Yet another planet thread

[Valiant70]

Update on the crazy ideas popping out of my brain: I found a navigation problem with the parallelogram map, but by making the two triangle separate, rotating them a certain way, and introducing SOME seams on the surface (still a lot better than a dodecahedron) it can be fixed more or less. Such seams would be flat, so you could walk across like they weren't there, and could even build across them somewhat due to the improved collision detection from the rail update. Still thinking, so I'll probably get a revised thingy up on my thread sometime after next week.

EDIT: rotating the triangles sort of fixes the navigation issues, but winds up causing double vision because the same thing is on two sides of you at the same time . Looks like dodecahedrons are the best solution for now, so I'll turn my whacky brain loose on some ways to improve the necessary seams.

As far as I can tell, all flat maps will have one or more of the following characteristics:

1. Bent blocks
2. Won't act like a sphere when you walk around on it
3. Double vision (loading two copies of the same thing at different angles)

Therefore we must have a polyhedron map, and dodecahedrons have the smallest angle across vertices, and therefore the smallest distortion (36 degrees or 10% size difference) if you decide to squash them flat. For comparison, a squashed cube has 90 degrees of distortion, or a 25% size change to objects around a vertex. Taking into account some other things I've been thinking about, squashing a dodecahedron's vertices client side relative to the player might not be such a bad solution. The "bending" of visible blocks would be minimal and almost irrelevant.

 

[elzombie]

I'm not a big fan of the current planets either. The thing I liked about the disk planets is they were good to build on, the flatter surface meant you had more space to do stuff. I was wondering if you could keep the flat surface but make the under side rounder. It could either be a sphere or a rougher shape with interesting protrusions and formations. This may even allow for cave networks like the old planets. Although I'm not sure this would work with a planet core. (sorry for the basic pictures, didn't have much time)
View attachment 12218

i love this idea.

 

[Nickizzy]

I think the problem with cube planets(all one piece) is the player, not the ships. Even if they fit in the gravity, ships have no problem switching grav fields. It'd be like flying off a cliff, but that could be a good thing, not a bad one.

The astronaut, when switching plates, has a whole host of problems, from getting stuck to jerking around. The alignment system would need refixing, or atleast a rework on planets.

 

[Valiant70]

I think the problem with cube planets(all one piece) is the player, not the ships. Even if they fit in the gravity, ships have no problem switching grav fields. It'd be like flying off a cliff, but that could be a good thing, not a bad one.

The astronaut, when switching plates, has a whole host of problems, from getting stuck to jerking around. The alignment system would need refixing, or atleast a rework on planets.

If the transitions could be fixed up and made clean enough, cube planets could work. One way I could see doing this is adding wedge and corner shapes for grass and rock and then using those to make six square plates that fit together. You would align to whatever plate's top is facing you. One problem would be that just like the current system, it would be a sudden, disorienting snap when you change plates. However, if the transition were smoothed and animated it might be all right.

 

[Lecic]

If the transitions could be fixed up and made clean enough, cube planets could work. One way I could see doing this is adding wedge and corner shapes for grass and rock and then using those to make six square plates that fit together. You would align to whatever plate's top is facing you. One problem would be that just like the current system, it would be a sudden, disorienting snap when you change plates. However, if the transition were smoothed and animated it might be all right.

Yeah, but if you make the edges and corners of the plates smooth, it's not really a cube anymore, is it?

 

[StormWing0]

hmm so many ideas.

 

[Valiant70]

Yeah, but if you make the edges and corners of the plates smooth, it's not really a cube anymore, is it?

Not smooth, just fit together with wedges on both plates.

 

[Madman198237]

The biggest issue is reconciling the different gravities, especially closer to the center of the planet where the boundary is not clearly defined. A cubic planet is probably the way to go, simply because in a game made of cubes, cubic things function best. Like I said, you just need to figure out if the gravity we have now will work well enough to function at depth.