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Lifecycle of a Foliage Instance

Instance  →  hit  →  Foliage Actor spawned, instance hidden
                         │
                         ├─ harvested Max Uses times  →  depleted  →  destroyed after Depleted Life Time
                         └─ not depleted              →  destroyed after Max Life Time
                                                              │
                         instance respawns (if Enable Respawning)  ←┘

1. The instance takes damage​

When a foliage instance that uses the FoliagePluginComponent takes point or radial damage on the server, the plugin:

  1. Looks up the instance's mesh in the Foliage Data Table. Instances whose mesh is not in any row are ignored.
  2. If Require Damage Type is on, checks the damage type and amount. If the check fails, the player gets On Foliage Error Message and nothing else happens.
  3. Spawns the row's Foliage Actor Class at the instance's transform, with the instance's mesh.
  4. Applies the same damage to the new Foliage Actor, so the first hit counts as a harvest.
  5. Hides the instance by moving it down by Hidden Foliage Move Distance.

2. The Foliage Actor is harvested​

Each hit on the Foliage Actor with more than 0 damage:

  1. Sends the row's Rewards on Harvest to the player with On Foliage Harvested. See Foliage Plugin Interface.
  2. Reduces Remaining Uses by 1 and calls BPE On Foliage Damaged.

A new Foliage Actor starts with Max Uses remaining uses. Hitting an actor with no uses left sends On Foliage Error Message with No Uses Left.

You can change all of this by overriding Handle Foliage Damage and Handle Foliage Reward. See Foliage Actor and the Health example.

3. The Foliage Actor is depleted​

When Remaining Uses reaches 0:

  • On Foliage Depleted and BPE On Foliage Depleted are called on the server and every client.
  • If Simulate Physics on Depletion is on, the mesh starts simulating physics. See Simulating Physics.
  • The actor's lifetime is set to Depleted Foliage Actor Life Time.

4. The Foliage Actor despawns​

A Foliage Actor is destroyed when its lifetime runs out:

  • Foliage Actor Max Life Time after it was spawned, if it was never depleted.
  • Depleted Foliage Actor Life Time after it was depleted.

If an object of one of the Blocked Respawn Object Types (by default Pawns) is within Block Foliage Despawn Radius, the actor is not destroyed yet. Its lifetime is extended by another Foliage Actor Max Life Time. This stops actors from disappearing in front of players.

5. The instance respawns​

If Enable Respawning is on for the row, the server tries to respawn hidden instances every Foliage Respawn Rate seconds. An instance respawns when all of these are true:

  • It has been hidden for at least 20 seconds.
  • The Foliage Actor spawned from it has been destroyed.
  • No object of the Blocked Respawn Object Types is within Block Foliage Respawn Radius of it.

If Enable Respawning is off, the instance is removed instead and never comes back. Removed instances are still saved and replicated.

Seeing the blocking checks

With Enable Debugging on, each blocking check draws a sphere for 10 seconds: green when an object blocks, red when it does not.