Planetary Generation

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by Teod, August 25, 2013.

  1. Teod

    Teod Well-Known Member

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    Let's talk about planet generation. I think there are few things missing. Well, of course they are, it's an alpha, but let's discuss them anyway...

    First, biomes.
    In the last livestream someone said that earth-type planets have seven or nine biomes. But neither Lava or Metal planets seem to have them. In case of lava you can say that they have those glowy oceans, but this is not exactly a biome, is it? Just impassable (theoretically) area. But possibilities are quite broad. You can have obsidian deserts, cracky and rocky "tectonic" areas, volcanic areas, and those little lava ponds with tight passages that you scrapped.
    Metal planets are also just metal. You can have biomes there. Skyscraper mountains, antennae forests, destroyed/unfinished parts. Even ponds and canals for limited use of naval stuff. You can even have different types of metal planets:
    [​IMG]
    And combinations of any two of those four.
    And moons... They seem to have biomes (areas with and without big craters), but I don't think they make real difference. Cracks and mountains there would be nice too. And moon craters don't look like that, by the way.

    Other things I want to talk about are starting positions and metal spots.
    (Please, correct me if I'm wrong. I actually have no idea how current algorithms work and my assumptions are purely speculative. I'm also not a programmer, so my solution to this problem is also speculative.)
    It seems now that metal spots are placed pretty much randomly during planet generation. Starting positions are also almost completely random, but placed later, when the actual game starts. That may lead to very confusing and imbalanced positions.
    My proposition is: Algorithm should create terrain first. Then, looking at it, seeing choke points, open areas, rough terrain, oceans and other stuff, it should place possible starting positions in roughly equally comfortable places. And then, recognising all of the above, place metal spots accordingly. And at the start of the game you only need to define, which starting positions are available and which are not, depending on numbers of teams and players.
  2. bobucles

    bobucles Post Master General

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    I'd like to point out that computers do not have "eyes" or "judgement" and must be told explicitly how everything is supposed to work.

    So, uhm... good luck with that.
  3. Teod

    Teod Well-Known Member

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    Why are people so picky about phrasing? All I meant is that algorithm should be able to recognise those things and base its work around them.
  4. comham

    comham Active Member

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    Obviously he meant that the algorithms should be written in a smart style that tends to create appropriately arranged terrain. Like the current one.
  5. zihuatanejo

    zihuatanejo Well-Known Member

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    Regarding planetary generation in general, how moddable will this be? Procedural terrain generation is a passing hobby of mine, largely derived from my larger passion for all things fractal! I'd be really interested in tinkering with the planet/terrain generation code. I haven't looked at modding PA yet, just poked some of the JS and HTML files etc.

    And whilst I'm on the topic of planet generation - good work so far! It is really cool :D
  6. RMJ

    RMJ Active Member

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    TBH im not sure if its just me, but im not even getting all biomes close to on earth planets.

    Mine has sand, forrest and thats it. very rarely is there anything else.

    Mine looks nothing like in their live stream.

    The mountains is pretty much none existant, as is the rocks, huge cracks in the ground and stuff.

    All planets still have a lot of work to be done. they are no where near completed. planets feel very flat atm, to flat. its a bit boring to play and look at.

    I personally hope for more verticallity.

    Im sure more sliders in the planet generation will help as well. being able to adjust % of each biome. how tall mountains, and stuff.
  7. Raevn

    Raevn Moderator Alumni

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    All planets have a "base" biome which is nothing more than a flat texture, and it's this biome that the metal spots are currently generated on (they are just features though, which means they can be placed on any biome). The placement of these is currently random, in clusters.

    As for how moddable the planet types are; the answer is extremely (entirely, even). There are blueprints for each biome, which control whether they can exist, what features and meshes are on them, decals etc. Features, meshes and decals also have their own moddable blueprints. There are then blueprints that specify the different planet types, and what biomes appear where.

    You can see more here: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/reference-planet-type-biome-feature-decal-blueprints.48572/ (not quite up-to-date with the latest changes, but still mostly accurate)

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