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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: Marc Hernandez <<A HREF="mailto:marc#jb,com">marc#jb,com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 00:46:00 -0700 (PDT)</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
On Wed, 7 Oct 1998, quzah [sotfhome] wrote:
This is one of my favorite subjects :-). I have multiple
implementations of various simple methods to generate land including
plasma //I _love_ pine
fractal, more traditional fractals (from Kenton Musgrave), random brownian
motion walks, continent division (take the land. Split into 2 sides.
lower one and raise the other, repeat) etc. If you have any questions or
need some algorithms/code just ask.
I found taking the plasma fractal (the subdivision one previously
described) and creating one 'map' then using that map as a 'roughness'
input for the _real_ map produces some nice heterogeneous land. Otherwise
it can be really smooth.
Another thing to do with plasmafractal is to not just seed the
four corners but to seed a little more. If you had a 512x512 land you
could seed
(0,0), (256,0), (512,0),
(0,256),(256,256),(512,256),
(0,512),(256,512),(512,512)
(or more). This tends to break up the 'one big landmass' effect
plasma often gives.
}>> (For rivers I plan on using heuristics for getting from point
}>> A (river source) to point B (river mouth) but I haven't looked
}>> at it too in depth. Finally I believe I have managed to locate
}>> the actual formula for "A*" so I may see what I can do with it
}>> at a later date.)
}>I'd certainly be interested in seeing this if you have the possibility to
}>post it.
}Actually I don't think I'm going to end up using it, because of
}the fact that water flows down hill. (Yes, I'm aware of the one
}instance, perhaps more, where it doesn't, but as a whole...). So,
}not knowing enough about A* yet, (I haven't played with it yet) I
}probably will opt just to do something like:
A* is a good heuristic for finding shortest paths without using a
complicated or expensive search but as you noted water doesnt necessarily
take the shortest path does it :-> (just the downhill one). In fact it
tends to meander in flatter situations.
}start(x,y)
}find the valid moves from current local
}flow in one dir at random
for 'find the valid moves' I would recommend using dir,dir+1,dir-1
(where dir is one of the 8 cardinal directions). I tried just selecting
the lowest spot and ended up with some bad rivers. some other ideas
including spawning a new river when certain conditions are met (so you can
get 'fingers' at the river head) etc.
}repeat
}
}>Hmmm.... Seems to me that if you want to encode *all* the information in
}>the map in a single picture, you'll get a very messy one. That is, it will
}>be very hard (just as hard as with your ASCII output) to get a feel for
}>what the map looks like. You can simply *not* encode all the data fields
}>in those 20 bits (some of which are heights, others which are resources,
}>and so on, I take it?) and make it useful for a human reader ("so, okay,
}>um, a lot of green mixed in with a little red should mean high altitude
}>and some, um, lessee, iron ore...").
}The only thing I currently need the picture for is water and land.
}The rest will be left off for now. I only need to see how high/low
}terrain is. (So I can see if I like its grouping, or if it just looks
}like a bunch of random crap ;) The image won't be used actually in
}the game, just for some test runs when map generating.
I assume youll have your own '.map' format. I would definatly
make a maptoxxxx (where xxxx is whatever graphics format you choose).
Then you could also split out differnt data into different graphic files.
}>As for graphics formats... The format that strikes me as the simplest is
}>plain BMP (the Windows incarnation, that is). However, other posters have
}>responded to this, so I will refrain from doing it as well.
Another good format is targa. It has a simple 18byte header with
very simple data after (like RGBRGBRGB... for 24 bit and RGBARGBARGBA...
for 32).
}I haven't done anything with graphics ever, so it'll all be new
}to me. Again, thanks everyone for the help.
}-Q-
Hope this isnt noise.
Marc Hernandez marc#eisoftware,com
Programmer www.eisoftware.com
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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00121" HREF="msg00121.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "quzah [sotfhome]" <quzah#softhome,net></LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00125" HREF="msg00125.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: What are you looking for in this list?</A></strong>,
Alex Stewart <a href="mailto:riche#crl,com">riche#crl,com</a>, Thu 08 Oct 1998, 10:11 GMT
<LI><strong><A NAME="00116" HREF="msg00116.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</A></strong>,
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Thu 08 Oct 1998, 01:33 GMT
<UL>
<li><Possible follow-up(s)><br>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00119" HREF="msg00119.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</A></strong>,
John Bertoglio <a href="mailto:alexb#internetcds,com">alexb#internetcds,com</a>, Thu 08 Oct 1998, 04:47 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00121" HREF="msg00121.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</A></strong>,
quzah [sotfhome] <a href="mailto:quzah#softhome,net">quzah#softhome,net</a>, Thu 08 Oct 1998, 06:26 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00123" HREF="msg00123.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</A></strong>,
Marc Hernandez <a href="mailto:marc#jb,com">marc#jb,com</a>, Thu 08 Oct 1998, 07:47 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00122" HREF="msg00122.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</A></strong>,
quzah [sotfhome] <a href="mailto:quzah#softhome,net">quzah#softhome,net</a>, Thu 08 Oct 1998, 06:33 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00126" HREF="msg00126.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</A></strong>,
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Thu 08 Oct 1998, 14:08 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00127" HREF="msg00127.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</A></strong>,
quzah [sotfhome] <a href="mailto:quzah#softhome,net">quzah#softhome,net</a>, Thu 08 Oct 1998, 23:03 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00342" HREF="msg00342.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Terrain/Landmass & GIF/BMP</A></strong>,
quzah [sotfhome] <a href="mailto:quzah#softhome,net">quzah#softhome,net</a>, Thu 22 Oct 1998, 08:19 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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