If the new FS2020 can do this on an entire planet I sure hope we're not limited to more exotic forms of fungus once Odyssey drops.
FS2020 animals all over the planet
FS2020 animals all over the planet
So If Microsoft Can Do This......
- Thread starter Leadfoot
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Wow, looking forward for that to drop.
There's a lot of third party studios working in partnership on FS2020, most of which Microsoft do not own. Blackshark.ai are responsible for a huge part of the city tech for example. All of the work from these various partners are adding a whole lot of nice things to the sim.
I don't think your suggesting that the animals are a third party add-on. And I'm not sure who developed the animals, but they are certainly in the default version of the game.
Still a pro job by Asobo for Microsoft unlike over here most days.
Yoke and Rudder at the ready. Bring it on \o/
I'd maybe not expect fdev to put 5 or 6 years into something as ultra detailed as this but it's definitely heartening to see that there's a proof of concept for the mapping technology.
I'd be really pleased if they did something close to this (but then were able to sensibly fill it with ai that worked and fit the game).
I'd absolutely pay full price premium for it too. Even if all it did was let us explore life like planets where the majority of "content" was still limited to star ports.
Animals aren't strictly necessary tbh. There's got to be a line somewhere otherwise we'll never see anything close to this in any reasonable time frame.
I'd be really pleased if they did something close to this (but then were able to sensibly fill it with ai that worked and fit the game).
I'd absolutely pay full price premium for it too. Even if all it did was let us explore life like planets where the majority of "content" was still limited to star ports.
Animals aren't strictly necessary tbh. There's got to be a line somewhere otherwise we'll never see anything close to this in any reasonable time frame.
Frontier have already demo'd that they can do earth animals. They have a whole game about it. But would you be OK with just earth animals all over the galaxy?
The problem is and has always been procedurally generating life.
Gotta generate animals and plants that are morphologically diverse, unique, fit their niche, have complex behaviour (in the case of animals), interact with one another, interact with players, and preferably don't look like Spore/NMS spud-muppets. That's a complex problem and I don't believe it's ever been achieved to date.
Then you've got to apply that to the realistic-ish ED universe, which would reasonably require a large variety of biomes and habitat types per planet.
I suspect FD could easily hand-craft a wide selection of very detailed lifeforms for a single planet, a la FS2020 (or better, given their zoo/dino experience), but the requirements in Elite are a lot tougher than that.
If we're bumping into the same spider-lemur everywhere we go, the illusion of a vast galaxy will melt like an inch of snow.
Gotta generate animals and plants that are morphologically diverse, unique, fit their niche, have complex behaviour (in the case of animals), interact with one another, interact with players, and preferably don't look like Spore/NMS spud-muppets. That's a complex problem and I don't believe it's ever been achieved to date.
Then you've got to apply that to the realistic-ish ED universe, which would reasonably require a large variety of biomes and habitat types per planet.
I suspect FD could easily hand-craft a wide selection of very detailed lifeforms for a single planet, a la FS2020 (or better, given their zoo/dino experience), but the requirements in Elite are a lot tougher than that.
If we're bumping into the same spider-lemur everywhere we go, the illusion of a vast galaxy will melt like an inch of snow.
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One planet, using satellite imagery, where the main goal is to fly (once you get close to the ground you can see is good but not great).
Then there's two more things: if Microsoft's size equals the planet Earth, FDev's size is that small building in the middle of nowhere.
ED has millions of planets, and AFAIK, we really only have satellite imagery for one.
If you can model a earth elephant, how hard can it be to model a green one with two trunks?
There is a straightforward solution to that: satellite deployment missions.
And, to further temper excitement, that imagery I'm sure isn't free to use.
MS used their own data.
But, from a purely technical POV I still think it's positive to see FS2020 do this. Just seeing it achieved is a step in the right direction. It's the idea that is a positive. Before this, I imagined hand crafting Earth and...
Yeh, just not going to ever happen. But using satellite imagery to map it is now a reality and demonstrated with stunning results. Better than where we were.
Sure, we only have Earth's satellite images. But the idea would clearly have to be that Fdev use their procedural generation experience to create algorithms that automatically generate planets and cities in a similar "satellite image" format, then convert it in the same way as Earth.
Not trivial. Not even close. But having a proof of concept like this should be seen as a positive (but not necessarily as a given that Fdev can do anything similar).
Such a grand vision of alien life: elephants, but green. With two trunks.
:/
Now transfer that to alien Baywatch babes for the Kirk fans around
Hmm, so all the people who haven't bothered visiting the lifeforms that are in ED are now demanding green elephants be added. Weirdos - they'll suffocate in space ...