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Earthsim versions 1 & 2 were developed from 2006-2012. These versions contained a high resolution planet and universe rendering engine that let Earthsim work as an interactive 3D exploration based encyclopedia.  Educational ‘cut scenes’ or documentaries would get triggered as you explore the universe.

So much good work went into the Earthsim project that the original developers have decided to resurrect the project in the form of a game.

For this next version we are going to focus on all the details of a living green ecology along with the weather systems that interconnect with it.

Earthsim – The Green Machine

Imagine a beautiful living natural landscape, one you can fly over and view from any angle. It’s up to you to keep this world alive.

Can you survive the four seasons, 5, 10, 50 and 100 years? Or go for 1000 years to prove you have what it takes to build a world that can survive?

Rain falls, and water flows over the land as rivers and is absorbed into the soil. Trees grow and lakes form and dry out. Forests grow or die away into deserts.

Aim Of The Game – Build a resilient ecosystem and keep it alive through various levels.

Challenges include tidal waves, drought, volcanoes and meteor strikes.

Two play modes:

Play through

  • Each level consists of a landscape that the player must master and keep alive.
  • Each landscape has its own characteristics and challenges, starting from the simple to the more complex. 
  • Learn the various challenges encountered and build skills as you progress through the game

Build – Share

  • Build / Sculpt your own landscape.
  • Upload and try out your level with other users
  • View and download top rated levels

Engine

The videos below show the early prototype work on the engine that we used for Earthsim 1 and 2 products. The engine was advanced for its time, but it has been 10 years and things have moved on. The limiting factor is no longer the ability to render things well. Modern GPU’s are very powerful but the limit is set by the amount of data that is required to feed the GPU for the rendering and how realistic that data is. We need a very rich and detailed simulation engine. And this is really what Earthsim has always been about.

Simulation

To improve on the videos below we need a simulation engine that can run real-time simulations of the surface details of a world. Only then will it be possible to render the vistas needed without requiring huge data sets and massive level loading times. 

Terrain sim + Water sim + Atmosphere sim -> Biosphere sim

Earthsim requires high performance realistic water and atmospheric simulations that can feed into land surface simulations. All these simulations combine their data sets in real time to provide a landscape wide data feed for the Biosphere simulation. This Biosphere simulator then manages all the life forms on the surface of a planet.

We are aiming for one over million simulated life forms.

The videos below show what we achieved with the Earthsim 2 engine from 2011. We expect to go far beyond this with the new engine in the coming years.

Concept

Game Content

  • Prebuilt game levels you progress through.
  • Build your own levels and share them with others.
    • View & try out the best user created levels.
  • Future Versions
    • Multi player management: Team up with others to manage larger levels and even a shared planet
    • Use the Green Machine as a basis for Earthsim Dinosaur World.

Learning Content

The Original Earthsim featured three types of in house generated content:

  • Encyclopedia: entries on on plants, animals and geological formations throughout the known universe,
  • News: pieces on discoveries that guide the viewer to and through those discoveries
  • Documentaries: Longer pieces that tie smaller elements together into a bigger user driven hierarchical path through the experience, similar to a guided learning game.

As the new game develops we will look into adding learning content back into the free version of Earthsim.

All Earthsim content aims to highlight the connections across all disciplines and demonstrate a unified systems view of the universe.

Development Blog