Recognized Solution for round planet

[Daniel L.]

Round planets have been a problem since day 1 of starmade. The dodecahedrons are horribly improvised and impractical, And the discs were unrealistic.

My solution would be to render round planets as large voxel spheres, with slight deformities according to a heightmap. Then fill the space with block based "Chunks" similar to current planet plates, The chunks would generate to match the mesh as closely as possible. Each chunk would be an upside down pyramid with the point at the planetary center. To avoid the lag of dodecahedrons, Only one or two chunks would be rendered at a time with chunks loading and unloading with the movement of the player, Unloaded chunks would not be missed because the voxel mesh of the planet would provide a backdrop. Each Chunk would measure about the same size as minecraft chunks. These planets would hopefully be relatively lag free as little of it is loaded at a time, Yet remain aesthetically attractive because the mesh would fill the gap where the chunks are missing, Plus separating terrain into individual sections would allow planets to have multiple biomes.

 

[SkylordLuke]

this has been suggested to death,And I have no time in my whole life to number all the reason this would not work.
Frequent Suggestions Megathread

 

[Valiant70]

There is a way to make a seamless voxel map go on something that looks like a sphere from orbit, but it still has issues and is hugely complicated to code.

 

[Lithrus]

I know the game project called "Seed of Andromeda" and Space Engineers both were able to create rounded planets.

 

[Blaza612]

You must remember, Auburn was recently hired. Have a look at his portfolio, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Daniel L.]

There is a way to make a seamless voxel map go on something that looks like a sphere from orbit, but it still has issues and is hugely complicated to code.

As i' stated in the OP, It would not be a seamless set of blocks. My suggestion would be more a extension on the Dodecahedrons because it would use individual entities similar to plates except they load and unload as the player crosses them. And there would be far more, Meaning a more spherical appearance.

 

[Valiant70]

As i' stated in the OP, It would not be a seamless set of blocks. My suggestion would be more a extension on the Dodecahedrons because it would use individual entities similar to plates except they load and unload as the player crosses them. And there would be far more, Meaning a more spherical appearance.

No offense, but I think what we have now is better than what you described. You'd end up with a planet that's much more "chopped up" into non-contiguous segments. The only improvement over dodecahedrons is something seamless.

 

[Lecic]

I know the game project called "Seed of Andromeda" and Space Engineers both were able to create rounded planets.

I don't know how Seeds of Andromeda does it, but spengies doesn't use blocks for its planets. It uses massive balls of voxels on its own grid, while Starmade planets are, you know, actually made of blocks, like they should be.

 

[Valiant70]

I don't know how Seeds of Andromeda does it, but spengies doesn't use blocks for its planets. It uses massive balls of voxels on its own grid, while Starmade planets are, you know, actually made of blocks, like they should be.

Seed of Andromeda uses real-life-scale planets made of blocks. The planets' sheer size disguises the problems with it, but planets so large cannot work in Starmade.

 

[Ithirahad]

Seed of Andromeda uses real-life-scale planets made of blocks. The planets' sheer size disguises the problems with it, but planets so large cannot work in Starmade.

Whoever says they can't? It might take some sector system fudging but I don't see why not.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

Whoever says they can't? It might take some sector system fudging but I don't see why not.

StarMade is...small. The Earth is 12.7 million meters in diameter. Assuming blocks in StarMade are 1 cubic meter, the diameter of a to-scale Earth-sized planet would be nearly 400 systems. That is larger than a StarMade galaxy.

 

[Ithirahad]

I doubt that Seed of Andromeda planets are full-scale Earth-sized planets either. They're definitely not the size of a SM galaxy... :P

 

[Xtremesonicboom]

I found how they do it. In this dev blog, they outline how planets work. Probably not practical for StarMade, but similar to what Daniel L. was talking about.

 

[Nexusdog]

You must remember, Auburn was recently hired. Have a look at his portfolio, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Specifically - Voxel Planet

 

[aRottenKomquat]

Specifically - Voxel Planet

That's pretty cool!

 

[Auburn]

Seed of Andromedia's approach for planets only works with the use of shaders to morph a cube into a sphere, this has issues such as not being able to go to the corners of the cube. It is explained in this video of their's.

 

[nightrune]

Seed of Andromedia's approach for planets only works with the use of shaders to morph a cube into a sphere, this has issues such as not being able to go to the corners of the cube. It is explained in this video of their's.

This was a really cool video thank you.

 

[Valiant70]

I doubt that Seed of Andromeda planets are full-scale Earth-sized planets either. They're definitely not the size of a SM galaxy... :p

As a matter of fact, they are in fact full-size.

Seed of Andromedia's approach for planets only works with the use of shaders to morph a cube into a sphere, this has issues such as not being able to go to the corners of the cube. It is explained in this video of their's.

Yeah, I've seen the video before. I've never liked the squashed cube approach for that reason. If (mega big if) we ever see seamless planets in starmade, I would rather see a modification of the torus world. I actually thought of a way to (sort of) allow polar ice caps. Instead of wrapping north-to-south, pretend you're actually on a sphere and wrap the north edge to a point halfway around the north edge. The downside is that this makes the poles lines instead of points.

Here Dave has two possible paths to his house. He can walk around the planet to it or he can walk the other way and over the north pole.

The good:

• No geometric funk
• Seamless and square
• Two poles
• One equator

The bad:

• The poles are basically equators.

 

[Megacrafter127]

The poles are basically equators.

Can be fixed by a littlebit of warping, to bring the equator out a littlebit[while the 'poles' still remain roughly vertical, to minimize stretching and compressing]

However, the cylinder itself is still warped, and while on its surface every length may still add up, the moment you build higher it won't anymore.

 

[Valiant70]

Can be fixed by a littlebit of warping, to bring the equator out a littlebit[while the 'poles' still remain roughly vertical, to minimize stretching and compressing]

However, the cylinder itself is still warped, and while on its surface every length may still add up, the moment you build higher it won't anymore.

It's not *really* a cylinder. That's just a way of describing the map's behavior. I could have explained that better, I suppose... In the game it looks like a sphere.

Just like in the torus world model, warping is only visual. In order to be seamless, the surface is and must be a square or rectangle. You are describing something entirely different.