Pollen

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-06

Overview

pollen is a non-persistent FX prefab that emits and animates a field of floating pollen particles using the VFX system. It creates a visual layer that reacts to environmental conditions — such as time of day and local temperature — modifying particle motion and behavior accordingly. It is not a component in the traditional ECS sense (i.e., it is a prefab, not a reusable Component class), but behaves as a self-contained entity used for atmospheric rendering. The effect is centered on the entity's world position and respects terrain (particles do not spawn over impassable tiles like water).

Usage example

-- Create and spawn a pollen effect at a given world position
local pollen = SpawnPrefab("pollen")
if pollen ~= nil then
    pollen.Transform:SetPosition(x, y, z)
end
-- Pollen runs continuously via EmitterManager and updates automatically

Dependencies & tags

Components used: None identified
Tags: Adds FX tag; checks TheWorld.state.isday, TUNING.WILDFIRE_THRESHOLD, and GetLocalTemperature(inst)

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
particles_per_tick	number	0 (statically defined as 0)	Target particle emission rate per tick. Currently unused (set to 0).
num_particles_to_emit	number	0	Accumulator used to emit particles in batches based on tick-based rate.
time	number	0	Accumulated time (in seconds) used for time-varying acceleration.
interval	number	0	Counter tracking ticks for periodic acceleration updates (refreshes every 10 ticks).

Main functions

emit_fn()

• Description: Generates a single pollen particle at a random position within a defined horizontal box area around the entity, adjusting vertical offset to avoid spawning underground. Skips spawning over water (impassable tiles). Modifies velocity and lifetime based on global and local environmental conditions (e.g., daytime and high temperature increase upward drift).
• Parameters: None (closes over inst, effect, emitter_shape, TheWorld.Map, TheWorld.state, and GetTemperatureAtXZ).
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Spawning silently skips particles over impassable tiles — no explicit error handling or notifications.

updateFunc()

• Description: Main update loop executed by EmitterManager. Emits buffered particles (based on particles_per_tick), updates particle acceleration using time-varying sine/cosine patterns (different behavior for warm daytime vs. other conditions), and maintains time and interval counters.
• Parameters: None (closes over inst, effect, worldstate, and GetLocalTemperature).
• Returns: Nothing.

inst:PostInit()

• Description: Performs an initial warm-up of the particle simulation by simulating ~MAX_LIFETIME seconds of updates in a fast-forward loop (at dt = 1/30). Ensures particles appear immediately without waiting for the first frame to build up.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing.

Events & listeners

None identified