Cascade

Cascade is a complete rewrite of Godot's rendering pipeline using compute shader ASTs. Think of it as a game engine within a game engine: visual shader graphs that compile to optimized GPU code and drive everything from terrain generation to ecosystem simulation.

The core innovation is treating shader graphs as live data. Each graph saves as a simple .tres file that can be shared across networked gameplay systems.

Water runoff, soil quality simulation, and multipass terrain erosion all run in compute shaders. Rain falls, carves channels, deposits sediment, and changes soil composition. The landscape literally evolves as you play.

Procedural vegetation that actually makes sense. Trees spawn based on soil moisture, elevation, and local ecosystem parameters. The system currently handles 4 million trees at 60fps on an M4 MacBook through aggressive GPU culling and automated level-of-detail.

Automatic imposter generation creates 2D billboards from 3D models at runtime. Distant forests render as thousands of smart sprites that orient toward the camera and fade seamlessly back to full geometry as you approach.

Even grass gets the full treatment: individual blades respond to wind, grow based on soil conditions, and render at massive scale without frame drops. The compute shader pipeline handles millions of grass instances with per-blade physics.

Character systems use modular JSON configs for networked customization. Swap armor pieces, adjust proportions, change textures: everything streams efficiently across multiplayer sessions. The same shader graph system that generates terrain also drives character rendering.

Real-time destruction adds another layer to the simulation. Structures break apart with realistic physics, debris affects terrain erosion, and destroyed areas gradually regrow vegetation based on the underlying soil simulation. Every explosion leaves lasting environmental impact.

Cascade pushes GPU compute to its limits while staying developer-friendly. With more optimization and polish, this could become the foundation for truly massive multiplayer worlds where every detail is procedural, persistent, and physically simulated.