Highmaps and building sites for planets

[NeonSturm]

The planet would be a bitmap with following data:

1. Height
2. Ore shown yes no

Then there would be a depth map containing 00/01/10/11 bits for nothing, ore1, ore2, lava or plant depending on height.

All other things such as which types ore1,ore2 and plant actually are are defined by the biome.

When a player builds, he creates a building site.


This would allow for bigger planets.

 

[Byamarro]

The planet would be a bitmap with following data:

1. Height
2. Ore shown yes no

Then there would be a depth map containing 00/01/10/11 bits for nothing, ore1, ore2, lava or plant depending on height.

All other things such as which types ore1,ore2 and plant actually are are defined by the biome.

When a player builds, he creates a building site.


This would allow for bigger planets.

As far as I remember there is an issue with mapping flat area to sphere, as it often leaves tons of visual artifacts.

 

[Valiant70]

As far as I remember there is an issue with mapping flat area to sphere, as it often leaves tons of visual artifacts.

It can be done if the surface isn't made of voxels. I'm sure it's challenging, but it is possible. Given the preview of Minecraft-like terrain that we got a while back, I'd say that's not a direction Starmade is going however.

 

[Byamarro]

It can be done if the surface isn't made of voxels. I'm sure it's challenging, but it is possible. Given the preview of Minecraft-like terrain that we got a while back, I'd say that's not a direction Starmade is going however.

MC is made of voxels as well, so your post is kinda inconsistent.

 

[NeonSturm]

As far as I remember there is an issue with mapping flat area to sphere, as it often leaves tons of visual artifacts.

We have the same problem now unless we start mapping a thorus cylinder.

The problem today is we load chunks below others first, loading invisible chunks every time.

 

[Byamarro]

We have the same problem now unless we start mapping a thorus.

The problem today is we load chunks below others first, loading invisible chunks every time.

Could you elaborate about torus? How can it represent a planet?

I don't think that heightmaps is a good solution, consider using heightmap for this:

 

[NeonSturm]

Could you elaborate about torus? How can it represent a planet?

I don't think that heightmaps is a good solution, consider using heightmap for this:

Hollow Earth - Wikipedia
You don't need to make it hollow, but this way you would have an actual north and south, not like today.

And for your picture, the structures on top would be either a second layer of blocks which is still faster than loading whole chunks.
Or building sites which are between the upper and lower highmap layer. The upper is a collision highmap for big stuff.
It's not that important to have if you have fast-loading planets.

 

[Byamarro]

Hollow Earth - Wikipedia
You don't need to make it hollow, but this way you would have an actual north and south, not like today.

And for your picture, the structures on top would be either a second layer of blocks which is still faster than loading whole chunks.
Or building sites which are between the upper and lower highmap layer. The upper is a collision highmap for big stuff.
It's not that important to have if you have fast-loading planets.

Your solution just at the beginning of discussion starts to uncover various situations that need to be handled in unique ways, like construction sites for player created buildings and treating different planet structures with different algorithms. Every such exception leads to hidden complexity that might not be visible until implementation, or late planning.
Besides that this game still has huge issues with gameplay. The devs promised some time ago various stages of gameplay but we're still far from it, and it's far bigger priority imho than planets which are not really useful (unfortunately!) right now.

 

[NeonSturm]

True, but a thorus is nothing else but a double-sided cylinder if done right.
Cylinders can be mapped to 2D planes.
I'd guess it's a lot easier on the CPU than the current implementation and more useful with less continent-borders.

With current planets, you have to collision-check with at least 3 entities.
You cannot fly through canyons to your base - it is just not big enough.

Also we need atmospherical dampening and speed caps.

 

[Valiant70]

MC is made of voxels as well, so your post is kinda inconsistent.

I thought you were talking about using a heightmap instead of voxels. Your Post is kinda unclear.

 

[Byamarro]

I thought you were talking about using a heightmap instead of voxels. Your Post is kinda unclear.

I were.

It can be done if the surface isn't made of voxels. I'm sure it's challenging, but it is possible. Given the preview of Minecraft-like terrain that we got a while back, I'd say that's not a direction Starmade is going however.

It looks like you say that it's possible given the MC-like example. That's how I understood it.

 

[Valiant70]

It looks like you say that it's possible given the MC-like example. That's how I understood it.[/QUOTE]

What I meant was it should be possible, but given the MC-like example it probably won't be done.

 

[MacThule]

This would definitely by a cool feature, but my biggest question about it is whether it serves a practical purpose or would be more of an additive feature.