Paint the world. Watch it breathe. Trails wear. Moss creeps. Rivers carve. Fire scorches.
The terrain texture authority for poqpoq World.
Terraformer · Dungeon Master · Animator · Skinner · Landscaper · World
Most game engines paint terrain once. An artist opens a brush tool, stamps grass here, rock there, saves, ships. The ground is dead — a photograph of a moment that never existed.
Splatter takes a different approach. Terrain in poqpoq World is alive. Paths wear down under foot traffic. Moss creeps into the cracks of old cobblestones. Torch fire scorches the dungeon floor. Rain softens hard earth to mud. An AI companion plants a moon seed, and over fifty metres the soil darkens, crystallizes, glows.
None of this is hand-painted. None of it is random. It's systemic — a seven-layer compositor where each layer has a clear owner, a clear purpose, and a clear relationship to the world simulation running beneath it.
Splatter is the painting tool, the compositor architecture, and the creative interface that ties it all together.
Every texel on the ground is the result of seven layers evaluated in order. Some are baked at world creation. Others change every frame.
| Layer | Name | What It Does | When It Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Height / Slope Mask | Steep slopes get rock. Flat land gets grass. Physics. | World generation only |
| 2 | Base Noise | Natural variation — no two patches of dirt look the same | World generation only |
| 3 | Biome Overlay | Seasons shift. Deserts creep. Snow lines rise and fall. | Slow drift on game-time |
| 4 | Path Network | Trails, roads, rivers carved into the landscape | When paths are edited |
| 5 | Object Influence | Torches scorch. Water seeps. Trees shade. Moon seeds glow. | When objects move or change |
| 6 | Maker Paint | Your brush. Your rules. Direct creative control. | When you paint |
| 7 | Transient FX | Footprints. Spell burns. Rain puddles. Gone in minutes. | Every frame, with decay |
Layers 1-2 come from Terraformer (the heightmap editor). Layers 3-5 and 7 are evaluated at runtime by World (the game engine). Layer 6 is Splatter's domain — the maker's creative canvas.
Splatter is a standalone micro-app launched as a sandboxed iframe from three different hosts — Terraformer (during world design), World (during live play), and Dungeon Master (for indoor surfaces). It communicates with its host via a postMessage API and has no engine dependencies.
| Tier | For | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | All makers | Brush, erase, smear, opacity — direct painting |
| 2 | Experienced builders | Rule composer — slope > 45° → rock, height < 5m → sand |
| 3 | World owners & admins | Physics painter — author object influence halos, review AI proposals |
- Layer Compositor UI — visual stack of all seven layers with blend controls
- PathStyleEditor — per-path material assignment, edge moss, wear simulation, intersection rules
- AI Proposals Panel — review, approve, or reject terrain changes proposed by AI companions
- Preset Library — shareable texture rulesets published to the maker community
- TextureCatalog — shared browsable palette of PBR materials used across all BlackBox tools
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ HOST APPLICATION │
│ (Terraformer / World / DungeonMaster) │
└──────────┬──────────────────────────┘
│ postMessage API
┌──────────▼──────────────────────────┐
│ SPLATTER │
│ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Layer Compositor UI │ │
│ │ ┌─────┐ ┌─────┐ ┌─────────┐ │ │
│ │ │Tier1│ │Tier2│ │ Tier3 │ │ │
│ │ │Brush│ │Rules│ │ Physics │ │ │
│ │ └─────┘ └─────┘ └─────────┘ │ │
│ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │
│ │ PathStyleEditor │ │
│ ├────────────────────────────────┤ │
│ │ AI Proposals │ Presets │ │
│ └────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
│ TextureCatalog (shared module) │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
Splatter sits at the intersection of four teams. See comms/Comms.md for the running coordination thread and docs/ for each team's planning documents.
| Team | Repo | Relationship to Splatter |
|---|---|---|
| Terraformer | BlackBoxTerrains | Provides baked Layers 1-2, spline metadata, path distance fields |
| World | poqpoq-world | Hosts Splatter iframe, runs runtime compositor, consumes Layer 6 data |
| DungeonMaster | BlackBoxDungeonMaster | Consumes TextureCatalog for dungeon surface materials |
Splatter is in design phase. The four-team ADR process is active. No implementation has begun.
- ADR-001 — Terrain Texture Authority & Module Topology (Accepted)
- Cross-team planning documents exchanged (all four teams)
- Layer ownership and module boundaries agreed
- ADR-002 — Path System / SDF Contract (Terraformer drafting)
- ADR-003 — postMessage API & Module Boundaries (Splatter drafting)
- ADR-004 — Maker Three-Tier Access Model (Splatter + World)
- ADR-005 — Dirty-Flag Evaluation & Spatial Tracking (World)
- ADR-006 — Event Log Schema & AI Terrain API (World)
- Shared texture format agreement (all teams)
- Phase 1 implementation begins
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| ADR-001 — Terrain Texture Authority | The foundational architecture decision record |
| ADR-001 — Remaining Work | Open questions and follow-on ADRs needed |
| Cross-Team Coordination | Terraformer team's coordination plan |
| World Team Division of Labor | World team's proposed responsibilities |
| DM Team Recommendations | DungeonMaster team's consumer-focused analysis |
| Comms Hub | Running cross-team coordination thread |
| How Terrain Painting Works (ELI5) | Progressive introduction to dynamic terrain texturing |
New to terrain texturing? Start with How Terrain Painting Works — a progressive guide that builds from "what is a splatmap?" to the full seven-layer compositor model.
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Terraformer | Heightmap editing, terrain generation, path curves |
| World | AI-first metaverse — the runtime engine |
| Dungeon Master | Living dungeon editor with octile grid system |
| Animator | GLB animation editor with IK |
| Skinner | Vertex weight painter |
| Landscaper | Procedural world population |
| Avatar | Character creation tool |
This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.
Built for poqpoq · The ground remembers everything.