#procedural terrain

[thiagovm]

Here’s a little experiment with my heightmap engine. I took some real world geodata (of Lake Paranoá), treated it a bit and exported to a TGA file that can be imported by the game. The results are actually really nice!

TGA is a good format to work with because after the file headers it is essentially raw pixel data, but unlike RAW you can still use it within different image editing programs.

[jeffreysfavouriteblog]

Masking by objects

Another terrain tool, this time it’s masking a terrain by objects!

[jeffreysfavouriteblog]

Dwayne “the earth” Johnson

The inspiring actor Dwayne Johnson evolved.

[jeffreysfavouriteblog]

Terrain creation tool

Lately I’ve been working on creating tools that can be used by others to easily generate environments. This is one of them! The video goes over most of it so I’ll leave it to explain what is going on!

[thiagovm]

Progress on my terrain sandbox is coming along nicely, by now I’m just fleshing out what the engine can do. The land is getting more complex without looking too unnatural, I added walking paths to all maps and changed once again the vegetation model so that it generates more chunky patches of trees.

I also began work on a “shooter mode” where you can deform the land by firing bombs and missiles. The only purpose for now is to show off the real-time destruction capabilities of the engine, but it could be the starting point of a proper game mechanic. I’m not sure yet.

[jeffreysfavouriteblog]

lately I’ve been working a lot with houdini and I made this! It’s supposed to be an alien planet with one dome city it’s part of an animation I currently working on. A tank has to reach the city by traversing a (currently non existent) cliff. Cool stuff ennit. Butt, isn’t houdini that magician guy? Yes, but apparently it’s also procedural modeling software (thats one hell of a term). Not completely finished yet but it’s getting there.

[sibaku]

Terrible height to color mapping function :D

[bejobo]

Ambition, a look into the idea.

Well, this is pretty much the "announce and tease" part of what is currently in the works. It has no name yet, simply because I don't care about wasting time or energy thinking about the name of something that's barely come to life physically. Let's call it "Project X" for the lack of a better "placeholder" name. It's a PC game currently in development by me alone, and here's some information about how the project came to life and the thoughts around it as of now.

I've always been a huge fan of the games that made resources and economics a central part of the gameplay, and I've always felt that it adds a layer of mecessity for both good strategic thinking and a kind of fun that is inherently challenging and also very volatile. However, often that's what the game is ACTUALLY about, or puts it into context in such a way that it's not really part of a bigger picture, but a "detail" if you wish.

The idea is to create a 2D game that is extremely simple but yet allows some really dynamic fun by mixing a lot of gameplay elements together coherently such that nothing feels unecessary or avoidable, but rather part of the grand picture of the game and makes you *want* to do *this* or *that* simply out of having the option in a way that doesn't make you feel restricted in the way you experience it. It is ambitious, and most likely will not reach the reality of current idea, I am well aware of it and accept it. At the same time, this isn't a game just for the sake of the game, it's a learning experience and an attempt to take on something bigger than I realistically see myself able to deal with. It's a huge project, the engine is still in early development, but it's not looking bleak yet, and I feel better about this than any earlier projects.

It's late, here's a screenshot of the current level generator for that part of the game engine, I'm using Perlin noise for those interested.

http://pbrd.co/1bQtzwq

How this looks integrated in the game I will get to very soon, excited!