Neverending maps by seamlessly stitching maps together!

I've always wanted to create big maps. Stuff that can be used to create whole worlds. Big maps are definitely possible with the "Generated Worlds" (working title) application. Below you'll see an example of four different maps created by the same random seed. The difference in each map is an "offset" factor that determines how final noise is generated. An offset of 0 (default) creates the first image, while an offset of (1 * Map height) creates the second, (2 * Map height) creates the third, and so on. The example below shows the "Height Offset" or Y-Offset. Of course the same is possible horizontally, allowing you to create huge maps consisting of N * N smaller maps.

There are a couple of tasks left before this works flawlessly, and that is to make sure rivers do not start at the edge of maps, - and to make sure texture heightmaps (for example forests) also overlap seamlessly into a large map. Luckily, the little detour into creating starfields has presented a nice elegant solution for the heightmap challenge already (although not shown here).

I think this is pretty cool, and I hope you do too!

First version of Starfields

So, I've been spending the past day or so creating a new theme for starfields. It's still early, but the early result shows some promise. There's more I want to do with this, - to add brighter stars and perhaps a planet or two. Any ideas beyond that? Would be much appreciated.

Anyway, here's an example of the first version of starfields.

Starfield version 1

Fixing the demo!

So, some people were experiencing problems running the demo. It turns out I was accidently using some .NET 4.5 specific code. At least I suspect that is the problem, as the demo now runs flawlessly on my wife's computer as well. I've uploaded a new version with the fix at https://sites.google.com/site/genworlds/

This release also contains debug files. So if the application still crashes violently, you should be able to help me find out why. Here's how:

• Control Panel
• Administrative Tools
• Windows Logs
• Application
• Look for glaring errors

Once you find the error symbol (or two), copy the content and mail me at generatedwrlds@gmail.com please.

Hopefully it'll all be smooth sailing though :)

The way ahead

The demo is out, and I want to reveal some plans for the future. Some of the priorities will be driven if/when I get some feedback on the demo version on what people would like to see, but I have many plans of my own as well. So, here's what I want to do!

• Do some minor work on rivers, in an attempt to remove the most ridiculous-looking ones.
• Create a second map theme, which will most likely be an aged, wrinkled, parchment-like theme.
• Aim for fully-flexible map sizes.
• Support both 32-bit and 64-bit.
• Create consistent textures that appear the same, independent of map sizes.
• Add serialization to map objects. This in itself doesn't offer much, but with proper serialization in place, I can:
• Load and store map objects (not images)
• Allow users to customize the different layers applied to a map
• Manually place cities, labels ++
• Add various post-processing effects.
• Create a full UI experience.
• Improve the random name generator significantly.
• Improve the language libraries significantly.
• Create a proper installer.

Further down the road when I am happy with the application itself, the goal is to keep adding more interesting and unique themes.

So you can see, there's enough to do!