So what now am I doing?

Oh my how tastes change as we grow.  As a child I had a primal urge to acquire all the things I

could not have on demand.  I will use candy as an example.  As we all know eating copious amounts

of chocolate and such can lead to health problems if not taken in moderation.  As children, we

could only comprehend that candy tasted good and that we wanted as much as we could get our hands

on.  This was law; it was the way things worked in our tiny heads.  We would even sell out our

siblings for merely a taste of that sweeeet nectar (I did a anyway) that is candy.  A few of you

might be thinking that children are sweet things and would always share and eat candy in

moderation.  Youre wrong.  The only thing keeping a child from gorging itself to death on candy

is a horse whipping.  Without the parental overwatch, children are capable of horrendus acts of

barbarism ESPECIALLY when it comes to things they want, but cant easily acquire.

I have personally seen a fat kid (whom my uncle likes to call ‘the pudge’) stiff arm his 7 year

old cohort in the face after a pinata had been broken and the children tore at its contents like

a rogue, contested cheeseburger might be torn apart by wild dogs.  I do not envy the concept of

being a pinata.  Imagine how existance must feel when you are made in a sweatshop only to be

stuffed with sugary things then savagely beaten and having your insides ripped out and eaten.  I

would except the same behavior from a blue painted, naked Celtic warrior shortly before he eats a

peasant after sacking his village.

Much like I was as a child, I always want more.  Once ive had my fill of candy, I would probably

still take more and stow it away for later consumption.  Instead of more of the same thing

though, I want something, then I want something better.  Take for example my beloved BMW 135i

which I purchased fully financed and insured by myself, and drove the car around Germany for a

week.  Damn what a great car.  I was so excited about having such a nice vehicle and taking a

tour of europe with my new car.  Honestly how many people do you know who have gone to a foreign

country to drive around their $45,000 car then have it shipped back to the states?  If you see a

BMW with one of these plates in the states then you can be almost certain that the person driving

had that experience too.  However once I took the trip then took delivery of the car in the

states, the luster became dulled.  I have this car now, its mine, ive driven it… but now I want

something better.  Dont get me wrong I love the car to death (and with great regret im selling it

to buy a house now) but its just my nature to want to better my situation… better what I have.

Which finally brings me to the main focus of this blag: my project. (those of you not interested

in a programming project can stop reading now) Its an ambitious project this–because the only

thing I know about it is the language im going to write it in.  How I get to my goal I have no

idea as ive never undertaken any of these things before.  But because I have google, I feel ive

got a good shot at this.

What is the deal with the project?  Well first and foremost, I have no plans to turn this project

into a video game or sell it.  I infact have no idea what im going to do with the project once

its built.  I just have this nagging voice (not the crazy kind… I hope) telling me “if you

build it, it will come”.  What I plan to do first and foremost is create something called a

“planetary engine”.  What this will do when run is generate a planet of varying size and type

(think tiny ice planet like Pluto or massive gas giant like Juipter) as well as generate terrain,

rivers, oceans, flora & fauna, and weather systems.  All of this will be procedurally generated

which means content is generated on the fly based on set parameters rather than built by hand.

With a planetary engine I could generate many planets, none of them alike.  With a planetary

generator I can create a star system.  With many star systems I can create a galaxy, and with

many galaxies I can create a universe.  All of which would operate under newtonian physics so

that stellar objects move around realistically.  Of course its not possible to simulate a

universe with this level of detail.  It may not even be possibly to simulate an entire galaxy

with this much stored data as there just isnt enough space to store all the information!  But as

the project goes on, ill think up new ways to do things and technology will advance, allowing to

make my engine faster, better, and with more features.

Several planetary engines already exist today with these theoretical capabilities.  In fact I was

inspired to do this by a man named Flavien Brebion who created his own engine dubbed I-Novae, so

nothing im doing is particularly ground breaking.  But the subject of procedural generation and a

simulated ‘living galaxy’ does interest me.

Next week ill write about some of the technologies I will be using to power my creation.

For now though, ill leave you with pictures of the I-Novae engine and some of its capabilities.

If you would like to know more about the engine and the game behind it, visit www.fl-tw.com

Oh my how tastes change as we grow.  As a child I had a primal urge to acquire all the things I could not have on demand.  I will use candy as an example.  As we all know eating copious amounts of chocolate and such can lead to health problems if not taken in moderation.  As children, we could only comprehend that candy tasted good and that we wanted as much as we could get our hands on.  This was law; it was the way things worked in our tiny heads.  We would even sell out our siblings for merely a taste of that sweeeet nectar (I did a anyway) that is candy.  A few of you might be thinking that children are sweet things and would always share and eat candy in moderation.  Youre wrong.  The only thing keeping a child from gorging itself to death on candy is a horse whipping.  Without the parental overwatch, children are capable of horrendus acts of barbarism ESPECIALLY when it comes to things they want, but cant easily acquire.

I have personally seen a fat kid (whom my uncle likes to call ‘the pudge’) stiff arm his 7 year old cohort in the face after a pinata had been broken and the children tore at its contents like a rogue, contested cheeseburger might be torn apart by wild dogs.  I do not envy the concept of being a pinata.  Imagine how existance must feel when you are made in a sweatshop only to be stuffed with sugary things then savagely beaten and having your insides ripped out and eaten.  I would except the same behavior from a blue painted, naked Celtic warrior shortly before he eats a peasant after sacking his village.

Display of child barbarism curtosey of Penny Arcade

Much like I was as a child, I always want more.  Once ive had my fill of candy, I would probably still take more and stow it away for later consumption.  Instead of more of the same thing though, I want something, then I want something better.  Take for example my beloved BMW 135i which I purchased fully financed and insured by myself, and drove the car around Germany for a week.  Damn what a great car.  I was so excited about having such a nice vehicle and taking a tour of europe with my new car.  Honestly how many people do you know who have gone to a foreign country to drive around their $45,000 car then have it shipped back to the states?  Once I took the trip then took delivery of the car in the states, the luster became dulled.  I have this car now, its mine, ive driven it… but now I want something better.  Dont get me wrong I love the car to death (and with great regret im selling it to buy a house now) but its just my nature to want to better my situation… better what I have.

Which finally brings me to the main focus of this blag: my project. (those of you not interested in a programming project can stop reading now) Its an ambitious project this–because the only thing I know about it is the language im going to write it in.  How I get to my goal I have no idea as ive never undertaken any of these things before.  But because I have google, I feel ive got a good shot at this. What is the deal with the project?  Well first and foremost, I have no plans to turn this project into a video game or sell it.  I infact have no idea what im going to do with the project once its built.  I just have this nagging voice (not the crazy kind… I hope) telling me “if you build it, it will come”.

What I plan to do first and foremost is create something called a ”planetary engine”.  What this will do when run is generate a planet of varying size and type (think tiny ice planet like Pluto or massive gas giant like Juipter) as well as generate terrain, rivers, oceans, flora & fauna, and weather systems.  All of this will be procedurally generated which means content is generated on the fly based on set parameters rather than built by hand.

With a planetary engine I could generate many planets, none of them alike.  With a planetary generator I can create a star system.  With many star systems I can create a galaxy, and with many galaxies I can create a universe.  All of which would operate under newtonian physics so that stellar objects move around realistically.  Of course its not possible to simulate a universe with this level of detail.  It may not even be possible to simulate an entire galaxy with this much stored data as there just isnt enough space to store all the information!  But as the project goes on, ill think up new ways to do things and technology will advance, allowing to make my engine faster, better, and with more features.

Several planetary engines already exist today with these theoretical capabilities.  In fact I was inspired to do this by a man named Flavien Brebion who created his own engine dubbed I-Novae, so nothing im doing is particularly ground breaking.  But the subject of procedural generation and a simulated ‘living galaxy’ does interest me.

Next week ill write about some of the technologies I will be using to power my creation. For now though, ill leave you with pictures of the I-Novae engine and some of its capabilities to give you an idea of what im doing.  If you would like to know more about the engine and the game behind it, visit www.fl-tw.com

Orbital view of Earth like planet

Low Orbit view of Earth like planet

View of atmosphere and planet terrain

Capitulation

Not even two months ago if someone were to ask me how I felt about ‘blogging’ I would respond with this:

Blogging is for dull people who lead dreary, angsty lives who write pages and pages of useless information of which nobody cares about.

Well I still think most of that is true, but im now giving in..

But I have had to concede that some blogs are indeed informative and depending on the writer they can be funny too. Now because I am a bad writer and worse at communicating with people I will try to keep this ‘blog’ informative. So at least on the one hand I will become a better writer and have an outlet to boast of my accomplishments, and on the other hand perhaps throughout the lifetime of this ‘blog’ someone might learn something.

I’ll try to offer content to appease all but the majority of this ‘blog’ will keep track of the development process of a project I am going to work on in my free time (details to come later).

For those who are wondering, I was inspired to start this ‘blog’ after checking out a good friend’s new site in which he writes to the masses about his thoughts on Pen & Paper role playing games .

Oh and for those of you wondering, yes I do ride / drive 40 miles once a week just to roll dice and pretend to slay dragons.