NeuralRegen: GPU-Accelerated Biological Sprites for Godot 4

Turn any static sprite into a self-regenerating organism.

NeuralRegen is a Godot 4 plugin that uses Neural Cellular Automata (NCA) running entirely on the GPU via Compute Shaders. It allows you to create destructible, self-healing materials with zero CPU overhead.

The Tech (Why use this?)

Most "destructible terrain" scripts run on the CPU and kill performance. NeuralRegen runs 100% on the GPU (RenderingDevice).

• Zero CPU Cost: Your game logic runs free while the GPU handles the biology.
• Universal: Drag & Drop ANY texture (Pixel Art, High-Res, Noise). It learns the shape instantly.
• Two Visualization Modes:
  • Pixel Mode: Nanobot-style digital reconstruction (Great for Cyberpunk/Retro).
  • Organic Mode: Flesh/liquid healing with distortion shaders (Great for Horror/Sci-Fi).
• Hackable: The logic is just GLSL. You can modify the biology.

Installation

1. Download this repo.
2. Copy the addons/self_healing_creature folder into your Godot project's addons/ folder.
3. Go to Project -> Project Settings -> Plugins and enable SelfHealingCreature.
4. Restart Godot (sometimes required for new shaders to compile).

Quick Start

1. Add a SelfHealingCreature node to your scene (instead of a Sprite2D).
2. In the Inspector, drag your sprite into the Target Texture slot.
3. Run the Game.
4. Right-Click & Drag on the sprite to damage it and watch it heal.

API & Scripting

You can damage the entity from any script (Bullets, Swords, Lasers) using the public API.

# Example: A Bullet Script
func _on_collision(body):
    if body.has_method("apply_damage"):
        # Hit at global position with a radius of 5.0 pixels
        body.apply_damage(global_position, 5.0)

Advanced: Hacking the Engine

This plugin is not a "Black Box." It is an Open Source foundation for GPU simulation.

• Want Square Damage? Open addons/self_healing_creature/shaders/nca.glsl and change the distance check.
• Want Faster Growth? Tweak the growth_speed multiplier in self_healing_node.gd.
• Want New Visuals? Edit shaders/display_mask.gdshader to change how the "Guts" look.

You have full access to the Compute Pipeline.

The Research

This plugin runs a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) that was trained to "grow" shapes. The training code (Python/PyTorch) and the research behind the weights can be found in my research repo: https://github.com/windstorm12/neural-CA-Automata

License

MIT License. You are free to use this in commercial projects, modify it, and sell games made with it. Created by Windstorm.