Sapiens Devlog 1
Sapiens Devlog Archive - Devlog 1
Overview
Title: World Project Devblog #1 - A first look at an earth sized planet renderer Video Link: Devlog 1 Upload Date: 6/16/2015 Duration: 6 minutes and 7 seconds Views: 21,082
Summary
In this first devlog, Dave Frampton introduces a terrain engine he's been working on, which he describes as a world roughly the size of the Earth. The engine allows the user to zoom in and out, generating more detail as the user gets closer. Each triangle in the terrain represents about a meter, providing a sense of scale.
Dave mentions that the engine is coded in C++, without using any third-party game engine. It's designed to be cross-platform, aiming for PC/Mac and possibly console, but not mobile.
The engine features atmospheric effects and physically based shaders for more realistic lighting and shading. Trees and sand are present in the terrain, but water has not been implemented yet.
Dave acknowledges that there's a lot of work to be done on the engine, including smoothing out the way elements pop in and out, adding different biomes, and implementing rivers. He also expresses a desire to add gameplay elements, such as trading, resources, factories, and roads.
Notable Topics
- Introduction of the terrain engine
- The engine's ability to generate detail based on proximity
- Use of C++ and physically based shaders
- Mention of future improvements and additions, including different biomes, rivers, and gameplay elements
Video Transcript
hey guys magic Dave here I just thought I'd do something a little bit different and show off this I don't know what it is I guess it's a terrain engine at the moment I did sort of start a new game I just I guess was probably a few months ago now and then I couldn't realize that was gonna get really hard and I was going to do a whole lot of hard work and I just didn't really have the time I do kind of want to work on this some more one day I'm sure to just play around with it but I thought I'd just go just show you what I've done this is kind of interesting I suppose so what this is is it's a world the size of the earth roughly and this so it's a little bit cheeky it's got my framerate problems the atmospheres a bit funny it's not quite right but yes you can zoom right down fly right and it just generates more and more detail on the flyer to get closer until you get right down to this level here and like each of these triangles is about a metre so it's just to try to get some sense of scale if you're walking around you'd be sorta walking around like there that's supposed to be there I haven't done any water yet so it's just sort of sand yeah I sort of played a bit the shaders and using I carry what's called physically based shaders I think it is so they kind of have a a few kind of properties are a bit this a bit better than just your standard form shading or whatever I don't know I've got some trees that sort of cameraman yeah I don't know I think it's kind of cool it's just this so much work to do on it like even I just I don't like the way these things pop in and out like I try to try to want to smooth that a bit Theater there's kind of only one one type
Video Transcript Continued
of biome at the moment so like I probably want to have a whole lot of arrives I want to have rivers which is kind of something that I find quite well it is quite difficult and yeah that's just kind of the engine and then then I needed to make sure gameplay just try to fly over to somewhere a little bit different okay yes I still don't it I mean I have no idea really what they what the actual engine sorry the gameplay would be I saw they had some idea that it might be like sort of some trading stuff like lots of resources and then like I guess factories and things so like just slowly building up I want to have roads and you know cuz it's just such a vast kind of world I don't need to be able to just sort of make your mark on and I guess first that's just so it's just so broad like yeah I don't know but at the moment it's just kind of a shader II demo with sort of atmospheric effects and stuff and I just thought it might be interesting to kind of have a look at it I just I spent a couple days on this atmosphere just found basically some code on the neat that did a kinda semi-realistic atmosphere there's a far more complex version that I'd quite like to try out so I might do that at some point but yeah isn't it as that shine kind of cool on on the snow there I don't know it's always it's a bit dark and the sunset kind of area but still kind of it still kind of looks quite cool even if it's not entirely you know play a ball like this yeah I don't know if there's not just that it I can show you or not and I don't know if this will ever you know turn into anything yeah I guess I guess the other thing is I plan for it to be multiplayer so at the moment that wouldn't take much I've already done a lot of the multiplayer codes so you could have two people flying around this world together and it would be the same world on both one thing I did find quite interesting was when I worked out like if because I want the world to be quite moldable but if I did try to pre generate the entire world at this resolution like one meter per triangle that would be like 60 petabytes or something of data for any kind of reasonable mental kind of elevation you know terrain type of some kind of thing occupying the space you have plant or getting minute or whatever it would actually yeah it would take a ridiculous amount of storage space so it's just not feasible um it has to be generated on the fly as you as you look at it and so that's what it does maybe maybe I might work on this again soon yes we'll have to see I guess Blockheads is taking up my time at moment and watching III going surfing so yeah anyway I probably have it on enough about this you sort of get the idea of where it's at anyway and yeah okay so I'll catch you next time
Notable Topics Continued
The engine is planned to be multiplayer, with the same world appearing for all players.
The world must be generated on the fly due to the impracticality of pre-generating the entire world at the current resolution.
Dave expresses uncertainty about when he will continue working on the engine, as he is currently occupied with other projects.