@ABrown_CIG @Bault

Hello,

I was very curious to hear about the new features of Planet Tech V5 at CitizenCon. In particular, because last year we were given a sneak preview of the Future of Planets experimenting with Deep Learning technologies to create Data Maps. It was an exciting approach, because it let us imagine a game-changing technology in terms of realism and speed of creation.

I loved the whole Genesis panel! ❤

But once it was over, I realised that there was no explanation of how the new Data Maps were created.

I KNOW that if it’s not presented at CitCon, it’s NOT ready yet, not that it’s forgotten.

But I’m still curious to know what happened to the 2023 prototype. :sweat_smile: Even more curious about the details of how these techs work.

If there’s anything that can be said, if things are progressing the way you want, I’d love to hear it.

Thank you very much!

Hi,

Our planet art team generate the data maps, and use tools such as Houdini and Substance Designer which both have powerful customisable systems to process data and allow you to create simulations of complex processes such as erosion, with relatively simple input maps.

While there is a large element of skill in setting up the tools to generate the data maps, this area is not a bottleneck in our pipeline so hasn’t warranted any bespoke tech from the programming teams as yet.

As for machine learning generating planet data, that research has been on-going (alongside other work), and is focussed on generating primarily elevation data and is showing promising results, however it will not be part of the current Genesis/V5 work as the current focus is generating unique content on the planet surface rather than adjusting the underlying elevation. It’s likely that the elevation maps will be our next long term initiative, but it’s competing with several other topics like roads and rivers, so we’ll see what the game directors prioritise when that time comes.

Cheers,

Ali Brown

Senior Director of Pixels and Large Lumps of Rock