Quote from: latego on November 18, 2007, 07:10:19 AM
I don't see the point for planet wide erosion. Erosion is a very local process so, as soon as you are considering areas larger than, let's say, 100km, what you see is the general structure of the terrain and not the erosion effects. Just have a look at pictures taken from astronauts in low earth orbit.
As Cajomi wrote, modelling planet wide erosion would be a dreadfully complex task and then you would not be able to see the effects from long distances.
The scale factor is fundamental in computer graphics: if you are modelling the whole Enterprise, can easily omit to create Kirk's coffee cup...
Bye!!!
Well, if there is no point for planet-wide erosions then why bother with planets at all. Even ancient glacial erosion is visible from high orbit. Is this not the level of realism that some of us hard-core realists want to have some day. I am not saying it will happen over night but say 10, 15, or 20 years from now when we have the more powerful hardware and evolved software to achieve such terrains then some like myself would find use for such details. So i happen to be a person that likes fine details and i am sure there are others out there like me as well, obviously. I have seen plenty of photos from low orbit and fluvial, sedimentary and all sorts of erosion is clearly visible from high mountain ranges to the deep deserts. Obviously it is a dreadfully complex task, that is why we wait until the power is there some day in the future. I will wait because in the meantime there are plenty of local-terrains to be challenged.
It is true that much of the larger terrain structures would mask smaller scale erosions to a certain degree. These larger structures are shaped by glacial erosion from eons back, then you have plate tectonics that distort and stretch the terrain which could be achieved with certain displacement and turbulence functions, not only in Terragen but in World Machine and GeoControl. I have done this already but on a local scale for now. All of these larger scale structures can be seen from high orbit easily. This is the stuff that shapes continents and our oceans.
I don't think no one here ever said that GeoControl and World Machine are competitors for Terragen 2. I myself had said they compliment Terragen's work flow.
Back in 2004 i had spoken to Fairclough about glacial planet/continent wide erosion. He said he was aiming for the idea at some point and i thought that was a great idea and it is a wonderful way of realistically shaping continents. Now does that sound crazy?