Purpose

Sprite Wind applies the same Wind Manager field to an ordinary SpriteRenderer outside a Vegetation Area. Use it for hanging plants, flags, vines, signs and decorative sprites that should move with the vegetation.

Perspective

  • Platformer — stable lateral field response for Vertex, UV and Vine Wind.
  • Top-down — full 2D field response using the same directional response controls as vegetation types.

Copying and multi-object editing

Sprite Wind always owns the SpriteRenderer on the same GameObject. Copy/Paste Component and duplicated objects automatically rebind to their local renderer, so changing one object's Cheap/Advanced mode cannot retarget or replace another object's material.

  • Select several Sprite Wind objects to edit Receive Wind, Perspective, mode, response, Vine settings and Advanced presets together.
  • Mixed Cheap/Advanced or deformation modes stay mixed until you explicitly choose one toolbar option; choosing an option applies it to the whole selection.
  • Gust Preview is intentionally single-object only. It is hidden during multi-object editing so preview animation never becomes a hidden per-selection cost.

Modes

  • Vertex Wind bends geometry and is the normal choice when the silhouette should move.
  • UV Wind distorts texture sampling while the silhouette stays fixed. With no authored mask it uses full strength.
  • Vine Cheap uses a stateless length-preserving rooted bend driven directly by the current wind-field displacement and velocity. It is suitable for very large counts and does not run a sine wave from root to tip.
  • Vine Advanced uses a persistent articulated GPU Verlet chain for lag, overshoot and settling. Bend Segments become hinge connections; choose Bottom or Top anchor based on where the sprite attaches.

Vine Cheap motion model

Cheap mode starts from the authored straight root-to-tip line, applies the current wind-field displacement, then projects every longitudinal row back to its original distance from the anchor. This spherical/radial length-preservation step prevents horizontal wind from stretching the sprite into a long shear. The rendered width is rebuilt perpendicular to the resulting local centerline tangent, so the sprite visibly bends instead of translating row-by-row.

  • Inertia / Lag — temporal delay derived from wind-field velocity; it is not a periodic oscillator.
  • Curve Bias — shapes how quickly wind displacement builds from root to tip before the length-preservation projection.
  • Natural Variation — stable per-instance compliance variation, not phase randomness.
  • Droop / Shortening — optional small loss of radial reach; Cheap never permits unconstrained length growth.

A steady wind pulls primarily on the free tip and settles the linked chain into a bent pose. Rapid changes make the tip lead while tension propagates through the segment joints, producing swing, lag and overshoot while every link remains length-limited. Use Vine Advanced when articulated secondary motion is required.

Vine Advanced budget and presets

TypeSet vegetation and standalone Sprite Wind share one 1000-slot Advanced Vine pool. Keep Advanced Vine Winds at or below 1000 active vines in a game. If compute shaders are unavailable or the pool is full, those vines remain visible and automatically use Vine Cheap.

  • Bend Segments controls the chain resolution up to 12 segments.
  • Bend Resistance is a local hinge constraint between neighboring links; it is strongest near the anchor and progressively relaxes toward the free end.
  • Wind Response is tip-dominant: the free node receives the main aerodynamic load, while a small distributed load keeps long chains responsive; link constraints transmit the pull toward the anchor.
  • Advanced rendering follows the simulated links directly: each span is straight and Bend Segment connections remain visible hinge points instead of being smoothed away by a spline.
  • Presets: Soft Rope, Natural Vine, Stiff Stalk and Heavy Hanging provide useful starting points for the physical controls.
  • Damping, Wind Response, Tip Freedom, Gravity and Solver Iterations remain editable after applying a preset.
  • Use Cheap for background/mass vegetation and Advanced for nearby hero vines, ropes, signs or plants where secondary motion matters.