Procedural real time galaxy model

Note: due to rendering of points, please watch the HD version, else you'll only see a blurry mess!

Galaxy model generated procedurally for the MMO Infinity :

This is a work-in-progress and does not necessarily represent the final result.

This is a visual representation of what's happening on the server side, so there's no fancy rendering or effects ( those will be added to the client later on ). Each star system is represented as a colored dot similar to stars in reality: hot blue stars ( O class ), Sun-type stars ( G class ), red dwarves ( K & M ), etc..

The model is generated procedurally on the fly in real time as the player moves. It's based on an octree.

Procedural generation does NOT mean that everything is random, in fact quite the contrary: if you come back at the same coordinates, you will exactly see the same stars !

[cameronwilliams]

My God!! What you've achieved could change the world! In the 'game', or 'simulation' or 'way-of-life', whatever it's gonna end up being, people are gonna loose themselves completely. Anybody read Arthur C. Clarke's Ghost from the Grand Banks? One of the characters, a math genius, loses herself in a fractal universe like this one, searching for her daughter who'd died tragically. Anyway, I digress, keep up the amazing work, you're gonna be famous!

[PowerNico]

im in love with everything ive saw into ur video, how it could be and for sute the fight into planet & space!!! Since ive missed the client ICP ill be waiting for another one or beta anything so i can help !! been playing pc game for over 10 year and a tons of mmo and what ive seen into urs have the best potential u dont even know right now!!! Dont screw it !!!

[crew]

truely is a beautiful piece of work, cant wait to see it when its properly released, good job.

[haseoyashimora]

agreed ive been playing eve online for 4 years now and i still cant com pair it to how epic this game is, everything on this game with the environment is better!

[Inovaestudios]

If you assume there are 4 grains of sand per cubic millimeter, 200 billion grains of sand works out at about 4 cubic meters of sand.

Still a lot but not quite a beach full.

[CYOND]

If you have read my previous comment, you would have seen that I wasn't talking about the infinity game but the technology and possibilities it brings. By the way even one galaxy is far too large to explore in a game under normal conditions.

[CYOND]

Yeah, I know but that doesn't mean that programmers are limited to just one galaxy. They can make thousands procedural if they want to. I was talking about the programming technology and possibilities in the future. Like an accurate, interactive model of our universe or real time demonstration of deep space for educational purposes.

[ProgenitorFoundry]

one thing.

things in space don't stay in the same place. everything moves. so it would make more sense that when you come back at the same coordinates it actually would have MOVED a bit....you know...everything is moving ?

[Inovaestudios]

I don't think it's possible to get a count of the stars due to the hierarchical nature of the system of procedural generation.

[steveecker]

@InfinitySupport Lol but sprinkle that 4 m^3 of sand across a parking lot with the area of Earth, and then try picking up each individual grain :P. It's all about perspective haha. Not a lot of sand, as long as its all in one tiny, compact area ^_^

[CYOND]

Complete with planets nebulas and other astral bodies, Infinity is like a visual simulation of our universe. I just can't wait for this game.

[gevelegian]

Finally, a chance to play my Windows Screensaver! You should use it as an AD for the game... first the screensaver then BOOM BABY! HOW ABOUT THAT?

[Skarpsegl]

A normal gaming computer should be fine.
By the time of release.
It only generates content when you see it, it doesn't save all the places you can't see into it's memory. It has some simple values that can generate all the content, making it possible to make everything real sized and extremely detailed without requiring too much.
For the same reason it doesn't fill so much, since you only have to save the data needed to generate it, and not the content itself except textures and models (ships/).

[Skarpsegl]

@PumpaBeno
No, it doesn't need to save things it generates, and since the stars and planets are generated, it doesn't need to. :)
Only if you build on them or interact with the world in a way so you edit it.

Anyways, if that freak spent 100 years playing non-stop, it would have to visit 63 star systems every single second in order to explore the whole galaxy. :)

[DolgorsurenDagvadorj]

Looks amazing!
Only a few things left to do: The Magellans, and nebulae.
BTW how many stars generated?

[Skarpsegl]

@PumpaBeno
No, it doesn't save it, because it can generate it.

[PumpaBeno]

@BlaDK44 But for example if you visited a planet and went far far away, then later came back, there had to be the same planet. So the game had to save something, or not?

[Skarpsegl]

Yeeees... But then I think all the galaxies will look the same; the thing about the procedural generation inside the galaxy is that it generates everything in the same way, so you can go to another place and come back where it's exactly the same. It can be given some other seeds (or something like that), but it will still have the same shape and so on, so I guess they need to make new shapes for the galaxy and things like that to make more than one.
But I think I know what you mean. :)

[EMPPT]

"Billions and billions." - Carl Sagan

[Skarpsegl]

It's "only" a galaxy, not our whole universe.
You can "only" play in our own galaxy.