Elevation Control

#1

Post by dougb5 » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 1:57 AM UTC

Re: Elevation Control

#2

Post by Flux159 » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 2:29 AM UTC

I see blog posts from redblobgames posted sometimes and I really like how in-depth the explanations are. I remember reading about 2d height maps and map generation for a side project I was working on a while back and the explanations he gave for why he was using a particular algorithm were fantastic (in addition to the interactive demos):

http://www.redblobgames.com/maps/terrain-from-noise/

http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/...

Re: Elevation Control

#3

Post by mungoid » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 2:56 AM UTC

Flux159 wrote: post #2

I see blog posts from redblobgames posted sometimes and I really like how in-depth the explanations are. I remember reading about 2d height maps and map generation for a side project I was working on a while back and the explanations he gave for why he was using a particular algorithm were fantastic (in addition to the interactive demos): http://www.redblobgames.com/maps/terrain-from-noise/ http://www-cs-students.sta…

Totally agree. It was years ago when I found their blog post about hexagonal grid generation and it was the most informative one I had seen anywhere. Still is today. Plus the interactive parts give the sections so much more meaning.

I often find myself reading posts on their site just for the heck of it.

Re: Elevation Control

#4

Post by theandrewbailey » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 3:29 AM UTC

Unless it's modeling islands, I find most terrain generators unnatural, at least from above. I wonder how feasible (and realistic looking) it would be to build a terrain generator using a bunch of fluid simulation to model plate tectonics, weather, and erosion.

Re: Elevation Control

#5

Post by robinhoodexe » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 4:43 AM UTC

theandrewbailey wrote: post #4

Unless it's modeling islands, I find most terrain generators unnatural, at least from above. I wonder how feasible (and realistic looking) it would be to build a terrain generator using a bunch of fluid simulation to model plate tectonics, weather, and erosion.

Look into Dwarf Fortress. The world generation is incredibly complex and realistic. The community-driven wiki is helpful as always[1]. Not only is the physical world generation impressive, the generated history and lore is amazing as well.

[1] http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Advanced_world...

Re: Elevation Control

#6

Post by diggernet » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 4:45 AM UTC

theandrewbailey wrote: post #4

Unless it's modeling islands, I find most terrain generators unnatural, at least from above. I wonder how feasible (and realistic looking) it would be to build a terrain generator using a bunch of fluid simulation to model plate tectonics, weather, and erosion.

F. Kenton Musgrave has done work on that, starting with this paper in 1989 [1]. Here is a more recent paper which references his work (among many others) [2]. Also [3].

[1] The synthesis and rendering of eroded fractal terrains

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=74337

[2] Terrain generation using procedural models based on hydrology

http://arches.liris.cnrs.fr/publications/articles/SIGGRAPH20...

[3] Large Scale Terrain Generation from Tectonic Uplift and Fluvial Erosion

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3028601

Re: Elevation Control

#7

Post by amitp » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 4:51 AM UTC

theandrewbailey wrote: post #4

Unless it's modeling islands, I find most terrain generators unnatural, at least from above. I wonder how feasible (and realistic looking) it would be to build a terrain generator using a bunch of fluid simulation to model plate tectonics, weather, and erosion.

You may find World Machine interesting: http://www.world-machine.com/about.php?page=features

Re: Elevation Control

#8

Post by trynewideas » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:01 AM UTC

theandrewbailey wrote: post #4

Unless it's modeling islands, I find most terrain generators unnatural, at least from above. I wonder how feasible (and realistic looking) it would be to build a terrain generator using a bunch of fluid simulation to model plate tectonics, weather, and erosion.

Just tectonics:

- http://davidson16807.github.io/tectonics.js/blog/

- https://sourceforge.net/projects/platec/

Tectonics with simulated weather:

- http://experilous.com/1/blog/post/procedural-planet-generati...

Just fluid dynamics:

- http://www.fracterra.com/wilbur.html

Re: Elevation Control

#9

Post by pmichaud » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:03 AM UTC

theandrewbailey wrote: post #4

Unless it's modeling islands, I find most terrain generators unnatural, at least from above. I wonder how feasible (and realistic looking) it would be to build a terrain generator using a bunch of fluid simulation to model plate tectonics, weather, and erosion.

I've looked heavily into implementing this. It would take some years, even with a team.

Re: Elevation Control

#10

Post by onion2k » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 5:46 AM UTC

theandrewbailey wrote: post #4

Unless it's modeling islands, I find most terrain generators unnatural, at least from above. I wonder how feasible (and realistic looking) it would be to build a terrain generator using a bunch of fluid simulation to model plate tectonics, weather, and erosion.

There are factors in games that mean something 'real' probably wouldn't result in a great map. Foremost is the fact the real world doesn't care whether or not there are places where a person can get stuck. A game world has be be designed in a way that means the player can't get stuck in places they can go to, and can't go in to places where they could get stuck. Depending on the game type, the map also often acts as a 'corridor' forcing the player to move through a series of locations in order. Features like that move a game map away from something real really fast.