Turn an authored Unreal Landscape into a persistent, runtime-editable world without switching to voxels.

TerraDyne preview

TerraDyne is an MIT-licensed Unreal Engine 5.7 plugin for teams building survival, sandbox, and open-world games on top of Unreal Landscapes. It starts from the world you already authored, converts that terrain into a runtime-managed framework, and then layers persistence, replication, population state, procedural extension, and gameplay hooks on top.

If you have consulting and/or custom pipeline integration in mind: I offer dedicated architecture consulting for production games & projects. 📬 Please contact me or see my extended portfolio. 👨‍💻

Authored Unreal Landscape
 ↓
Landscape conversion + foliage transfer + paint capture
 ↓
Persistent runtime terrain
 ↓
Population state + procedural outskirts + gameplay hooks

This repo is no longer just a terrain deformation prototype. TerraDyne now targets a broader runtime world workflow:

• 🏞️ keep the authored Landscape pipeline
• ✏️ sculpt and paint terrain at runtime
• 🌿 carry over foliage and actor foliage
• 💾 save and restore world state
• 🌐 replicate terrain and world metadata
• 🧱 plug into survival and sandbox gameplay systems

• 🏗️ Authored world conversion Landscape import, paint layer capture, placed foliage transfer, actor foliage transfer, save/load, and replicated chunk state.
• ⛏️ Runtime terrain editing Raise, lower, smooth, flatten, paint layers, undo/redo, and runtime tool controls.
• 🌲 Persistent world population Register placed actors, place new runtime actors, persist harvest and destruction state, and restore regrowth-ready entries from saves.
• 🧬 Procedural extension Seeded outskirts, biome overlays, runtime spawn rules, optional edge growth, and PCG-ready point export.
• 🎮 Gameplay hooks Navmesh dirtying, AI spawn zone queries, build-permission checks, biome queries, Blueprint APIs, and terrain/foliage/population change delegates.
• 🧰 Designer workflow World presets, scene setup templates, and a full feature showcase flow for first-run evaluation.
• 🖼️ Hybrid visual path CPU-authoritative terrain with optional render-target-assisted visuals layered on top.

• Survival games that need editable terrain plus persistent world state
• Sandbox builders that want authored terrain instead of a voxel-first workflow
• Open-world prototypes that need runtime hooks for AI, spawning, and permissions
• Unreal teams who want Landscape-based production workflows with gameplay-friendly runtime systems

• Unreal Engine 5.7
• GeometryScripting
• VirtualHeightfieldMesh
• Win64 is the currently packaged and validated target in this repository

1. Copy the TerraDyne plugin folder into your project's Plugins/ directory.
2. Enable GeometryScripting and VirtualHeightfieldMesh.
3. Regenerate project files.
4. Build the Development Editor target for your project.

1. Add BP_TerraDyneManager if you want direct terrain control.
2. Add ATerraDyneSceneSetup if you want a template-driven setup flow.
3. Choose a scene template: Full Feature Showcase, Sandbox, Survival Framework, or Authored World Conversion.
4. Import an authored Landscape or initialize a runtime world directly.
5. Press Play and use the TerraDyne panel to sculpt, paint, save/load, or run the showcase flow.

• README.md → product overview and entry point
• DEMO.md → showcase sequence and demo templates
• CHANGELOG.md → release history
• docs/runtime-world-framework.md → population, procedural, and gameplay-layer APIs

• TerraDyneEditor builds cleanly on Unreal Engine 5.7
• Automation RunTests TerraDyne passes with 16 TerraDyne tests

• 🛒 Fab version
• 📘 TerraDyne Manual

MIT. Code by Andras Gregori.