Geomorphic Game Terrain

As the two largest expenses in producing a modern MMO is the cost of art and content, I want to automate the generation of the game world, and to some extent the content as well.

The Geomorphic Terrain project is a research project to develop simulated game terrain using Geomorphic principles. During my earth sciences studies I realized that the early climate models could now be run on a single gpu. As a result I choose to take on creating a terrain simulator that would generate a games height maps by simulating plate tectonics and atmospheric weather system. The combination of these systems should allow for the creation of glaciation features and the manipulation of the global climate.

As the simulation will record the changes in in the geology over time. As a result this simulation data can be used to generate a high detailed terrain within a cell. Once this has been generated, a high resolution model can be generated for this smaller area that includes weather simulations.

This recorded weather simulation can be used a the basis of modifying a games weather system to produce an accurate and changing climate in the game. For example if the area experiences a monsoon season, then the players could experience a monsoon season. In Norther latitudes, the games would know when it is winter and produce a winter environment.

The goal of this research is to produce a MMO world where the player will not feel like they are playing in a static picture.

Phase 2 of this research is to produce simulated civilizations and animal populations. Once the game is launched this simulation would generate game events like a stables burning down and a armory being built in this location. NPC would migrate from time to tim. This is all to the goal of producing a game world were googling the answer to a quest is not relevant.