Carl Sagan was epic. That is all.
Elite Dangerous: Horizons - How to Make a Real World Livestream on our official YouTube Channel 7PM BST 14th Oct
- Thread starter Edward Lewis
- Start date
Carl Sagan was epic. That is all.
...and hopefully sometime in a later season expansion, caves, grottos, overhangs and other weather and erosion related content. *fingers crossed*
Does anyone know if we've observed (the results of) plate tectonics on another world(s)? EDIT: Airless rocky planets.
I'd always assumed that the Earth was a fairly special case, with plate tectonics only being possible because of things like:
* Having liquid water (penetrating deep into subduction zones via small cracks) to lubricate plate tectonics (so I'd assumed it wasn't possible without it).
* Our magma being in the right range of viscosity to allow plate tectonics.
I fear that FD are adding plate tectonics to planets that it would not exist on, since they said (in the live stream) that all planets had plate tectonics to some degree. And assuming what I said earlier is correct, you wouldn't get it on ANY of the planets landable in Horizons, due to the lack of an atmosphere (and thus liquid water).
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I suspect that they do most of the terrain's procedural generation on the GPU, just like the I-Novae Engine does for the up-coming Infinity Battlescape game.
EDIT: I think that FD might have confirmed it's (at least partly) done on the GPU, as they said there are issues with getting Horizon on Macs due to the need for support for doing calculations on the GPU (for which the Mac's OpenGL doesn't support the necessary extensions).
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I already mentioned why in my post before the one you quoted - because players are already down on the surface, and might not appreciate the terrain (and any associated bases, artifacts, etc) completely changing. Or FD might not care... I mainly raise it as a potential issue I'd like to hear an official answer about.
No it's not. No planets with those features can be landed on in the first release of ED Horizons.
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Sure, at least to some degree, even with ice crusts. I think an active core or mantle would be the main criteria.
I don't see why player would complain if the surfaces became even more detailed...and I strongly suspect FD sees it the same way.
"We have now developed some really cool river network tech...BUT we are NOT gonna implement it since that might change how things look in certain areas."
Nah...doesn't make sense in my head.
I'd appreciate names. Which AIRLESS rocky planets have we observed plate tectonics? (Ice worlds are an entirely different matter - they may have liquid water under the surface.)
I mean, I can guess that Mars might have had plate tectonics, due to having an atmosphere & liquid water in it's past. I'd be rather more surprised about planets & moons without any such (history of an) atmosphere.
EDIT: It seems that water may only be necessary for plate tectonics on worlds as small as Earth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
But going by Wikipedia, our evidence of plate tectonics on other rocky planets is a bit weak, with the best being:
But it's "the only object other than Earth where clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found", which again fails to demonstrate that plate tectonics can happen on an airless world. (BTW, Titan's radius is 40% of Earth's, but 2% of it's mass. That means it's 1/3 the density of Earth.)
EDIT: It seems there is wild disagreement about plate tectonics on other worlds:
So it seems that FD are just going to have to "make up science" for Horizons' plate tectonics :-/
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There is evidence of plate tectonics on Mars: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-scientist-discovers-plate-237303
@nexxo
I've clarified my original post to make it clear I meant airless rocky worlds. i.e. The sort we're going to be able to land on in Horizons.
But thanks for the link though - very interesting . It does seem to support the idea that plate tectonics on planets smaller than Earth is very difficult... and may require liquid water.
I've clarified my original post to make it clear I meant airless rocky worlds. i.e. The sort we're going to be able to land on in Horizons.
But thanks for the link though - very interesting
. It does seem to support the idea that plate tectonics on planets smaller than Earth is very difficult... and may require liquid water.
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@nexxo
I've clarified my original post to make it clear I meant airless rocky worlds. i.e. The sort we're going to be able to land on in Horizons.
But thanks for the link though - very interesting
Ah, in that case, it would seem that our solar system is too small of a sample to draw any meaningful, observable examples from based on your criteria.
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Going by the "First Look at Planet Footage", FD even have plate tectonic cracks (aka "rift areas") on worlds small enough to be potato shaped (check the video out at 10m 00s). That's just plain wrong according to what I've read on (unreliable!) Wikipedia, and the earlier link about plate tectonics on Mars.
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Small bodies may be subject to crazy geology, depending on how they were ripped apart and reconstituted by gravitational pull from larger bodies or impacts by other rocks.
Anyway, until June this year we thought that Pluto was going to be a static, icy rock. Now it turns out to have a surface more active than a squirrel on coke. Same with Charon. Oh, and Mars turns out to have liquid water. Basically we know practically nothing about the planets in even our own solar system, let alone in any other. Tectonics on planetoids and airless moons? I'll buy it.
Anyway, until June this year we thought that Pluto was going to be a static, icy rock. Now it turns out to have a surface more active than a squirrel on coke. Same with Charon. Oh, and Mars turns out to have liquid water. Basically we know practically nothing about the planets in even our own solar system, let alone in any other. Tectonics on planetoids and airless moons? I'll buy it.
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Picture from Rosetta:
/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3329594/Screen_Shot_2015-01-22_at_12.12.41_PM.0.png)
http://www.vox.com/2015/1/22/7873063/rosetta-comet
Sure, these are not due to plate tectonics, but is that really relevant? If FD has a working way to generate cracks, then why not use it on bodies like this to add detail.
Clarification from Edward in case you are reading this...
When you ended the stream you said "we will see you very very shor..." and then the audio cut out. Now, I assume you said "very very shortly"...in my world that time has passed already...so when is the next stream?
I. NEED. GAMEPLAY.
When you ended the stream you said "we will see you very very shor..." and then the audio cut out. Now, I assume you said "very very shortly"...in my world that time has passed already...so when is the next stream?
I. NEED. GAMEPLAY.
Don't call me Shirley.
Beautiful video. Saved on the hard disk. +1