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Post by KostaAndreadis @ 01:50pm 18/12/15 | 27 Comments
In a new video titled 'From Pupil to Planet', the highly anticipated and ambitious Star Citizen showcases its procedurally generated planet tech. And in spectacular fashion too. Starting from the pupil of a space pilot dude we get an in-engine slow pan and zoom as the cinematic camera flies through the planet's atmosphere and then finally into space.

There's also a bunch of text explaining the technology behind the scene, but that mostly just distracts from the awe-inspiring visuals. Although the following note does explain how something like this could run on a modern PC.

"Since the planet could never fit in memory, the planet surface is procedurally generated on-demand at different LODs (levels of detail) as the camera moves."




Star Citizen recently reached $100 million in crowd-funding.



star citizenprocedurally generatedtechnologyvideo





Latest Comments
JamesGoblin
Posted 10:45am 19/12/15
I guess people here are not fully aware yet of what we just witnessed =)
Morax
Posted 12:04pm 19/12/15
This is pretty amazing. Looks a hell of a lot better than No Man's Sky
Khel
Posted 02:11pm 19/12/15
Really? I thought it looked pretty lame compared to no man's sky. The hand crafted section near the landing pad looked nice, but there was a huge drop in quality when it transitioned to the procedurally generated terrain. Looked like a pretty basic terrain generation algorithm too, like the sort I made back in uni, generate a bunch of points at random height, run a few erosion passes over it, calculate surface normals and slap a diffuse map on it and call it a day. No gameplay associated with it either by the looks, and nothing really worth exploring or looking at, I'd imagine all the gameplay happens in the handcrafted landing area.

No man's sky on the other hand procedurally generates entire ecosystems, jungles, forests, rivers, oceans, and populates the world's with procedurally generated lifeforms and more importantly, things to explore and and stuff to do.

I know people have sunk a lot of money into star citizen and are desperate to convince themselves it wasn't all in vain and this is indeed the second coming of jesus christ, but come on, at least TRY and be a little bit objective. Comparing this to no man's sky is laughable.
Eorl
Posted 04:38pm 19/12/15
Definitely agree Khel. Looks like an empty just compared to No Man.
Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:03pm 19/12/15
Star citizen is going to feel so empty. It had the universe of a mmo, but much lower player count.

Oh well, I threw $25 at it a long time ago. If this turns out anything other than a bland, sterile, empty game, I'll be pleasantly surprised.
notgreazy
Posted 08:25am 20/12/15
I guess people here are not fully aware yet of what we just witnessed =)

Soooooo how much money did you sink into this game?
Arpey
Posted 04:05pm 20/12/15

Soooooo how much money did you sink into this game?


I'm gonna guess that he's one of those nutters that dropped $300 on an imaginary spaceship for a vaporware game. Either that or somebody whose job is to astroturf for crowdfunding games.
Enska
Posted 04:24pm 20/12/15
or maybe he's just excited for the game, no need to jump to conclusions just cos ya wanna look like a massive c***.
Sn4tch3r
Posted 04:17pm 21/12/15
From what I've seen of No Man's Sky so far it's a whole lot of tech talk and not a lot of fun, story, characterisation or reason to actually play. That game has so much more to prove than Star Citizen and most likely will fall flat on release after all the hype. At least star citizen has a great cast lined up, and the promise of an awesome story to go along with the multiplayer aspects.
Ickus
Posted 05:41pm 21/12/15
What it shows is that they have progressed on one of their original plans which was planetary body landings.

One of the likely reasons why they showed it was to quiet the nay-sayers who were saying they would never be able to get space to planetary landings seamless.

Of course now the poster child for these nay-sayers just ignores all the facts and rants on about how its all fake.

SC and NMS are very different games to the point I don't believe they are comparable. Just about the only thing they have in common is that its set in a universe which you can talk around.

SC will only feel like an empty universe if you expect it to be a player driver MMO. It is a simulation driven MMO, 90% of all aspects will be with NPC in the universe.
Viper119
Posted 08:17pm 21/12/15
Looks very cool.

No Mans Skye looks amazeballs too, but I agree it looks light on story/characters/reasons to play other than the initial discovery fun which will wear off.
koopz
Posted 09:14pm 21/12/15
I still can't believe that the TOG clan collectively donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to this title just for f*****g fun...


without creating a single job for any of the group 40,000+ community members as a part of that


I'm pretty much done with community gaming now.
Ickus
Posted 09:43pm 21/12/15
Damn those bastards for spending their cash on what they want and not what I think is important!

We should all just stop having fun and put all our money into investments so we can fill up our coffins with cash.
Khel
Posted 08:09pm 22/12/15
From what I've seen of No Man's Sky so far it's a whole lot of tech talk and not a lot of fun, story, characterisation or reason to actually play. That game has so much more to prove than Star Citizen and most likely will fall flat on release after all the hype. At least star citizen has a great cast lined up, and the promise of an awesome story to go along with the multiplayer aspects.


Oh yeah, I entirely agree, I don't think No Man's Sky is going to be a very good game in the traditional sense, like you said it doesn't give me the impression it has much story or direction or real gameplay outside of the exploration. Their tech though is amazing though, every time they show off their tech its pretty impressive.

Even if the big persistent procedurally generated world aspect of star citizen fails, if they can salvage a good single player game out of it with Mark Hamil and John Rhys Davies, I'd still buy it. In fact I kinda wish they'd just ignore the persistent universe and procedurally generated stuff and focus making an awesome story driven single player one. Between no man's sky and Elite, the online persistent universe angle is catered for, but I'd love another wing commander style story driven game. Biggest problem I can see with star citizen is its not focused enough, its trying to be everything to everyone all at once. Jack of all trades, master of none type of deal.
Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:13pm 22/12/15
I cannot forget Spore when thinking about No Man's Sky.
beaverdog
Posted 11:45am 30/12/15
Yer khel i have to agree, this is soo laughable.. comparing this to no mans sky.. indeed. I mean I know people have sunk a lot of hopes into No Mans Sky and are desperate to convince themselves it wasn't all in vain (Past Tense!?!?) and this is indeed a second coming of jesus christ.....( lol!) but come on!? laughable indeed...
Khel
Posted 12:18pm 30/12/15
There we go, was wondering how long till the random Star Citizen fanboy who found the thread through google would show up.
Morax
Posted 05:01pm 30/12/15
I know people have sunk a lot of money into star citizen and are desperate to convince themselves it wasn't all in vain and this is indeed the second coming of jesus christ, but come on, at least TRY and be a little bit objective. Comparing this to no man's sky is laughable.

Sorry, you sure showed me. I'm not a technical expert, nor have I put any money into either. Thanks for telling me why my untrained eye and opinion is wrong
Khel
Posted 10:16pm 30/12/15
Thanks for telling me why my untrained eye and opinion is wrong


No problem! You're welcome
notgreazy
Posted 11:50pm 31/12/15

Sorry, you sure showed me. I'm not a technical expert, nor have I put any money into either. Thanks for telling me why my untrained eye and opinion is wrong

How much money have you sunken into this black hole?
Morax
Posted 12:39am 01/1/16
How much money have you sunken into this black hole?

Reading isn't your strong point is it?
Hogfather
Posted 03:39am 01/1/16
HOW MUCH MONEY MORAX
Morax
Posted 10:02am 01/1/16
HOW MUCH MONEY MORAX

ALL TEH MONEYZ HOGFATHER, ALL OF TEHM!!!
notgreazy
Posted 07:10am 02/1/16

Reading isn't your strong point is it?

Answering questions isn;t your strong point is it?

But seriously, did you give anything to it? If so how much? You know $25 is reasonable gamble. $250 you're a bit loony but whatever it's your money. but $2500+ you've got issues man.

I hope your husband finds out.
Morax
Posted 12:02pm 02/1/16
Answering questions isn;t your strong point is it?

But seriously, did you give anything to it? If so how much? You know $25 is reasonable gamble. $250 you're a bit loony but whatever it's your money. but $2500+ you've got issues man.

I hope your husband finds out.

....
I'm not a technical expert, nor have I put any money into either

My husband definitely put something in (if you know what I mean).
Viper119
Posted 02:14am 05/1/16
Bazinga!
notgreazy
Posted 03:36pm 07/1/16

My husband definitely put something in (if you know what I mean).

Fair enough! I guess I shouldn't post from a mobile! Why are you defending this piece of s*** though?
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