4 ms·

Elevation Control

231 points by dougb5 9y ago

Flux159 9y ago
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.redblobgames.com/maps/terrain-from-noise/ http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/polygon-map-generation/ http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/...
- mungoid 9y ago
  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.
  - Ashlyn55 9y ago
    Start working at home with Google! It’s by-far the best job I’ve had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for 6474 dollars this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least 177 dollars per hour.I'm Loving it!!!!check ------>>>https://is.gd/qKRnJt https://is.gd/qKRnJt
theandrewbailey 9y ago
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.
- robinhoodexe 9y ago
  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_generation http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Advanced_world...
  - wyldfire 9y ago
    I wonder if this game would be more compelling if they wrote a renderer that wasn't limited to the resolution of a text font? I'm sure the current DF fanbase isn't interested and might even be repelled. But I also think it might open it up to a new audience that otherwise hasn't/wouldn't consider it.
    - CleaveIt2Beaver 9y ago
      Have you heard of Armok Vision? It's a 3D visualizer being developed by modders so that you can view your fortress in 3D (I think even in real-time).[1] [1]https://github.com/JapaMala/armok-vision https://github.com/JapaMala/armok-vision
- diggernet 9y ago
  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 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=74337 [2] Terrain generation using procedural models based on hydrology http://arches.liris.cnrs.fr/publications/articles/SIGGRAPH2013_PCG_Terrain.pdf 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 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3028601
- amitp 9y ago
  You may find World Machine interesting: http://www.world-machine.com/about.php?page=features http://www.world-machine.com/about.php?page=features
Animats 9y ago
Terrain generation is usually fractal, and you can start from a plane, or a hand-created surface and let the fractal algorithm fill in detail. That's old. The cool new thing was seen in Moana, where the water surface generation allowed animator control with the water being a character. That created an uncanny valley problem. When the water "goes character", it looks a bit strange, because it suddenly stops obeying physical laws. That's OK for a Disney princess story, but used with high rendering realism it looks wrong.
akx 9y ago
I had kind of the inverse idea some time (years) back -- generating polygonal contour maps, and heightmaps out of them. See the demo here: http://akx.github.io/islands/ http://akx.github.io/islands/

231 points by dougb5 9y ago

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.redblobgames.com/maps/terrain-from-noise/ http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/polygon-map-generation/ http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/...

mungoid 9y ago
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.
- Ashlyn55 9y ago
  Start working at home with Google! It’s by-far the best job I’ve had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for 6474 dollars this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least 177 dollars per hour.I'm Loving it!!!!check ------>>>https://is.gd/qKRnJt https://is.gd/qKRnJt

theandrewbailey 9y ago

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.

robinhoodexe 9y ago
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_generation http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Advanced_world...
- wyldfire 9y ago
  I wonder if this game would be more compelling if they wrote a renderer that wasn't limited to the resolution of a text font? I'm sure the current DF fanbase isn't interested and might even be repelled. But I also think it might open it up to a new audience that otherwise hasn't/wouldn't consider it.
  - CleaveIt2Beaver 9y ago
    Have you heard of Armok Vision? It's a 3D visualizer being developed by modders so that you can view your fortress in 3D (I think even in real-time).[1] [1]https://github.com/JapaMala/armok-vision https://github.com/JapaMala/armok-vision
diggernet 9y ago
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 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=74337 [2] Terrain generation using procedural models based on hydrology http://arches.liris.cnrs.fr/publications/articles/SIGGRAPH2013_PCG_Terrain.pdf 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 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3028601
amitp 9y ago
You may find World Machine interesting: http://www.world-machine.com/about.php?page=features http://www.world-machine.com/about.php?page=features

Animats 9y ago

Terrain generation is usually fractal, and you can start from a plane, or a hand-created surface and let the fractal algorithm fill in detail. That's old. The cool new thing was seen in Moana, where the water surface generation allowed animator control with the water being a character. That created an uncanny valley problem. When the water "goes character", it looks a bit strange, because it suddenly stops obeying physical laws. That's OK for a Disney princess story, but used with high rendering realism it looks wrong.

akx 9y ago

I had kind of the inverse idea some time (years) back -- generating polygonal contour maps, and heightmaps out of them. See the demo here: http://akx.github.io/islands/ http://akx.github.io/islands/