Earthsim alpha 0.4 update

Our main focus recently has been on the game we are developing using the Earthsim engine, but there are a few features coming up that warrant us making a small update release.

Here is a little preview of the updates for the next 0.4 alpha release.

Using the importer

We have been looking at improving the import and export features.

One of the nice things to do is to import height maps that have been generated in other tools and then add thin layers of sand, gravel or earth over them and let earthsim move those materials.

Here are some examples of earth & sand deposition over imported height maps

We are looking at what other features we could add. Being able to export the type map into the height map png file is also an option using the 8bit greyscale + 8bit alpha format in the png spec. But obviously this limits the height resolution to 256 levels. This would be an ideal format for user created brushes or bump map textures to be used in a game.

Dynamic paint and saveing layermaps

Everyone wants to be able to paint directly onto earthsims layermap. Its much more dynamic and fun. We have implemented an experimental version of this but there are a few technical challenges we need to finish off before we can deliver the feature.

Earthsim currently records all its user land edits into the layer map so any part of the world can easily be recreated and changed. As soon as you start painting on the landscape we need to start recording ‘strokes’ and this requires an extension and update to the current ‘sim file format. We also need to add support to be able to edit the strokes from the layer editor.

The biggest feature here though is the ability to save and load eroded layermaps directly in a binary format. The main challenge here is that layermaps can get very large. But this is very much needed for the game, to so it has to come soon, it also makes the features for ‘paint’ make sense for an update.

• Layermap save and load. (save partially eroded ‘live’ layer maps)
• Non destructive support of user imported data in the layer editor.
• Paint support
  • Stroke editor in the layermap
  • Better mouse cursor for paint