New Planet Tech is KILLER of Exploration (all terrain is tiling/repeating/not procedural/random)
- Thread starter BlackMaze
- Start date
I dont, I understand that this is a serious issue. At first I was at denial until Ive seen it myself. And I hope they will fix that and make all worlds at least on a level of Horizons, but I hope for the better.
But, If new tach CAN generate unique good and looking planets like this one, it is not broken in it's core.
There must be some way for FD to compare the cases of good and bad looking planets and find out what triggers buggy output.
It's hard to comprehend that anyone, EVEN FD, would implement a system that intentionally stamps a single planet several times with the same, easy to notice feature.
Come on, if they wanted to scratch proc gen surface completely, they would at least prepare features dataset with enough different objects to avoid using identical ones next to another on a single planet.
It'd be nice to have some official statement on planetary tech, perhaps to calm us and explain there are some issues with it and they're aware of them.
Plus they surely would've known people would discover it after days and rip them to shreds for it. It's extremely obvious and I'm convinced the only reason it wasn't noticed immediately was because people were focused on the ground level and the new content in general.
Also Im explorer myself. 99% of things I do in elite is explore. Check my profile if you dont believe me.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed.
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Sadly, I really don't think this is a quick-fix issue. Almost all the PG in the game is just procedural placement of crafted assets. That's not going to change any time soon.
The best we can probably realistically hope for is an increase in the number of 'tiles' available so any given planet (when viewing from a distance) or area (when on the surface) has no noticeable duplication/repetition.
I take it as confirmation that the issue tracker issues have been accepted, and we can vote on priority on them. Something is rotten in Denmark, but unlike Hamlet, this probably was not intentional.
I don't know... most of the nebulae in the game are copy 'n' paste, yet there hasn't been much uproar over them. Some of us really care, others not so much.
I'm just waiting for someone to post a thread showing how the craters in Horizons are all hand-crafted assets too... wouldn't surprise me.
Theyre not hand-crafted. Theyre random stuff based on stellar forge tech.
I agree with your sentiments here, and I just want to add that the problem here is we're talking about a galaxy that has trillions of worlds and moons. Having any handcrafted input into that will eventually show up as repeats. They can't possibly handcraft enough variety for it not to.
It was a terrible design decision if they've tried to add handcraft environments and reuse them across a 1:1 scale galaxy. People will spot it, eventually. The fact that its only taken a few days for the first reports of it to surface is testament to that. Look at bases, and station interiors. They're all cut and pastes of a relatively small number of templates. You can't do that to planet surfaces when there are trillions of planets.
Lets hope they have the means to deeply hide this stuff and its just a case of something being broken in the code at the moment, for certain planets at least, because some of the tech does look breathtaking and these issues aren't noticeable on some worlds.
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You mean the today's patch?
Come on, FD needs to focus on:
- stabilizing gameplay : less random crashes, disconnections, prevent being locked out permanently (Orange Sidewinder) or temporary (Cobras)
- fixing performance issues
- and then, several patches later, they will be able to sacrifice resources for fixing/tuning aesthetics, like planetary tech
The uproar for nebulae cut and pastes was 6 years ago. Then again when the Beyond update was released with a supposed big exploration update, and nothing had changed.
I think that ship has sailed.
Do we know that?
If that is the case, the problem is more bizarre. Other than performance - which isn't much of an issue in high-orbits/deep-space - there's no reason not to generate a lot more 'tiles' and have little or no repetition across a planet.
Hey listen, call me whatever you want. Make it your pleasure if you have to.
But, don't be surprised if not absolutely everyone will agree with your complaint, or join the angry mob, or jump in your own complaint bandwagon.
Especially when it starts to become irrational. And that is the point I am trying to make, even if I am coming off as harsh (aren't we all lately?). I do not say that Odyssey is without issues. Oh it has many and they are being well covered, reported to the point we are just echoing each other now.
But some of you are taking it way overboard and seeing things which are simply not there. At no point in your screenshots do I see the repeating patterns and I believe you are suffering from a case of wishful "seeing". Have you ever heard of pareidolia? It is a beast. Have you ever seen dinosaurs in the clouds (lol)?
Now let me be clear, THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH REPEATING PATTERNS IN THE PLANETARY GENERATION. But it is NOT happening in all cases and all around. When it does happen, it is very evident. Which is not what you are posting here.
I have seen it, heard it all so far. From "This is worse than Cyberpunk" some bloke spat out to "Space to too dark" directly mirrored by "Space is too bright" soon right after. Now we have this, trying to find repeating patterns on planetary surfaces. Do you really not see the danger in it? Do you actually believe you will stop seeing them if the idea is still in your mind?? No amount of patches will "fix" that for you unless we all take a step back here and actually provide objective feedback.
Its not hand-crafted. As I understand they use pregenerated biomes and put them on the planets. Simple as that.
From the OP...
"I remember Dr Kay Ross stating on stream that their procedural heightmap system made use of handmade terrain that would then be randomized across. I was worried when I heard this."
I too vaguely remember hearing about handcrafted assets making up some of the planetary tech.
I mean maybe it could be a bug in the tech that supposed to reference a given planet's other regions in order to make a fairly consistent landscape, and rather than taking data from them as 'inspiration' it's wholesale cloning them. It's seems odd to clone an ENTIRE geological region. I mean crater shape profiles and rocks.. ok.
Seems hard to imagine, but I don't know anything about programming so what do I know..
They are NOT indie devs. I am a developer in an indie company that has 150 employees in total.
Frontier is founded in 1980's as the copyright text will show you on splash screen.
Elite was crowdfunded but company is about 40-50 years old.
Frontier is a AAA company with contracts to fulfill (such as Formula 1 game, Jurassic Park license etc.)