Procedural Planet

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Back in June, I did my first Panda3D tutorial. So here we are, just under 3 months later. What do I have to show? I have done some rather silly things like my ray tracing terrain generator thing ( discourse.panda3d.org/viewtopic.php?t=7237 ) and a lot of other random experiments. My main accomplishment though, is my procedural planet generator and viewer. With excellent support for the Panda3D community, and many hours of tinkering and tweaking, I think I have made something pretty cool. I have learned a lot along the way, python, CG, the Panda API, and a lot of other details. Thanks for all your help. Have some pretty pictures:

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There is a large pile of screen shots here: http://f-g.wikidot.com/new-screen-shots

I’ll be happy to answer any questions regarding my planet generator and viewer.

I’m also always looking for feedback to help improve it.

Currently is has manually controlled exposure, so the screen shots are all and pretty varied exposure.

Once the new packaging system is out (1.7.0 I think), I’ll throw up a public release.

Thanks!

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Nice work! I had in mind making something like that myself in the future, but it’s more a wish than a real plan. Anyways, I will like to have a try on your stuff when you release it.

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Using my HD screen shot code, I produced this image:
(Be warned, this image is gigantic, 4096*4096)
http://f-g.wdfiles.com/local–files/start/FG_ScreenShotHD1252684706.12.jpg
Here is a size suitable for including here:

Yes, you can use Panda as a rendering engine with an interactive realtime lower rez preview. Panda3D ftw.

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very impressive images :slight_smile: needs more normalmaps

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Thanks.

Planets with water and an atmosphere (thus lots of erosion) are really quite smooth. Currently the slopes and normals are exaggerated far beyond realistic. However, the currently normal mapping is very poorly done, and it would look much better if it were fixed. There are some short cuts taken in the math which as things have gotten more complex have gotten less accurate.

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wow. very impressing
the textures, though still need some love.
also antialiasing may improve the look (and it’s very easy to implement)

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Nice, but I think the colors are too vivid. Try to tone them down a bit, reduce the contrast.

Especially the last HD screenshot looks very nice! The atmosphere needs some work there, though.

Compare your last screenshot to a very similar screenshot from the Halo Reach teaser:

As you see it has a much less amount of colors, adheres to a strict color scheme and thus looks graphically more attractive. There’s a reason why modern games look so desaturated. :slight_smile:

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por-r, i think he is knowing about the points you discribed :wink:
let him time and you will see!

and to the point of the similarity of any pictures, im sure i could find tons of picture where the halo picture looks nearly similar too(but i dont want to spend my time into this). so pls!

for my point of view, i will wait a bit before im giving my comment on it.
so far, i can imagin that it will looks pretty good.

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Hello !
I found this old thread very interesting ! Do you released your engine ? I would like to create a KSP like game
Thank you !