Planet of Roads
Not Enough Votes
The planet Ares in SE1 is a quite popular mod.
One of its features is the road network, this gives the area the feeling of occupation.
I recently watched a video on the work of Rune Skovbo Johanson demonstrating procedural layering, he mentioned a game he was working on with included a natural path making algorithm which sparked my interest.
I wondered if roads could be put all over an area procedurally.
I do not know if this would be popular or not, but thought it was worth mentioning.
RSJs website is runevision.com
The videos that I watched.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oJGkx0K8UQ (the audio is not good)
and
I like this feedback
His work on water looks interesting too, see 2nd video.
His work on water looks interesting too, see 2nd video.
It looks interesting, but it's not good. Notice the time 2:30 - there is a hole next to the stream that is not filled with water. This is unrealistic, or rather, it is only realistic in man-made watercourses. It then shows the formation of a waterfall, but does not show the bend in the river below the waterfall, where there must be even greater erosion than at the waterfall.
The routing of the watercourse is also nonsensical - water in the terrain does not flow along contour lines, but always along gradients. Why? Because of physics! The main driving force is gravity. Water "falls" along the fastest (not the shortest!) path to the lowest point in the terrain. It is prevented from doing so by obstacles, which represent the second driving force. The third driving force is erosion and the transport of material, through which water modifies its path of movement.
The same applies to roads in rural areas. Old roads and paths follow two rules:
1) They lead from somewhere to somewhere, not from nowhere to nowhere. Therefore, there should be objects of some significance at the beginning and end of the road.
2) A well-trodden road or path minimizes the energy and time needed to move from point A to point B. As such, a road is the result of many iterations.
It looks interesting, but it's not good. Notice the time 2:30 - there is a hole next to the stream that is not filled with water. This is unrealistic, or rather, it is only realistic in man-made watercourses. It then shows the formation of a waterfall, but does not show the bend in the river below the waterfall, where there must be even greater erosion than at the waterfall.
The routing of the watercourse is also nonsensical - water in the terrain does not flow along contour lines, but always along gradients. Why? Because of physics! The main driving force is gravity. Water "falls" along the fastest (not the shortest!) path to the lowest point in the terrain. It is prevented from doing so by obstacles, which represent the second driving force. The third driving force is erosion and the transport of material, through which water modifies its path of movement.
The same applies to roads in rural areas. Old roads and paths follow two rules:
1) They lead from somewhere to somewhere, not from nowhere to nowhere. Therefore, there should be objects of some significance at the beginning and end of the road.
2) A well-trodden road or path minimizes the energy and time needed to move from point A to point B. As such, a road is the result of many iterations.
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