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Newcomer / Intro Procedural Generation - does it 'remember'...?
- Thread starter jpjeffrey
- Start date
Planetary terrain, stations, settlements, are all deterministic - so you can leave and come back later and find the same thing, and other players can go there and see it too.
Items like cargo or materials, and some POIs are random however.
Items like cargo or materials, and some POIs are random however.
Basically all natural features - stars, planets, terrain, even down to individual rocks on surfaces or in rings - are deterministically generated and will be the same for all players on a given platform.
Human features can change. Although major features like stations are persistent and change very rarely.
Human features can change. Although major features like stations are persistent and change very rarely.
No, that's a common misconception though. When you visit a system (or land on a planet, enter a ring, etc) what you get is generated on your local system from the random seed, no matter if anyone else has been there before or not. The proc gen algorithm is set up to ensure that what is generated is the same for everyone.
It regenerates based on the procedural key every time you visit it. People often mistake the persistency of records of the system for the persistence of the system itself, for instance EDSM and FDEV store data about all the systems that have been visited (in EDSM of course only for the systems reported to it by the players) , but that system doesn't persist as an object in the game. Even when you view that system using the galaxy map from another location that system isn't actually there. Of course when you open the system view and check the properties of a planet you see it has 7 bio, which is the point where people get confused and think the system persists, but of course that data is also part of the procedural generation and the key can be run to extract the system data at any time, but there's no point in generating the 3D assets unless you are actually in the system.
Stuff that's not part of the procedural generation are hand placed assets like orbital stations and planetary bases, asteroid bases and etc, if you are in the system these are loaded after the system is generated, from data stored on FDEV's servers, if you are just viewing the system in the galmap these aren't actually loaded but just the data store referenced to add them to the system view, in the same way when you view the system map you can't see what players are in the system because you aren't actually viewing the system itself, just the data about the system. That in itself is an interesting thing, even if a player is in the system you are viewing from another location, that system still doesn't exist for your game client, when you view it in the galmap you are just looking at the data generated by the procedural key, so that distant system doesn't suddenly pop into existence when you view it in the galmap/system map.
Whether you can attach the word remember to that process is arguable, yes it is remembered as in data about that system is stored so you could argue that it remembers because you can look up the location of bio on EDSM in the codex (although that's not fully up to date at the moment) so the system is remembered as stored data which is arguably the definition of remember, but it doesn't exist in game unless and until someone visits it, at which point it generates the 3D assets required for the player to interact, which is what I mean about confusing the persistence of records for the persistence of the system itself.
Hmm that got longer than I intended!
Those are persistent and will still be in the same place if you return. I mark the coordinates sometimes so I can go back to scan a plant that I found while my scan canister was busy with another.
No problem. The only way the galaxy can actually work is if 99.999% of it is generated without any human intervention, so all bio, geo, NSP's, stuff that's spread all over the galaxy can just work by itself.
The difference between "procedural generation" and "random generation" is that with procedural generation, the "procedure" - the galaxy seed and the equations used to convert that seed into the in-game galaxy - will come up with the same answers, each time the equations are run. Think of it like the digits of pi. The digits of pi appear to the human eye to be "random", but they're not truly random, they're procedurally generated - run the equations for "calculate the value of pi" and you'll get the exact same answer, every single time, right down to the billionth-decimal-place digit of pi. You don't need to record the digits of pi down in a database somewhere, you can simply calculate them wherever and whenever you need them.
"Random generation" generates things differently each time you ask it to generate something.
Most things in the ED universe are procedurally generated, but there are some randomly generated things. "Non-persistent POIs" on planet surfaces - mineral outcrops, crashed satellites, wrecked SRVs and the smallest types of un-named installations - are randomly generated. Meaning that if you find a weird-looking crashed satellite on a planet's surface, park right in front of it, log off, and log back on again, the satellite will disappear.
"Random generation" generates things differently each time you ask it to generate something.
Most things in the ED universe are procedurally generated, but there are some randomly generated things. "Non-persistent POIs" on planet surfaces - mineral outcrops, crashed satellites, wrecked SRVs and the smallest types of un-named installations - are randomly generated. Meaning that if you find a weird-looking crashed satellite on a planet's surface, park right in front of it, log off, and log back on again, the satellite will disappear.
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