Notifications
Clear all

Chocolate flavoured galaxy

Page 10 / 18

s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  
ollobrain wrote:
the variance looks good the procedural fractual generation might be a goer will we be seeing this in alpha 9 ?

No, the last pic is just for fun. It takes way to long to calculate that much detail. But the pics before of swooping into a canyon might make an appearance, although it may get a little toned down as there's a lot of perlin stuff going on in that, which means it takes a litle longer to calculate the high detail terrain.


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  

It's getting there:

[attachment=600:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-20 08-21-32-63.jpg]

Beach:

[attachment=601:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-20 04-32-46-17.jpg]

Mountain:

[attachment=602:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-20 01-41-30-87.jpg]

😉


ReplyQuote
robn
 robn
(@robn)
Captain Registered
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 1035
 

Oh! These are lovely. I need a holiday...


ReplyQuote
HawkerT
(@hawkert)
Petty Officer Registered
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 16
 
s2odan wrote:
It's getting there!

Absolutely marvelous s2odan, simply gorgeous!

Seeing Gaia like this, smiling to us all from her journey through the vastness of nothing/something, never fails to touch me.

s2odan, you and the guys are doing a tremendous job, thank you!

All the best

Frans


ReplyQuote
Marcel
(@marcel)
Captain Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 1188
 
Quote:
Seeing Gaia like this, smiling to us all from her journey through the vastness of nothing/something, never fails to touch me.

Yeah, there's no place like home!


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  

Thanks people 🙂

Here's a couple of other pics for fun..;)

I may of gone a bit overboard with adding angry spots to gas giants, but tweaking it down a little should look better:

[attachment=610:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-21 04-54-56-37.jpg]

Are those waves?pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-16 00-38-03-50.jpg]

Maybe they aren't but its getting there 😉

Coolhand wrote:
well, like your last shot there, you could get that level of quality and skip a few levels of detail with the fractals... Having built a procedural world or two myself, i know this makes a difference.

This is most likely what will happen, although it will slow things down a bit... perhaps a lot. But the increase in quality is worth it.

Quote:
I've attached a texture if you want to try stuff out, how you want to try it out, or not, is up to you. it was meant to represent perhaps a few square metres, but it might work better over a larger area.

I'm dead against using any pre-made textures. If you use them, your world is no longer truly procedural... it seems like too much of a cheat to me.

Its far better to have fractals do all this for you, costly yes, but the image quality will be far greater and have the correct natural variation you would expect to a landscape.


ReplyQuote
Geraldine
(@geraldine)
Rear Admiral Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 3446
 

If that planet in your last post was re-scaled and tweaked a bit s2odan, it would make a pretty good Venus type world. The colour is spot on, if you pardon the pun <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_redface.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  

That could certainly be done. I'd say the only issue with that would that all the terrain would get coloured as well... But then the atmosphere is so thick on a world like venus that the terrain is already a funny colour.. I'll give this a try 😉


ReplyQuote
Geraldine
(@geraldine)
Rear Admiral Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 3446
 

Here are some pics of the real Venus. Do you see how much they look like your last picture s2odan? The Ultraviolet pic was taken by the Pioneer probe by the way <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  

I'm now torn between what is cool and what is real 🙂

Venus in Pioneer actually looks a lot like the 'real' pic... but obviously the enhanced pic is way more cool 🙂


ReplyQuote
Geraldine
(@geraldine)
Rear Admiral Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 3446
 

In my view, cool is better (nothing wrong with a "little" poetic licence <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//wink3.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' /> ), besides, the second picture is a very low res shot, likely ground based. So exactly how much detail Venus might actually have in it's atmosphere if you were looking at it from orbit, is anyone's guess. I am pretty sure the colour differential, although subtle, would be noticeable.


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  

@ Geraldine. I suppose thats the approach I have taken with terrains as well... generally things are more cool than realistic 🙂 Such as mountain height.

New terrain type in the works, its actually a very highly detailed terrain far more so than before with many terrain features.

The way the terrain is built is a little more advanced and far more logical. It is built in layers such as(This is mainly so I can get this down into words and analyse how the lands are put together):

1: Continents are randomly placed, a noise pattern is then subracted from the continents to produce nice continent shaped land.

2: A basic structure to the land is added, this is at a very high scale using very large noise patterns, which gives the land a very gradual but large change in height.

3: We now fill out that structure with some smaller noise patterns of the same type.. IE if we used ridged before, its good to use ridged now, the patterns will complement each other. This breaks up the gradual change in height with lumps and mountains.

4: More of the same, even smaller detail applied by height over the mountains.

5: Now the mountains are looking pretty real, its time to sort out the rest of the landscape. Whereas the functions for the mountain would all increase in aggressiveness with height, we dont want that any more... we now want features to start at nothing and end at nothing and be large in the middle... hence hills and rolling landscapes for the low-lands. So the same kind of procedure is added for the hills as was the mountains, but using different noise patterns.

6: Same process but for sandy areas now, so they start low, quickly get large then quickly die off to nothing. This allows us to have sand dunes only in sandy coloured areas. And as the colour changes, so does the noise pattern... kind of like textures applied to a material.

7: Final process is to add 3 different noise patterns to the varying heights, these are tiny noise patterns only really used for texturing and help make the land look far better while the player is landed.

And there we have pioneer's most advanced planet so far... we use a lot more aggressive height based effects and a lot more random noise for the distribution of features. But believe it or not, the terrain feels quicker than the previous less detailed 'high quality terrains'.

Anyway... 😀


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  

*continued*


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  

Here's a tweak to Jupiter type worlds by Firemark:

[attachment=621:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-22 18-21-52-34.jpg]


ReplyQuote
Geraldine
(@geraldine)
Rear Admiral Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 3446
 

Yep, shaping up very well s2odan <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> Do you know if the pioneer engine will ever have the ability to render smoke? I would love to see active volcanoes on planets like Io and Venus, heck even the Earth too. Another thing was,in the original Frontier, if you shot at a ship while travelling at a low absolute velocity, smoke used to come off the hull when you hit it with your laser (or forgetting to fit an atmospheric shield while lifting off from a ground based starport <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_redface.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> ). Same was true for missile exhausts too. Would be nice to see smoke in the game, not important by any means, but it would be a nice touch. What do you think?


ReplyQuote
ollobrain
(@ollobrain)
Lieutenant Registered
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 564
 

i like the new planet classes


ReplyQuote
Marcel
(@marcel)
Captain Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 1188
 
Quote:
i like the new planet classes

I'll second that! All it needs are clouds and a water shader to be pretty near perfect! 😀


ReplyQuote
ollobrain
(@ollobrain)
Lieutenant Registered
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 564
 

water clouds and smoke spore manages it but not as sharp guess it depends on graphic capabliities perhaps turning on and off as an option


ReplyQuote
ollobrain
(@ollobrain)
Lieutenant Registered
Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 564
 

water clouds and smoke spore manages it but not as sharp guess it depends on graphic capabliities perhaps turning on and off as an option


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  
Quote:
Do you know if the pioneer engine will ever have the ability to render smoke?

Well like most things the possibilty is there if it is coded into the game 🙂 But smoke probably falls under the same category as water effects I would think... Which means it is possible. I actually asked Tom how one would go about adding in some kind of water effect using animated fractals the other day. 🙂

But don't get your hopes up, we'll have to wait until I have learnt a lot more about how the shaders work until something like that happens, unless one of the other guys would be kind enough to take it up... *hint* 😉

[attachment=624:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-23 04-48-19-78.jpg]

A marshy world with lots of rivers, slightly alien looking:

[attachment=625:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-24 00-43-22-80.jpg]

[attachment=626:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-24 00-44-21-81.jpg]


ReplyQuote
Geraldine
(@geraldine)
Rear Admiral Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 3446
 

Love those "Everglades" worlds s2odan and it is nice to happen upon things like that black mountain. If the game engine can still surprise you after all the work you have put into it, it says a lot! <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_cool.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='8-)' />

As for the smoke and other effects, well, I will keep my fingers crossed for a far distant future release. And s2odan, "animated fractals"! <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_eek.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> I would never have thought of that. <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_cool.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='8-)' />


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  
Quote:
If the game engine can still surprise you after all the work you have put into it, it says a lot! 😎

Thats what makes it so fun 🙂

Pangea:


ReplyQuote
Geraldine
(@geraldine)
Rear Admiral Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 3446
 

Just add dinosaurs! Definite contender for a Slartibartfast award! <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_biggrin.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />

Anther question s2odan <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_redface.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> Trying out the 9.1 alpha, I tried to install Jamie's cool dashboard Icons. But they are out of place. I guess the dashboard must have changed from the early alphas. I checked their sizes and they seem the same as the original ones. Can't figure why they dont fit though <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_confused.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':?' /> . His font still works though and it seems nicer to look at than the standard one.


ReplyQuote
s2odan
(@s2odan)
Captain Registered
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1212
Topic starter  
Quote:
Just add dinosaurs! Definite contender for a Slartibartfast award! 😀

Hehe, thanks 🙂

And a more Earth-like continental world with some fake continental drift 😉 :

[attachment=632:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-24 01-31-19-07.jpg]

[attachment=631:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-24 01-31-32-64.jpg]

Is that Australia? 😉 :

[attachment=630:pioneer-msvc-9 2011-03-24 01-32-54-34.jpg]


ReplyQuote
Geraldine
(@geraldine)
Rear Admiral Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 3446
 

Amazing! <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_cool.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='8-)' /> Except this time just add hunter-gathers <img src="' http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_lol.gi f"' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />


ReplyQuote
Page 10 / 18