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[k0mpjut0r]

Hello,

recently I read the Ringworld books by Larry Niven, and was fascinated with the whole concept. For those that do not know, it is a ring surrounding a star with a diameter of ~1 AU (150M Km) with a width of ~1.6M Km. It achieves a gravity ~1g by rotating at a velocity of 1200km/s, and has 1600km high rim walls to hold the atmosphere. It has the surface area of 3 million times the surface area of Earth, with rivers, oceans, mountains, etc. Similar concept was used in the game Halo.

I was thinking of creating a visualization of the Ringworld (and found some earlier attempts and artwork), maybe include it in a space-exploration game. The problem is the scale of the whole thing. I was looking at several algorithms and complete engines, and so far Outerra looks very promising. I want to achieve something similar to following image, only I want to scale from space down to "human size":



I wanted to ask several questions:
[list=*]

• Is it (or will it be) possible to use Outerra to generate terrain on non-sperical bodies, like the inner side of a ring?[/*]
  
• Does Outerra support planetary-size occlusions, like the eclipse? (the Ringworld has "shadow squares" to simulate night and day).[/*]
  
• Can Outerra generate completely new landscape, or is it dependent on real-world heightmaps?[/*]
  

[cameni]

We discussed some issues such a world will bring here already.

Presently Outerra supports only spherical worlds, ringworlds would require several changes in multiple places, most notably a different geometry generator and new atmospheric simulation code. The shadow squares would be probably best simulated in the atmospheric code as well.

Terrain is derived from heightfield data that were processed into special format. This format can be also generated on the fly semi-randomly, effectively creating random planets. However, we are not following this path yet, because we'd be pedantic and it would take quite some time until it can generate planets that look realistic and believable. Our goal will be something in between - the ability to roughly sketch the planet, the continents, mountain ridges, land classes, and to have the generator producing everything else, including river network, volcanoes, mountains etc. It should be possible to hand place some features while leaving the others to the generator.

[k0mpjut0r]

I thought that it would require such modifications. I'm currently reviewing my options, if it is feasible to create such visualization. That's why I asked in "ideas & questions".

It is good to hear that you are thinking about generating things like mountains and river networks, it will definitely make generated worlds more realistic. Maybe generated signs of civilization (fields, roads, cities) would come next

Inak skvelá práca, držím palce do nového roku, nech ste lepší ako konkurencia

[cameni]

Vďaka, budeme sa snažiť