Octree Based LoD System
Overview
In the early era of digital gaming, there weren’t many splendid visual effects beyond what was functionally necessary. But as time went on, much larger portions of the public began to gain accessibility to increasingly powerful machines allowing developers to attempt to capture more and more intricate effects not previously thought feasible. As of today, many of these effects have amassed so much noteriety that their presence is almost expected of any high-end game. Notably, geometry shaders refer to a set of effects that have become commonplace in many new high-quality games.
Overview
In the early era of digital gaming, there weren’t many splendid visual effects beyond what was functionally necessary. But as time went on, much larger portions of the public began to gain accessibility to increasingly powerful machines allowing developers to attempt to capture more and more intricate effects not previously thought feasible. As of today, many of these effects have amassed so much noteriety that their presence is almost expected of any high-end game. Notably, geometry shaders refer to a set of effects that have become commonplace in many new high-quality games.
Overview
An elegant solution is commonly a simple system that can solve a number of problems. For instance, one may view the cosmos as elegant due to how a few simple laws governing elementary particles can create such complex experiences. Whether these laws are actually ‘simple’ or ‘few’, physicists may disagree, but even so the point stands that we often want to imagine it this way because it somehow feels better that the universe is minimally arbitrary so that all our experience can be derived from an innevitable causality.
Overview
An elegant solution is commonly a simple system that can solve a number of problems. For instance, one may view the cosmos as elegant due to how a few simple laws governing elementary particles can create such complex experiences. Whether these laws are actually ‘simple’ or ‘few’, physicists may disagree, but even so the point stands that we often want to imagine it this way because it somehow feels better that the universe is minimally arbitrary so that all our experience can be derived from an innevitable causality.
Overview
To simulate a realistic dynamic terrain, it is necessary to represent the terrain through an easily accessible and modifiable format. Previously, this was described as a 3D scalar field through which the visible terrain could be loss-lessly recreated through the Marching-Cubes algorithm. The scalar field(referred to as the terrain map or map) provides an efficient way to update and sample the terrain for a variety of purposes including Atmospheric Sampling, Terraforming, Terrain Collision, Pathfinding, Raycasting, etc. Understanding the complexities in its storage and access will be crucial for future articles.
Overview
Memory Management is a problem ubiquitous to practically all fields of Computer Science. Concurrently, many optimal solutions are built in to either the development environment or OS itself so that the average high-level developer does not need to concern themselves with it. Nevertheless, an understanding of memory management is helpful when optimizing the space, and even time, complexity of different systems.
Overview
Terrain Generation is a balance between randomness and predictability. Realistic terrain is random, as the many eons of erosion and geological events layered accumulating in natural terrain is dense, so too must the layers of complexity be in mimicking a similar terrain. But realistic terrain is also predictable, for while geological events may be densely accumulated, their individual effects are regional, and so too should terrain possess localized-regional features indicative of regional geolocial activity. Regionality means that nearby terrain generation is naturally similar to each other such that certain features can be predicted based on regional indicators.
Overview
At the core of nearly all procedural terrain generation is noise. Not to be confused with audio/signal noise, noise refers to the randomness, or more specifically pseudorandomness, that allows for the generation of new content. Whereas most functions adhere to generating predictable patterns expected by users, randomness purposefully attempts to subvert expectations by creating unpredictable outcomes. While achieving unpredictability may simply involve increasing layers of arbitrary complexity, natural terrain isn’t defined by absolute randomness. Rather, a level of predictability is commonplace; one would expect rough rocky terrain along mountain ridges and smooth sandy deserts. To capture such patterns without predefining terrain requires a balance between randomness and predictability.
