new map generator - Page 6

paradoxharbinger · #1 March 29th, 2007, 03:37 AM

just wanted to give you all a quick update

one of the major hurdles for the next release has been leaped: generating a wrapping mesh, which i've attached a sample of. the image is a mesh tiled with itself in four colors so that the mesh boundaries are visible.

my intent with this new algorithm is to generate a large amount of regions (which will be the dual of this kind of triangulation) and then assign to each region terrain types, rather than using a heightmap.

the generation method is being radically changed to allow for much greater control of what is generated (see a couple of post up). it also means a heinous speed increase.

i'll keep you posted as things move along

Gandalf Parker · #2 March 29th, 2007, 02:39 PM

So... within a single map you will get 4 areas with equal chance to develop all of the terrains? Increasing the possibility of 4 areas with a continent, ocean, etc.

Or is this to lead up to flip-flop mapping for the "equal starting positions" crowd?

paradoxharbinger · #3 March 29th, 2007, 03:45 PM

perhaps i should not have posted that pic. it was mostly just a demo for setting up wrapping maps in general. the main challenge with the wrapping maps is that you have to make sure that they will tile when you lay them side by side. further, you have to do it in a way that that has no artifacts of wrapping it.

what im trying to do here is create a boatload of small regions and then start assigning terrains to them and thier edges.

paradoxharbinger · #4 March 29th, 2007, 06:07 PM

aight, i put together a crude demo of what i'm going for, check the attachment

lch · #5 March 29th, 2007, 06:53 PM

Somehow, those are not Voronoi cells anymore. But I guess I understood what you meant regarding the wrapping maps already, it's the same thing that is used in digital imaging for tiled wallpapers. Very nice.

Gandalf Parker · #6 March 29th, 2007, 07:25 PM

Ahhh...
I had on my projects list (my super overloaded projects list) an idea to do a webpage tiling of the maps I randomly generate just to see if one accidentally comes close to being wrappable. That way I could spot one that was at least possible with slight effort.