The blog post and the companion video (and shader source code) explain an erosion technique which emulates gorgeous branching gullies and ridges without simulation, while still allowing every point to be evaluated in isolation, which means it’s fast, GPU-friendly, and trivial to generate in chunks.
The video was really well done, very interesting even though I’m not very familiar with the subject. Is this the sort of thing that would go into a game like No Man’s Sky to improve the planet generation?
Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
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Re: Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
#12Re: Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
#13Re: Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
#14Be interesting if we can start getting 3D games with random maps that are realistically generated and have interesting features in the future.
Re: Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
#15I enjoyed Dwarf Fortress random map generation because it simulated erosion pretty well. Small creeks started in the mountains and flowed to the ocean getting larger as it went. Deep valleys and waterfalls too in places made for interesting maps. Be interesting if we can start getting 3D games with random maps that are realistically generated and have interesting features in the future.
Source: I'm a core dev for Veloren, which uses a very detailed hydrological simulation for its world generation. More info here: https://veloren.net/blog/devblog-43/
Re: Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
#16Any remember the 90s software Terragen and Vue3d?
Re: Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
#17Any remember the 90s software Terragen and Vue3d?
I loved playing around with KPT Bryce so much. IDK if it ever was used productively, but it was so ahead of its time.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryce_%28software%29#/media/Fi...
Re: Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
#18Some of the techniques here seem to be motivated by physical processes (e.g. rain). I wonder if that could be taken further to derive the whole process?
Re: Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
#19I enjoyed Dwarf Fortress random map generation because it simulated erosion pretty well. Small creeks started in the mountains and flowed to the ocean getting larger as it went. Deep valleys and waterfalls too in places made for interesting maps. Be interesting if we can start getting 3D games with random maps that are realistically generated and have interesting features in the future.
It is worth noting that although the result here is visually impressive for erosion aesthetics, it is also not practical for the generation of physically-plausible lakes and rivers. Proper hydrological simulation is required because non-local information is crucial, something which this shader technique doesn't attempt to simulate. Without that, you're likely to end up with rivers flow uphill and lakes that don't pro…
Re: Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is worth noting that although the result here is visually impressive for erosion aesthetics, it is also not practical for the generation of physically-plausible lakes and rivers. Proper hydrological simulation is required because non-local information is crucial, something which this shader technique doesn't attempt to simulate. Without that, you're likely to end up with rivers flow uphill and lakes that don't pro…
Veloren is awesome! Thanks for the work you do, I’ve enjoyed playing it quite a bit. It’s been a while so maybe time to check it out again soon.