine's "sight." If a wall or floor is within this distance, the vine will bend toward it to grab hold. 

• Max Float Length: How far a branch can dangle into thin air before the simulation kills it. Simulates the mechanical failure limits of unsupported searcher shoots. 

• Float Jitter: Adds random variation to the Max Float Length so multiple dangling branches don't all die at the exact same invisible threshold. 

• Max Ground Crawl: If set above 0, the vine will die if it crawls flat across the floor for too long without finding a vertical wall to climb. 

Controls the procedural distribution of foliage using advanced phyllotaxis math. 

• bSpawn Leaves: Master toggle for leaf generation. 

• Leaf Start Distance: Leaves will not spawn on the first X units of the vine, mimicking older, bare, lignified woody bases. 

• Leaf Spacing: The distance along the curve between each leaf node. 

• Spiral Phyllotaxy Angle: The botanical divergence angle. For true spiral plants (like Bougainvillea), use the Golden Angle: 137.5°. For decussate (paired) plants like Peppermint, use 90°. 

Smart Context Override: If the vine is crawling on a wall or the floor, it ignores this angle and switches to an alternating planar fan, flattening leaves left and right against the surface to maximize sunlight while avoiding clipping into the mesh. The spiral angle is only used when branches dangle in mid-air. 

• Base Leaf Size / Scale Jitter: The average scale of the leaf meshes, plus random variation so they don't look cloned. Leaves also automatically scale down at the very tips of the vines to simulate new growth. 

• Rotation Jitter: Adds organic imperfection to the calculated phyllotaxis rotations. 

• bSpawn Flowers: Master toggle for floral generation. 

• Flower Placement Rule: 

1. Axillary Interval: Flowers grow along the sides of the stem (like Bougainvillea or Jasmine). They inherit the sun-facing phototropism of the leaves but add a random twist. 

2. Terminal Only: Flowers only bloom at the very tip of the branches (like Roses or Sweet Peas). They flow naturally out of the vine's forward direction, blending slightly away from walls to prevent clipping. 

• Flower Interval: (Only applies to Axillary). The vine will skip this many leaf nodes before spawning the next flower. 1 means a flower at every leaf; 3 means every third leaf. 

• Base Flower Size / Flower Scale Jitter: Controls the scale of the floral meshes independently of the leaves.