Four weeks have passed, and still no new
NOWHERE alpha in sight. What's happening? Time to give you all a little heads up.
The colony as it looks at the moment was already cool enough to make a few jaws drop, but we're not happy. The game's world is supposed to be a rich diverse place, yet with a kind of homogeneous look but featuring a lot of distinct landmarks; as if that wasn't enough, each new play-through is supposed to throw the dices anew and generate a whole different look for the world. The colony will look a little different to each player.
In the first two weeks I worked on a base implementation for easily generating 2-manifold meshes based on Fabian Giesen's excellent
implementation guide on the subject, adding support for splitting vertices and faces, subdivision and texture mapping. In the rest of the time I worked on a generator for hexagonal
greeble patterns to skin meshes with interesting surfaces. It's very early stuff, and more is about to come in the following months.
I believe a few screenshots in chronological order will explain our progress best.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxSsJWU8sub-bcTu36W2Rkx7tPo2xf9wsYR1cx-kUVe9gYQfNcMp9nAmiNaEgwUW4yI2s2ExDta5h56lt1Z4QICp-fBRO00tLXH8ZS8raP8f5niqZAHsZCFV-R3Zp_-HqI3dkgg_MooYg/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-03+22:30:59.png) |
It all starts with a quad |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjBrq81gpNfbIPFxQDwH70D0BxDNvm1CUmNnR-9hGIRYrbuGk9jQa2V78spTPUqmPzZHxABrXQ2NUBx-hc5jgBu4ixkg841BBvPjZIW1XmQ3WA0RQE5hsANz22X8Wvg7lOX_elG8uN04s/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-04+00:47:21.png) |
Splitting faces is one of the two elemental operators to increase mesh complexity |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTVe-sfGxQ1Ofmw66b2jRvMyYdeB-5z3lzGjn3T3iK3aumuYHvpTrEQthEGoJBPhUG2L7GmCl2mFE-jKBtrJ0YWPZtH51Z4Jy0kJM5-CTSeABp7qTAIeFfKva1kuQFYoOEjHVyO3aPfP8/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-04+12:11:15.png) |
Testing extrusion, which is built from the split vertex/face operators |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC8bSEhBTlB7p4WV0d-LO1WZqQ2Y_vpvEuR1AYgJOav-aP4PSLU7eYiNoEavUCZkHtuCLsWAw1yRtXO4H6X-dpJcPVXyeaBSL3FJwOtkywsWSjzmZkxQppxNxgpagXCrUlg0XWvwqg-6E/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-04+20:09:47.png) |
Added code for various base primitives, here's a cone. How awesome is that? Not much. Moving on. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqw6ErHofb2EDVGv73yiiSv5A-dPhaV6omd4x25wRmghstnKGxlJrU_xGygpByjtmZ9S6xd_DtHzUKInPjTuZ5PH0WlSAq6OAFmnkAXjCD6aOdUtA_N8C213BxCdbsvfJsC3L1WI4qneA/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-05+02:46:06.png) |
It took a long time to get this right: meshes with holes. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJU9fZz20y_C-Ym57dt0XI8RSM5eL6coQXF6Ok4mpGqSnUvfxLWPKAPL-X0ZQ3WUS2FTVIWrv00q655MVbVzhfxDxKw9FAo3yDpYlAfz0BMeij25egI5rJNiO-BMB94gCDICkGQr5Sjj4/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-04+21:59:49.png) |
A repeated sequence of face extrude & transform can yield pretty organic structures. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5CcpZripfpAJkRNAM_QBKNDqA1oUrsKZeNlGiyRacoX3oj4TI7dTTCNR_C8CXrz2ULSY42OLXIBlrzrAHTLVhih77GA4OrsD5Ny7goz3en7lbLNKQGDgIN6tuQXAHuDLeM5V_Azq7v4k/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-15+11:52:25.png) |
Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces with support for creasing / semi-hard edges. I think we're done here. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPRINn4F3Udp896ohsJF_7mEfC727P7nFCUo2JbtqxIcITsZApmnFDbwaWlSZBHvzVKaErdbIL7eH-2Es8S7WUcm5tbOBhiGMTPAtMzRB1bipXyVMnsn66cPUXd7y3BPejiOCIx0URI4/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-17+00:59:46.png) |
Just one of many failed attempts to somehow get a grip on a workable pattern technique. Terrible. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp77kO2eJsMWH5IMXmaQloYh_AY2qgLe2eDr5iaqH0whx6XuCkYNSv2T2CzV0rEWLiLYSvEtd8IfYFhom22V2Up8N0KfPLwDTtmSTBXMm9YdbZMkOUsMcMfVeYF4i4DJB57JOVFMecMxc/s640/Screenshot+from+2012-06-01+23:28:58.png) |
This was one of the earliest hexagonal patterns we did, manually, a year ago. Why not do this procedurally? |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvUT0jMVSODVRExC_YEAvnS_H3ggD0phj3ERZb1KQbvyTpzSZxJgkKSTkoFHdwzql25Osm5NCPvMwbRSuhCZcOsMWQvC-K_sphGyOxU6GLmGFzfyGi6OU1uHCDbB84QNXdI3ReJPbOgpk/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-20+18:10:08.png) |
Eroded RLE noise with an axonometric projection, with islands identified and colored by flood-fill algorithm. Piece of cake. A bright spot kept whooshing by the window several times while I worked on this. I'm not fully sure but I believe it was the sun. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizZuUXOkyY0vOVl2HVvMM1FuwXkZGaDvfCUvb9HoUboGc90aQP7CmEVZHhmDoDh_ltXII2XdtuiSpuV_0j1pxdQQuVPzjhI6Ok400XwA7GbpE10I-KOu6iKEkjI3P4O9LNKuk_erX4Dnk/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-20+17:00:09.png) |
Another generated pattern, this time with a more appropriate color scheme. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwJN5fya8EnIHLQXacaffq9CxfLnVlRRRE1R2pL6shGGyDgksltguC5zsOuYWtvDsRDsBc6dPrKVfemyhWK2BlctsEoqmK6A7pJwjwIpUaTaquSGJbL5D7yw_vwUZJMfcrzcTFNMu41CI/s320/hex_0002_064.png) |
This is what a generated texture tile looks like. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix5Ag9kk_pj7nxKf5kll4mxD6kE5jgvdAWGmJ3JDYotMqAGa2Odypgk8uBarOukCuXRHgOTPTcqhueARTBXm3NWly77QXW7009OiCnJWDtrxtt1_eoLZMnnsPNaFmDWuIMq7ig3gNxcc4/s640/qVyiPOO.jpg) |
Testing one of the generated textures on a fitting object using Blender/Cycles. The procedural technique used here is
based on repeatedly simulating a round of Nibbles/Snake, by the way. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgluAka8ZWg4JxMpX44F3FLANggs_3PG_veu9ZlM8-pi-iX1vMajmTvhs5ztu88MB_xw7DoIAEcTMlN_Pru06hzYb6pzlYpwyRwJw6wpnt1JaR7Mj5SNjZWV7tPUm_xN_Jey130eEFNsCk/s640/Screenshot+from+2013-05-24+00:06:07.png) |
Time to put it in the game. A first generated mesh looks pretty good! And yet still so much to do... |
Hope that was as interesting for you as it was for me. You'll find a few more pictures in my
Twitter gallery. Expect a new alpha build appearing in your account soon! Watch the skies!