Discussion Solar system generator planet classes?

[Peskie]

Goal: to make a believable-looking solar system out of one number.
Means: fractally generated landscapes and textures assigned based on accretion-model defined planet class.

Out of curiosity, what are you using as your accretion-model? Did you reinvent the wheel and make your own or are you using one of the existing high quality ones like StarGen? (StarGen is also runnable from a web page).

I once thought about writing something to take the output of StarGen and generate an Orbiter solar system config file; but I was missing a way of generating the nice textures that you have so I didn't bother.

 

[Artlav]

At this point the planet itself looks quite convincing to the eye. Some of the surface features look a bit weird as far as scientific realism (namely the long darker colored strips on either side of the brownish "mountain range," and the presense of ice caps on a planet with a 34 degree average temperature), but the visual realism is excellent.

Hm. Spore-esque look, i have to say. Unfortunately, going for features i've forgot about scales and parameters - that mountain range is 120Km high and the bluish patch is 180Km deep, the planet have no ice or water and no clouds. So, these speciments are scrapped despite the look.

Newer ones below...

Could we see another few planets of the same type?

That gets closer to the point.
There is no way to make a procedural generation for procedural generation.
Fractal functions can give you only as much ordered chaos as you put into them, so the planets of the same kind with will look similar, unless re-designed:

Same one, with adjustments for scales, water absence, ice absence and colors:

Another of the kind, lighter and larger with some ice and clouds, 0 C* average:

Another larger one with average of -50 *C:

Out of curiosity, what are you using as your accretion-model? Did you reinvent the wheel and make your own or are you using one of the existing high quality ones
...
but I was missing a way of generating the nice textures that you have so I didn't bother.

It evolved out of one, i think it was an RPG-oriented solar system generator or something similar. Compared to StarGen, it might have somewhat less scientific interpretations for the same dice rolls, but it does a more useful what-it-looks-like generation along with a how-big-is-it-and-where generation. And the moons are also generated.

Texture generation is not too hard, getting what to generate is. The solar system generator does not give you color scheme and a fractal for the planet.

A crater generator would be a good addition, Artlav, to scatter craters over the surface.

Hm. Any ideas how to make one?

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Now, for a second subject:
Gas Balls, or officially Gas Giants.

Pretty much the only question in painting these is what determines the color of one?
There are 4 in our solar system, none of them of the same color scheme.
How much color difference could one have?
Would something like that be natural:

 

[T.Neo]

That doesn't look natural, IMO.
The colours are too bright and have too much contrast.

Are you using Sudursky planet types?

Hm. Any ideas how to make one?

Stamp crater shapes over the planet?
Maybe have a library of them and rotate them uniquely?

 

[Hielor]

Ohhhh I'm really liking the desert planets now. The ability to see elevation even at that distance earlier was kind of bothering me, but they're looking really good.

The second and third ones look a lot alike though. Is there a reason why the ice is patchy and on only one side of the planet for both of them, rather than at one of the poles?

Regarding the gas giant: I think it looks fine to me. What causes cloud coloration on gas giants, anyway? As long as the combinations are scientifically feasible, I think it's fine. It does look rather blurry and low-resolution though (as in, "out-of-focus" blurry not "smooth" blurry)--if you look at pictures of Jupiter, there is some mixing between the layers but it's not really a smooth transition--it's a disrupted line.

 

[McWgogs]

Gas planets should have rather similar color on them, like Jupiter is mostly brown, saturn is yellow and o on.

The belts on Jupiters southern and northern hemisphere seem to be rather symmetric, axial tilt should probably disturb the symmetry.