Frontier: If you can make a planetary landing system even similar to Outerra, I'll sell you my soul.

[Harland White]

This might be old news to a lot of you but it's new...news...to me.

This is a planetary engine called Outerra...it blows away any kind of planetary procedural generation I've ever seen: http://www.outerra.com/wfeatures.html

When Frontier starts working on the planetary landing expansion, if they can make a product even close to this, I'll sh*t bricks and give them all my money.

 

[CMDR Commander]

In my overly realistic opinion, something like PG terrain in Fuel is the best possible result we'll get. If the stars allign properly and holy Cobra™ is well fed and accepts our humble offerings with a wide smile.

[video=youtube;VQbiQlanhFs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQbiQlanhFs[/video]

 

[Harland White]

I've seen videos of Fuel terrain, I don't think it looks bad either, I could easily settle for something like that, if it's done to Frontier's usual visual quality standards.

 

[IronGremlin]

I dunno, have you guys ever looked real closely at some of the bump mapping for planets? Frontier has said that they're basing the terrain generation off of those heightmaps, so it seems like we've already got some pretty strong evidence that the procedural terrain will be pretty sweet.

I think it's mostly down to whether or not they can sprinkle in visually interesting smaller scale things, like rock formations and vegetation. Broad strokes already look pretty awesome.

 

[Harland White]

I dunno, have you guys ever looked real closely at some of the bump mapping for planets? Frontier has said that they're basing the terrain generation off of those heightmaps, so it seems like we've already got some pretty strong evidence that the procedural terrain will be pretty sweet.

I think it's mostly down to whether or not they can sprinkle in visually interesting smaller scale things, like rock formations and vegetation. Broad strokes already look pretty awesome.

If that's the case, I'm sure they can do it

 

[GluttonyFang]

I'm am intrigued by a T9 trying to fly in atmosphere...

 

[EddyRockSteady]

I'm am intrigued by a T9 trying to fly in atmosphere...

Oh it'll fly just fine. For how long is a different story. It's also the landings you'll have trouble with, sort of like those that you have difficulty walking away from......

 

[GluttonyFang]

Oh it'll fly just fine. For how long is a different story. It's also the landings you'll have trouble with, sort of like those that you have difficulty walking away from......

I think I will have great difficulty walking away from a T9 trying to land on top of me, yes indeed.

I feel like it will fly like a floating castle... If it does that is.

 

[FuzzySpider]

In my overly realistic opinion, something like PG terrain in Fuel is the best possible result we'll get. If the stars allign properly and holy Cobra™ is well fed and accepts our humble offerings with a wide smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQbiQlanhFs

That's realistic? I'd say optimistic.

I think we're looking at a situation similar to stations. You'll drop into atmosphere (accompanied by a brief loading screen similar to that when you drop out of supercruise at a station), into an instance with a terrain about 300km in diameter, with a station or other point of interest at the center. There will be maybe 15 or 20 terrains, with maybe 30 or so different overlays to make them seem different.

That's what I think we can expect, given what we've seen so far and given the size and resources of Frontier, and that's no bad thing.

 

[Rubbernuke]

I think I will have great difficulty walking away from a T9 trying to land on top of me, yes indeed.

I feel like it will fly like a floating castle... If it does that is.

As Adama would say in BSG:

"Get ready for some chop"

(As the Galactica plummets vertically to the ground)

 

[Brimstone]

That scene in BSG is my favorite.


How how much for your soul?

 

[Alien]

I have no expectations for planetary landings. I'll accept the game for what it is. I have faith in the Frontier devs.

 

[metatheurgist]

In my overly realistic opinion, something like PG terrain in Fuel is the best possible result we'll get. If the stars allign properly and holy Cobra™ is well fed and accepts our humble offerings with a wide smile.

It's been drinking a lot of tears lately. I'm sure it's well fatted.

 

[Rubbernuke]

I want the Gamescon reveal to be quite low key...

...hey, Kerrash, your're getting a bit close to that planet......

...

...

...

...(synchro pant wetting from ED crowd as Kerrash flys down and lands)

And: how how much for my soul?

I'm more of a funk man

 

[Muzz UK]

I reckon the planet landings are going to be basic to start with maybe only being able to land on earth like or water worlds to start with. It's going to be epic though! I remember the sense of achievement I had in Frontier II and First Encounters landing on a planet manually with no station to deploy the fun but useless mining machine.

 

[Mephane]

That's realistic? I'd say optimistic.

I think we're looking at a situation similar to stations. You'll drop into atmosphere (accompanied by a brief loading screen similar to that when you drop out of supercruise at a station), into an instance with a terrain about 300km in diameter, with a station or other point of interest at the center. There will be maybe 15 or 20 terrains, with maybe 30 or so different overlays to make them seem different.

That's what I think we can expect, given what we've seen so far and given the size and resources of Frontier, and that's no bad thing.

Do you really think FD were that stupid to do that? They'd get ripped apart both by the playerbase and the press, especially in the face of No Man's Sky (regardless of that game's unrealistic scale, the fact they do seamless transitions at all means that everyone, myself included, will expect and accept no less in ED).

I honestly think FD can pull this off, and that they already have a plan how to do it, possibly even started working on it. David Braben himself has given us some hints even, when he said planetary landing would begin with airless moons. Because that it precisely the simplest type of planetary landscape to generate, and from that they can build up towards ever-increasing complexity, next step would be atmospheres, with surface ice, clouds, surface liquids and weather, after that vegetation, then animals, and civilization could be done in parallel to these developments, beginning with small surface outposts, growing to the equivalent of starports (e.g. a domed lunar city), until expanding to open cities connected by procedural roads, railways etc.

Considering that by the time they are at the point to do animals, or open cities, it may very well be 2017 (assuming landing on airless moons comes in 2016), tech will have advanced and handling that much data becomes more feasible than right now.

I would not be surprised if FD could produce planetary surfaces already with the terrain detail required for landing on airless moons just by cranking up some value that says "only create detail down to this level of precision", and just the servers and/or clients couldn't yet cope with it in real-time (be it due to lack of optimization or hardware capabilities).

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

You don't value your soul highly if you're willing to sell it for an add-on pack to a video game

 

[[VR] Deggial]

I don't think, planet landing will be really seamless. There will be a "falling-out-of-SC / loading-new-assets-animation" - and I think this is even necessary in order to be coherent to all the other occasions where we leave SC.
I would be satisfied, if what we can see from the planet surface in SC matches to what we see after the mentioned transition animation. I woud be willing to call this "seamless enough"!

I don't think, that we will be limited to a small (300 km in diameter) fraction of the planet's surface. There is no need for this, with a procedurally generated terrain.

I wonder, however, if we will see multiple biotopes on earth-like planets (when they are finally implemented in a distant future). Rocky planets might have a quite uniform surface, but life-bearing planets are usually not the simple "jungle world" or "desert world" or whatever we might know from science fiction films. There are all these sorts of biotopes on our beloved home planet Earth and more!

 

[CMDR Commander]

If they're planning to do a hyperjump-like animation sequence hiding the loading bar on atmosphere entry followed by autopilot docking at the nearest port, then they shouldn't bother making it at all.
God knows I had enough of that in Freelancer and Parkan 2.

 

[Soopyyy]

If they're planning to do a hyperjump-like animation sequence hiding the loading bar on atmosphere entry followed by autopilot docking at the nearest port, then they shouldn't bother making it at all.
God knows I had enough of that in Freelancer and Parkan 2.

There will probably be an automated re-entry procedure to load the planet and then allow pilot control to take the vehicle through the stratosphere and so on.