Plants
A garden needs plants
We need the plants in the garden to grow with time and also change as they are tended or neglected. Rather than draw a lot of bitmaps (which would take a lot of work and storage) we are going to render the plants algorithmically.
The graphic shows a maple tree rendered in the Bible Garden growing to full size and then losing its leaves as it is neglected.
As the tree grows, the trunk and branches increase in size, and leaves sprout and grow in size. As they grow, the leaves sway gently as though a breeze is blowing through the garden.
There are a few points where the algorithm is not smooth – and a new branch suddenly appears, or a new crown of leaves appears from nowhere – we may need to work on this in due course.
In the app, as long as a plant is tended, it will stay fresh and healthy: but if a plant is neglected the leaves start to discolour, and then the tree starts to loose its leaves until just a bare tree is left.
It might be cool to have the leaves fall to the ground – but see /the-main-thing/
There is also a small random element built into the algorithm so that two plants of the same type planted next to each other will look slightly different – different twists in the branches etc.
