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Spaceship Generator

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Re: Spaceship Generator

#21

Post by Retr0spectrum »

moron4hire wrote: post #10
maxander wrote: post #6

I saw the headline and initially assumed it would be some droll Game of Life invention. Then I thought, no, maybe its some automatic sci-fi art generation script. And I was rewarded! Procedural generation like this is quite possibly key to the future of indie games- if you don't have the team to design large sets of art assets, its important to be able to put something pretty out there using your own wit. (A good exa…

You are severely underestimating the effort good procedural content takes.

And perhaps you are severley underestimating the effort large-scale world assets take to create.

I agree that doing procedural generation properly takes a lot of work, but there's a reason that AAA open-world games like GTAV cost hunderends of millions of dollars to develop.

Re: Spaceship Generator

#23

Post by moron4hire »

sowbug wrote: post #14
moron4hire wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are severely underestimating the effort good procedural content takes.

But it does scale better, doesn't it? Seems that would be the case if more tools and libraries like this one were open-sourced.

Not really. The problem with procedurally generated content is making interesting iterations. Sure, you can have a million space ships just as easy as one, but will anyone care about them? It is a different sort of work, but of equal effort, to "just" modeling the content.

Re: Spaceship Generator

#24

Post by smcameron »

When I tried to run it, I got:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/spaceship_generator.py", line 737, in File "/spaceship_generator.py", line 711, in generate_spaceship AttributeError: 'BevelModifier' object has no attribute 'offset_type'

I ran it with Blender 2.69

Re: Spaceship Generator

#25

Post by duncanawoods »

I don't really like most procedural generation. It has no meaning and the results are not intellectually stimulating. At best you can't spot the pattern and parameters but you usually can after a few examples.

An idea I am more interested in is that you generate requirements and use an optimiser to solve the actual design. This way, there is a hidden "why". With some study, a human might be able to discern why x is so thick or why A is attached to B. When a design has a use in mind then it has meaning.

Re: Spaceship Generator

#26

Post by jacquesm »

duncanawoods wrote: post #25

I don't really like most procedural generation. It has no meaning and the results are not intellectually stimulating. At best you can't spot the pattern and parameters but you usually can after a few examples. An idea I am more interested in is that you generate requirements and use an optimiser to solve the actual design. This way, there is a hidden "why". With some study, a human might be able to discern why x is s…

> I don't really like most procedural generation.

The demo scene has some mind-blowing stuff.

Re: Spaceship Generator

#27

Post by smcameron »

smcameron wrote: post #24

When I tried to run it, I got: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/spaceship_generator.py", line 737, in File "/spaceship_generator.py", line 711, in generate_spaceship AttributeError: 'BevelModifier' object has no attribute 'offset_type' I ran it with Blender 2.69

Works with 2.77a though.

Re: Spaceship Generator

#28

Post by lotyrin »

duncanawoods wrote: post #25

I don't really like most procedural generation. It has no meaning and the results are not intellectually stimulating. At best you can't spot the pattern and parameters but you usually can after a few examples. An idea I am more interested in is that you generate requirements and use an optimiser to solve the actual design. This way, there is a hidden "why". With some study, a human might be able to discern why x is s…

Yeah, as I was watching the animation for the algo, I was thinking how nice it'd be if you added purpose to all these segments and features, then produced ships for various applications through fitness algorithms and evolution.

Simulate a small space economy, create a DAG of how components and materials are produced, simulate situations this ship will be placed in and calculate net present value, see the outcome in the difference between a freighter and a fighter.

Re: Spaceship Generator

#29

Post by duncanawoods »

jacquesm wrote: post #26
duncanawoods wrote: post #25

I don't really like most procedural generation. It has no meaning and the results are not intellectually stimulating. At best you can't spot the pattern and parameters but you usually can after a few examples. An idea I am more interested in is that you generate requirements and use an optimiser to solve the actual design. This way, there is a hidden "why". With some study, a human might be able to discern why x is s…

> I don't really like most procedural generation. The demo scene has some mind-blowing stuff.

Demoscene is awesome but I see one off generation as a type of compression. What I have in mind is games where procedurally generated families of things are supposed to be interesting and worth exploring and discovering. I find those underwhelming.

Re: Spaceship Generator

#30

Post by y4mi »

hetfeld wrote: post #22

There is an error in script. seed = 'tweer' obj = generate_spaceship(seed) Python can't redefine functions as variables. Seed is a function.

i'm not the author but i frequently code in python and am unable to understand what you're saying from that snipped of code.

1. you can overwrite everything in python

2. seed has been set to a string

3. obj uses the value of previously set 'seed' variable, which should be a string at that point.

its not a good idea, like overwriting the id variable, but it should work...

and just in case somebody wonders: its still possible to use the "true" seed() by calling it over __builtins__.seed()

i did similar stuff previously without realizing and only found out about this after i switched to a real IDE that warned me about overwriting inbuilt functions

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