Paint during Play

Enter Play Mode, select a Vegetation Area, and open Tools > Modern 2D Vegetation > Runtime Painter. Paint or erase in Scene view. The regular Scene Painter is for Edit Mode. Runtime Painter is an Editor tool, so it does not add a painting UI to your Player build.

Keep the placements you want

Normally, plants you add, move or remove during Play return to their previous state when you stop. To keep your changes, select the Area, expand Keep Runtime Edits and enable Save on Stop. Set it before Play if you want Unity to remember the checkbox. It also saves if you disable the Area or leave its scene during Play.

Save Runtime Edits Now saves the plants as they are right now. If you change them again afterward, save again or enable Save on Stop to keep the later changes. These saves update World Data, the project file that stores your plant placements. They never create or replace a backup.

This saves plant positions and the appearance stored on those plants. It does not save changes to GameObjects, the Area's settings, the Type Set, painted maps or wind. Cutting, destroying and regrowing are separate gameplay effects and are not included in this placement save.

Save a checkpoint

if (!VegetationAPI.TrySaveRuntimeEditsToEditor(area, out string reason))
    Debug.LogWarning(reason);

// Or opt into automatic saving in Editor Play Mode:
area.SaveRuntimeEditsOnStop = true;

Call this after closing any runtime edit batch. It writes a project file, so use it when the user chooses to save, not every frame. In a built game this call returns false and tells you that Editor saving is unavailable. Use your own game-save code for player progress.

Keep one manual backup

Stop Play, select the Area and open Keep Runtime Edits > Manual Backup. There are three buttons. Nothing creates a backup until you click Save Backup.

  • Save Backup copies the current plant placements. There is one backup for each World Data asset. Clicking Save Backup again replaces that copy; it does not add another dated file.
  • Load Backup replaces the current placements with the ones you backed up. The backup stays available, so you can load it again. Area settings, sprites, Type Sets and painted maps are not restored.
  • Delete Backup removes the backup file. It does not change the plants in your scene.

For example: click Save Backup before experimenting, enter Play and paint, then stop. Keep the result with Save on Stop, or return to your earlier plants with Load Backup. Only click Save Backup again when you want the new result to become your restore point.

Backups are compressed files in <project>/VegetationBackups/Manual. The Inspector shows the date and file size. Use the buttons to manage them; do not copy a .vegetationbackup file over a World Data .asset. Large worlds still need space for one full placement snapshot and temporary space while it is replaced.

If you used an earlier version, its dated files in VegetationBackups/RuntimeEdits are left alone. The new controls do not create more of them. You can remove those older files yourself once you no longer need them.

When two Areas use the same World Data

Those Areas share their saved plants and the same manual backup. Saving one Area changes the data both will use after Play. Use a separate World Data asset for each Area that needs its own plants and restore point. A save is refused if another session has already changed that file, so an older session cannot overwrite the newer work.

Assign World Data before entering Play. If saving is refused, read the message in the Inspector: the file may be read-only, a runtime batch may still be open, or the World Data or Type Set may have been reassigned. Stop Play before using the three backup buttons.

Two different kinds of change

  • Bend, Cut, Destroy, Grow and Regrow change how existing plants react or look during the game.
  • Place and Paint add plants. Erase and Harvest remove plants. In Editor Play Mode, these placement changes are kept only if you save them.

Painted maps are edited before Play

Density, Noise, Color and Placement Mask are painted maps saved in your project. Edit them with the regular Scene Painter while Play is stopped. During Play, add or remove plants with Runtime Painter or your scripts instead.

Runtime API →

Interaction Manager →