Rust Procedural Caves Rework: New Cave Entrances and Map Fixes

Facepunch is rebuilding how Rust makes caves. On November 5, a set of commits called "Procedural caves" landed on a branch: new generator code, a new step in map setup, new cave entrances, and the old cave segment and cave monument prefabs removed.

This is work in progress. All of it sits on a branch called procedural_caves_2, and Facepunch has not said which update it is for. The same day also brought two map fixes that players will notice: spawn points on fake beaches and buried rail lines.

What the procedural caves commits show

The work comes from andre and is split into 7 numbered parts. Here is what each part says, in plain words:

• Part 1, generator code. New cave generator code with configurable limits, new placement checks and a new "Cave" infrastructure type.
• Part 2, map setup. A new caves step in World Setup, the stage list the game runs when it builds a map. It also merges cave dressing, adds a mine entrance volume and removes old cave scene labels.
• Part 3, a new entrance. A new cave entrance C with arid cliff models and prefabs.
• Part 4, more entrances and tests. Procedural entrances A and B, plus a ProceduralMapCave setup, test scenes and a cave hull preset.
• Part 5, cave pieces move. Cave segments move to an autospawn cave-segment group, and the old cave segment prefabs are removed from the bundled caves.
• Part 7, old monuments go. A commit removes the old cave monument prefabs.

We did not find a part 6 in the commit feed. It may be one of the hidden commits, or it may not be pushed yet.

What it could mean for players

The commits talk about code and prefabs, not gameplay, so this part is our guess. The branch removes the old cave monument prefabs. Removing the old cave monuments and adding a generator with placement checks suggests caves will be built from parts on each map instead of dropped in whole. That could mean more varied caves from wipe to wipe, and new looks such as the arid cliff entrance.

What we can say for sure is that the old cave prefabs are being taken out. Players who know every cave layout by heart may have to learn new ones when this ships. Custom maps that use the old cave prefabs may also need changes, which matters for servers that do not use the game's own map generator.

Spawn beaches and lighthouses fixed

Jakb fixed a problem with landlocked lakes near the spawn beach. Some of those lakes counted as ocean, so they could create spawn points. After the fix, players can only spawn on true beaches.

The same fix stops lighthouses from spawning inland instead of off the beach. Both the monument placer and the spawn handler now use an outside-in flood fill to check for real connected ocean.

For players, that means fewer spawns on the shore of a small inland lake that looks like a beach but is not one.

Buried rails get lifted

Rail lines on generated maps could end up buried under terrain. The commit says this came from terrain smoothing on cliff backfaces and from the rail and road terrain stages. Jakb added a new World Setup stage 80 called Rail Lift that looks for buried rail and gently raises it. Overlapping rails, junctions and sidings are lifted together so junctions still line up.

The commit says it was tested on 5 map seeds in the editor, with better rail visuals and no issues using the workcart, and the stage takes 0.4 seconds. A follow-up commit extends Rail Lift to also fix floating rails, which could happen at a junction where one rail goes uphill.

Both of these fixes are on their own branches and are not live yet. This is the same kind of cleanup we covered in our post on map generation fixes for ice lakes and canyons.

FAQ

Is Rust changing caves? The commits show a new procedural cave generator and new entrances, with the old cave segments and cave monuments removed. It is work in progress on a branch.

When will procedural caves come out? There is no date. Facepunch has not said which update the caves branch is for.

Why did I spawn next to a lake instead of the ocean? Some inland lakes counted as ocean. A commit fixes that so players only spawn on true beaches.

Will this change custom maps? Probably for maps that use the old cave prefabs, since those are being removed. That is our guess from the commits.

Sanguine Rust

Sanguine Rust is a PVE server with zombies, bosses and skill levels. We test every Rust build on a test island before moving our islands over. See what Sanguine Rust is about, or read how Rust updates and forced wipes work.

Source: Facepunch commits