jpmschweitzerandClaude Opus 4.6
ce0ea1cd83
Systems: Travessia/Euripos+Ostia (commercial translation), Kensho/Enso+Mokurai (research consortium), Okafor/Onitsha+Timbuktu Orbital Exchange (Nigerian trading hub), Lu Ban/Gongshu+Humen (Chinese bazaar manufacturing), Arbour (garden world, the real capital), Tanegashima/Kanashiro+Tsurumi (Japanese guild fabrication), Yongjin/Shin Incheon+Cheongmun (Korean transit gateway), Wolf 359 (12 named platforms + Lalo Watch, 15 stations total). New: corporations table + 20 records (13 from wiki + DSMC + 7 Cygni B combines). Planetary terrain generation design doc (tectonic-first tile pipeline, PerfectWorld/PlaTec research). Atlas CLI planet count defaults fixed (6-8 minimum). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
123 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
123 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
# Planetary Terrain Generation — Design Reference
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**Status:** Research complete, spike proposed
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**Date:** 2026-03-25
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**Source:** Tyre feasibility assessment + PO direction
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## Approach
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Tile-first generation using tectonic simulation. The pipeline outputs a **tile grid
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with terrain type per cell**, not a heightmap that needs post-processing. The
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heightmap is an intermediate artifact inside the simulation; the deliverable is
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classified terrain tiles at the resolution the game consumes.
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This follows the PerfectWorld (Civ 4) philosophy: each cell IS a game tile with
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a terrain type, produced by geological process rather than noise functions.
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## Pipeline Architecture
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```
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Input: PlanetProfile (from wiki/LocationProfile)
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→ planet_type, tectonic_activity, atmosphere, age, gravity, water_coverage
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Stage 1: Base terrain (tectonic simulation)
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→ IF tectonic_activity > 0: run PlaTec simulation
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Parameters: plate_count (3-30), simulation_steps (50-500),
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sea_level, folding_ratio, erosion_period
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→ IF dead/cratered: Poisson-disk crater field + fractal base
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→ IF volcanic: hotspot placement + shield volcano profiles
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Stage 2: Erosion passes (parameterized by planet type)
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→ Hydraulic erosion (rain worlds, Earth-like)
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→ Thermal erosion (all rocky bodies)
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→ Glacial erosion (cold worlds, optional)
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→ Aeolian erosion (thin atmosphere + wind, optional)
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→ Passes = f(planet_age, atmosphere_density)
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Stage 3: Climate / biome (habitable worlds only)
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→ Geostrophic wind model (latitude bands + Coriolis)
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→ Moisture transport from bodies of water
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→ Temperature from latitude + altitude + stellar distance
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→ Biome classification (Holdridge or simplified Koppen)
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Stage 4: Hydrology (worlds with liquid water)
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→ Flow accumulation from elevation grid
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→ River network extraction
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→ Lake filling at local minima
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→ Coastline extraction from sea_level threshold
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Stage 5: Tile classification
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→ Each cell gets a terrain type: ocean, coast, shelf, plains, hills,
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mountains, desert, tundra, forest, jungle, ice, volcanic, crater, etc.
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→ This IS the output — a tile grid the game reads directly
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Stage 6: Export
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→ tiles.json or tiles.bin (terrain type per cell, game-consumable)
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→ heightmap.png (16-bit grayscale, for world map viewer)
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→ rivers.png (binary overlay)
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→ coastlines.png (binary overlay)
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→ biome_zones.json (polygon regions + biome type)
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→ settlements.json (candidate settlement points)
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```
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## Planet Type Profiles
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### Tectonic worlds (atmosphere, liquid water possible)
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| Planet Type | Plates | Activity | Erosion Mix | Result |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Earth-like | 8-15 | High | Hydraulic + thermal | Continents, mountain chains, river basins |
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| Young volcanic | 3-6 | Very high, short sim | Minimal erosion | Sharp rifts, volcanic plains, calderas |
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| Ice world | 5-10 | Moderate | Glacial dominant | U-valleys, fjords, ice caps, tundra |
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| Desert/wind | 5-10 | Low | Aeolian dominant | Eroded plateaus, sand seas, mesas |
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| Ocean world | 5-10 | High | Hydraulic + volcanic | Archipelagos, mid-ocean ridges, island chains |
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| Tidally locked | 5-10 | Moderate | Hydraulic on day side | Twilight habitable band, ice cap dark side, scorched light side |
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### Non-tectonic bodies (no/thin atmosphere, no liquid surface water)
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| Body Type | Generation Method | Tile Types | Examples |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| Cratered lunar | Poisson-disk impact craters + fractal base elevation, crater size distribution follows power law, regolith plains between craters | crater_floor, crater_rim, crater_wall, regolith_plain, highland, basin | Luna, Callisto, Ganymede, most moons |
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| Volcanic dead | Lava flow simulation from vent points, shield volcano height profiles, collapsed caldera basins, mare (flood basalt plains) | mare_plain, shield_slope, caldera_floor, caldera_rim, lava_channel, highland | Mercury-analog, dead volcanic moons |
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| Active volcanic | Tidal heating driven, continuous resurfacing, minimal cratering, sulfur/silicate deposits | lava_field, active_vent, sulfur_deposit, cooling_crust, plume_deposit | Io-analog |
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| Aeolian sculpted | Prevailing wind direction + erosion passes on fractal base, dune field formation, yardang carving, ventifact plains | dune_field, yardang_ridge, ventifact_plain, dust_basin, mesa, canyon | Mars-analog, thin-atmosphere worlds |
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| Ice shell | Fractal base with crack propagation (tidal stress), cryovolcanic vent placement, tiger stripe lineae, smooth refrozen plains | ice_plain, crack_ridge, cryovent, refrozen_smooth, chaotic_terrain, crater (sparse) | Europa, Enceladus-analog |
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| Barren rock | Minimal processing — fractal base + sparse cratering + thermal erosion only, no atmosphere effects | rock_plain, ridge, crater, scarp, dust_plain | Airless small bodies, dead worlds |
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### Gas giants and belts (no surface tiles)
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Gas giants and asteroid belts do not generate terrain tiles. They exist as
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orbital entries in the atlas with atmospheric/compositional metadata only.
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## Key Libraries
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- **pyplatec** — Python bindings for PlaTec C++ tectonic simulator
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[Mindwerks/pyplatec](https://github.com/Mindwerks/pyplatec)
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- **WorldEngine** — erosion, rain shadow, Holdridge biome model
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[Mindwerks/worldengine](https://github.com/Mindwerks/worldengine)
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- **Totestra** — PerfectWorld2 fork with parameterized controls
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[samboy/Totestra-mapscript](https://github.com/samboy/Totestra-mapscript)
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## Performance
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- PlaTec at 1024x512: ~2-10 seconds per planet
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- Erosion passes: ~5-30 seconds
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- Climate + hydrology: <2 seconds
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- Total per planet: ~10-45 seconds
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- 1000 planets: 3-12 hours (offline batch)
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## Proposed Spike
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Stand up pyplatec, generate 5 tile grids with different planet profiles
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(Earth-like, volcanic, dead, ice, desert), render as preview images,
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evaluate geological variety. Half a day.
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## References
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- PerfectWorld 1+2 (CivFanatics, Python) — midpoint displacement + plate boundary elevation
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- PerfectWorld 3 (Civ5, Lua) — layered Perlin, dropped tectonics, kept climate
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- PlaTec thesis: Lauri Viitanen "Physically Based Terrain Generation" (2012)
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- SimpleTectonics: clustered convection approach (weigert/SimpleTectonics)
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- World Orogen (orogen.studio) — browser-based, strong algorithm design
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- Nixis (MightyBOBcnc/nixis) — spherical planet generation
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