Outerra forum
Outerra Engine => Ideas & Suggestions & Questions => Topic started by: Mark on March 09, 2012, 01:34:55 pm
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Hi, first thing I'd like to say is that this is amazing. A fantastic piece of work. My suggestion is regarding the relationship between latitude, altitude slope steepness and the terrain cover i.e. trees, grass, snow etc. It would be very cool if the vegetation type changed as you went to higher latitudes or altitudes (you do this to some extent but all the tree's are pines at the moment). In the Himalayas for example, below about 1000 meters its jungle, up to 2500 meters its temperate forest, up to 4000 meters pines and 5000 meters grass. Also, at very high altitude, and latitude, the snow tends to stick even to very steep slopes, up to 50 or even 60 degrees. This would be cool too. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this.
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It's being worked on. There's several threads on this. It's going to be a while though.
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Cool, I'm looking forward to this
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Would be good to differentiate the Northern and Southern Hemispheres especially when talking about their individual weather systems.
I think it has been discussed widely as well but again I think that we should go as diverse as we can when it comes to different eco systems.
We could have different species as per the habitat they live in in real life I.E birds, mammals, and all other creatures running and swimming around. Let's make this world feel alive.
Why not also put aircraft in the air and give them some schedules...this should be in another thread I think...
Let's have cyclones and thunderstorms based on the season and create a real dynamic weather system so you never know what you're going to fly or drive in.
Let's give ice to the winters and freeze up the lakes that should be frozen. Let's create droughts where there is little water.
Why not create the base package with these crucial elements and let developers add the objects from the diverse repository.
If the wind is up and storms are present we could see wave heights change based on the wind strength.
Hek, perhaps if the engine permits, let add volcanoes that steam and perhaps given the right events create an earthquake or two (this might be induced rather than a dynamic thing) depending on what purpose the Engine is used for I.E war games, Flight Simulation, World Trade etc...
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Two more items on my mind...
cloud shadows would be nice and really set the stage for as real as it gets.
Finally, lakes, rivers, and seas could reflect the wind strength around these water bodies. If the lake is sheltered then perhaps have a water look glassy and still. If the lake is around hills that create katabolic winds then the lakes could be a little more choppy and look that way. That sort of thing.
My thinking here is that Climates are changing and non static so we need to try and make as much as we can dynamic. A challenge but something truely to be proud of if you can pull it off.
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Hi again
Here's a simplified model for an Earth-like planetary climate system based on real climatological models. It would involve dividing the globe into slices along latitude, probably slightly randomising the precise locations, though keeping the relationships between them correct, so for example, moving all the zones to a higher latitude and spreading them further apart for a warmer planet. The model would provide average wind direction and speed for different altitudes, significant for flight sims and well as providing probabilities for variable or extreme weather events. Factors relating to terrain are not taken into account but could be added, especially as wind direction would give a vital clue for handling that. Likewise continental interiors would tend to be dryer, especially on the leeward side e.g. west coast of usa and this model would support that.
Cloud types would depend on the zone in which they are found. Equatorial clouds would tend to be Cumulus or cumulo-nimbus with a lot of high clouds. The tropics i.e. desert zones would tend to have only a few high clouds, and the polar front weather systems would tend to have stratus and stratocumulus clouds with high clouds on the leading edge. Polar regions would be the same as desert. The chances of precipitation could then be based on the overlying cloud type. The zones would mostly merge into each other, perhaps the probabilities of any given weather type gradually changing as latitude changes. The exception would be at the polar front where in reality it's a series of waves traveling around the globe with the weather systems i.e. clouds / rain etc on their leading edge and clearer, cooler weather on their trailing edge. I don't know how hard it would be to model that, but it could be simulated by placing the randomly sized circles around the globe, centered on the temperate latitude line, roughly equally spaced with the polar front weather systems placed on the leading edge and wind direction corresponding to the anticlockwise direction, and moving them around the globe in the right direction and randomly growing and shrinking them.
Temperature would tend to be highest at the tropics, lowest at the poles, most variable at the temperate regions (except for day night temperature changes in the desert and mountains) and least variable at the equator. Seasons could be simulated just by moving the whole zone system north or south by the specified amount.
It would be interesting to find out more about extra-terrestrial weather patterns for other kinds of models. Does this model look like a possibility for climate simulation?
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Marshes or farmlands (reclaimed by nature, of course) seem like an important bit on my list of things.
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Farmlands are a biggie in my area. :P You know what I might do? I might take a dirt road(s) and stretch them as wide as I can to make the cornfields. ;D
I honestly can't wait for trees to be more... everywhere because New England (USA) is looking very bare without them.
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I honestly can't wait for trees to be more... everywhere because New England (USA) is looking very bare without them.
Yeah and Houston needs a lot of dead brown shrubs and grass. 8)
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I honestly can't wait for trees to be more... everywhere because New England (USA) is looking very bare without them.
Yeah and Houston needs a lot of dead brown shrubs and grass. 8)
LOL!!!! Best description I've heard of Houston yet!
(Although my brother had one I can't repeat publicly :) ... makes me laugh even harder knowing he lives there now, after saying he'd never live there lol)