Game Design Ideas Geology Simulator Part 4 - Revision history

Shealladh at 12:09, 5 March 2016

2016-03-05T12:09:22Z

Shealladh at 12:08, 5 March 2016

2016-03-05T12:08:43Z

Shealladh at 00:03, 6 December 2015

2015-12-06T00:03:05Z

Shealladh at 23:53, 5 December 2015

2015-12-05T23:53:13Z

Shealladh at 23:41, 5 December 2015

2015-12-05T23:41:15Z

Shealladh at 23:38, 5 December 2015

2015-12-05T23:38:46Z

Shealladh at 23:37, 5 December 2015

2015-12-05T23:37:39Z

Shealladh at 23:12, 5 December 2015

2015-12-05T23:12:42Z

Shealladh at 23:03, 5 December 2015

2015-12-05T23:03:19Z

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Shealladh at 12:46, 5 December 2015

2015-12-05T12:46:00Z

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 =Notes=
-* [http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/geology-simulator-minerology-and.html | Voxel Geology Simulator Project Part 4]
+* [http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/geology-simulator-minerology-and.html Voxel Geology Simulator Project Part 4]
 * A
 [[Category:Research]] [[Category:Game Design]] [[Category:Articles]] [[Category:Ideas]] [[Category:Terrain Generation]]

@@ Line 249: / Line 249: @@
 =Notes=
-* [http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/geology-simulator-minerology-and.html|Voxel Geology Simulator Project Part 4]
+* [http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/geology-simulator-minerology-and.html | Voxel Geology Simulator Project Part 4]
 * A
 [[Category:Research]] [[Category:Game Design]] [[Category:Articles]] [[Category:Ideas]] [[Category:Terrain Generation]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:03, 6 December 2015
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−	[[Category:Research]] [[Category:Game Design]] [[Category:Articles]] [[Category:Ideas]] [[Category:~~Generating~~ Terrain]]	+	[[Category:Research]] [[Category:Game Design]] [[Category:Articles]] [[Category:Ideas]] [[Category:Terrain Generation]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:53, 5 December 2015
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	* A		* A

−	[[Category:Research]] [[Category:Game Design]] [[Category:Articles]] [[Category:Ideas]]	+	[[Category:Research]] [[Category:Game Design]] [[Category:Articles]] [[Category:Ideas]] [[Category:Generating Terrain]]

@@ Line 210: / Line 210: @@
 <center>
 '''The program just sees it as a list of simple information, such as:'''
 % B, slope = 0.7, liquidus
 % B, slope = 0.6, liquidus
 % B, slope = 0.1, liquidus
 % B, slope = 0.2, solidus
 % B, slope = 0.65, solidus
 % B, slope = 1.3, solidus
 Melting point A = 21
 Ion diffusion = 45%
 Density A = 16 solid, 14 liquid
 Density B = 20 solid, 15 liquid
 </center>
@@ Line 236: / Line 246: @@
 * [[Game_Design_Ideas_Geology_Simulator_Part_4|Geology Simulator Part 4]]
 * [[Game_Design_Ideas_Geology_Simulator|Geology Simulator]]

@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 |}
 </center>
+<center>
 '''Data Type 2, Information we look up from centralized reference sources only as needed'''
 * Name of the NEAREST rock category for human flavor (not geologically important)
 * Melting point

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 <center>
 {|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
+|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|'''These are all granite!''' Yet as you might imagine, they have very different properties, ores, etc. One named category covers a lot of continuous ground that I don't want to miss out on!
 | [[File:granite variety.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
 There are a couple major problems with this continuous approach, though. One, it adds up to a lot more memory space than a cheap little ID number (Minecraft style). I've run some test simulations that simply populate the world with goxels that have all the information, and it was already pushing 1.5 gigabytes or so with just a medium size world, just sitting there (I'm trying to stay within 2 gigs for 32 bit users).
@@ Line 38: / Line 33: @@
 <center>
 {|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
+|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|'''Data Type 1, Information we can carry around in each goxel'''
 | [[File:bookCarry.jpg|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
 * Whether it is a rock at all -- goxels can be rocks, or other kinds of things like liquids, gases, biological data holders, sediments, and so on. Those things reinterpret the data below as they need, instead of wastefully keeping additional space in memory that would usually be empty.
@@ Line 60: / Line 54: @@
 <center>
 {|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
+|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|by Marie-Lan Nguyen
 | [[File:card4_by_marie_lan_ngyuen.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
 '''Data Type 2, Information we look up from centralized reference sources only as needed'''
@@ Line 110: / Line 103: @@
 <center>
 {|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
+|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|by  Friman[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ CC-BY-SA-3.0]
 | [[File:granite macro by Friman cc by sa 3_0.JPG|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
 In the case of this piece of granite, the pinkish crystals are probably some sort of feldspar, the white ones are quartz, and the black ones are either amphibole or biotite minerals. If you look much more closely, the crystals become quite striking in how distinct they are (not the same sample):
@@ Line 120: / Line 112: @@
 <center>
 {|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
+|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|by  Thomas Bresson[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ CC-BY-SA-3.0]
 | [[File:granite thin.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
 Why are these minerals so separated? Because granite is a rock formed by very '''slow''' cooling of magma trapped beneath the surface. As the magma passes gradually through different temperature ranges, specific minerals have a lot of time to crystallize out of solution all by themselves, because hotter crystallizing minerals already left solution and cooler ones aren't in range yet. And its different minerals don't blend very well, because they have different crystal structures. So all the crystals of each type end up relatively large and distinct.
@@ Line 132: / Line 123: @@
 <center>
 {|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
+|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|by Michael C. Rygel [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ CC-BY-SA-3.0]
 | [[File:rhyolite.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
 Do I really care whether rock looks coarse or fine? Well no, I don't care how they LOOK, because I'm not modeling visual textures. But I do care VERY much about crystallization and minerals in general, for a few reasons. '''All of the reasons revolve around the same theme of minerals influencing how chemical elements move around in non-homogenous ways:'''
-# Different minerals are more or less stable against erosion and weathering. Generally, heavier minerals that form deeper down (like olivine) tend to be less stable at the surface than lighter minerals that form closer to the surface (like quartz). So olivine will weather away into small clays quickly, and quartz will weather more slowly into larger grains of sand. These then get separated out by wave actions, for example, and form their own entirely different types of sediments (shales and sandstones) in physically distant locations. Entire landscapes depend on different minerals eroding away at different rates!
+# Different minerals are more or less stable against erosion and weathering. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowen%27s_reaction_series Generally], heavier minerals that form deeper down (like olivine) tend to be less stable at the surface than lighter minerals that form closer to the surface (like quartz). So olivine will weather away into small clays quickly, and quartz will weather more slowly into larger grains of sand. These then get separated out by wave actions, for example, and form their own entirely different types of sediments (shales and sandstones) in physically distant locations. Entire landscapes depend on different minerals eroding away at different rates!
 # If crystals are already tinier than sand, then they won't probably erode into sand, for example. This compounds with #1 above.
 # Crystallization of minerals from magma (and melting into magma in reverse) can have '''profound''' consequences for distribution of chemistry in the planet. Crystals can sink in their magma as they form, as just one example, which can concentrate heavy minerals lower down and concentrate lighter ones on top. ''This is no less important than the main driving force behind continents forming and persisting over eons!''
@@ Line 182: / Line 172: @@
 <center>
 {|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
+|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|Start at some triple composition of A, B, and C near the top. Cool down gradually, following a path as if a ball were rolling down the hills. When on one planar surface, only crystallize that substance. When on a middling ridge, crystallize two. At the bottom point (Eabc), crystallize all 3 until solid.
 | [[File:eutectic3d.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
 Add in a whole bunch more materials, pressure as a variable, and the need to use shortcut formats since you can't draw an 8-dimensional space, and it gets almost incomprehensibly complicated and difficult to interpret by eye:
 <center>
 {|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
+|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|
 | [[File:F7.large.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 | [[File:mineral phases overlaid.gif|450px|link= ]]
@@ Line 219: / Line 203: @@
 <center>
 {|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
+|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|AND this diagram is only for your benefit.
 | [[File:model phases.png|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
-AND this diagram is only for your benefit.
+<center>
 '''The program just sees it as a list of simple information, such as:'''
 % B, slope = 0.7, liquidus
@@ Line 235: / Line 219: @@
 Density A = 16 solid, 14 liquid
 Density B = 20 solid, 15 liquid
 Any elements / chemicals that get left out of the crystallization calculations? They are treated much more simply. For example, heavier ones might tend to sink a bit between goxels and lighter ones float up, but otherwise, whenever the crystallization is done, leftovers just get locked in, in an abstract sense, in that goxel. Rare ores and gems can wait to be calculated until the end of simulation.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 A Geology Simulator for Game Worlds. A series of ideas building a world based around geology.
-[[File:pic.png|450px|center|link= ]]
+[[File:geobanner_4.png|450px|center|link= ]]
-−
-<center>
-{|
-|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
-|}
-</center>
-−
-Colour Text: Code: '''<span style="color:#006699">public class</span>'''
@@ Line 19: / Line 10: @@
 In this post, I outline how the world will keep track of rocks, minerals and their properties, and why. I had to take a detour from plate tectonics to at least think about this issue, in order to make certain early database decisions.  And by "think" I mean "read several textbooks" (well no not yet, but I'm most of the way through one!):
-[[File:pic.png|450px|center|link= ]]
+[[File:pet.jpg|450px|center|link= ]]
 Unlike a game like Minecraft, I don't want to store my material information in terms of only distinct categories with a small set of ID numbers. Whenever possible, I want to store '''CONTINUOUS''' information about things like chemical makeup, so that rocks for the most part vary smoothly and gradually across the world. ...Unless there's some reason for them not to, like in the case of a sudden magma tube or a fault line.
@@ Line 28: / Line 19: @@
 {|
 |+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
+| [[File:granite variety.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
@@ Line 48: / Line 39: @@
 {|
 |+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
+| [[File:bookCarry.jpg|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
@@ Line 70: / Line 61: @@
 {|
 |+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
+| [[File:card4_by_marie_lan_ngyuen.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
@@ Line 99: / Line 90: @@
 This is all calculated once at startup, using user-customizable entries in a text file for the reference rocks. This means that if you want to add your own rocks, you just say where, and the algorithm will automatically blend those properties into the local neighborhood when you start the program up. Then your new rock type will appear exactly where you would expect it to in your world at the very end, procedurally.
-[[File:pic.png|450px|center|link= ]]
+[[File:searchspace.png|450px|center|link= ]]
 We can't just have one big dumb lookup table for everything, because it would take up like 20 gigabytes or something. But that's okay, because many dimensions are mutually exclusive anyway. Rocks formed in different environments can be delegated to their own smaller tables. Basically we end up with a flowchart of smaller tables that add up to only small peanuts of storage:
@@ Line 105: / Line 96: @@
 Some example reference rocks are listed by number on the chart above. You do need one rock type at least for each box, but after that, it's up to you how densely to fill in the space. For example, let's consider three versions of just the Igneous lookup table, with different reference rocks:
-[[File:pic.png|450px|center|link= ]]
+[[File:Lookup.png|450px|center|link= ]]
 If you only have granite in that category in the custom text files, the game will treat all igneous rocks as identical to granite and call them all granite at the end. If you have granite and basalt, it will name some rocks one and some the other, with the dotted line showing the naming cutoff. The smooth color transition represents in-between rock material properties averaged across the space for in-between goxels. Adding in andesite makes the space more complex, and so on.
@@ Line 120: / Line 111: @@
 {|
 |+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
+| [[File:granite macro by Friman cc by sa 3_0.JPG|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
@@ Line 130: / Line 121: @@
 {|
 |+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
+| [[File:granite thin.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
@@ Line 142: / Line 133: @@
 {|
 |+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
+| [[File:rhyolite.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
@@ Line 166: / Line 157: @@
 These can combine in different ways to yield very different outcomes. Below is a '''very simple''' (I know it doesn't look like it!) phase diagram and some outcomes from it in different situations:
-[[File:pic.png|450px|center|link= ]]
+[[File:Phases.png|450px|center|link= ]]
 Okay, so the graph is a diagram of how two substances will crystallize (or melt in the other direction) based on temperature in different mixtures. On extreme left or right, you have pure substance A or B, and melting or freezing happens at a single point: the melting points. In the middle, you have a slurry phase, where the substances are crystallizing together not all at once.
@@ Line 185: / Line 176: @@
 The phase diagrams can get more complicated. In the following diagram, there is a solid mixture that is only a solid solution on the sides, and converts to distinct crystals in the middle., depending on concentrations of each substance and temperature. You also end up with two different sets of slurry curves, and a center "eutectic point" where both crystals form at once:
-[[File:pic.png|450px|center|link= ]]
+[[File:eutecticb.png|center|link= ]]
 You can also have situations with more than two substances present, in which case the curves become planes instead, and you have more of a triangular prism (in the case of three substances here):
@@ Line 192: / Line 183: @@
 {|
 |+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
+| [[File:eutectic3d.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
@@ Line 202: / Line 193: @@
 Add in a whole bunch more materials, pressure as a variable, and the need to use shortcut formats since you can't draw an 8-dimensional space, and it gets almost incomprehensibly complicated and difficult to interpret by eye:
-[[File:pic.png|450px|center|link= ]]
+[[File:F7.large.jpg|450px|center|link= ]]
-[[File:pic.png|450px|center|link= ]]
+[[File:mineral phases overlaid.gif|450px|center|link= ]]
 <center>
 {|
 |+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
+| [[File:F7.large.jpg|450px|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>
@@ Line 228: / Line 220: @@
 {|
 |+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#000000;"|(caption)
-| [[File:pic.png|450px|link= ]]
+| [[File:model phases.png|link= ]]
 |}
 </center>

@@ Line 122: / Line 122: @@
 # How many substances are present
-# Hwo well they form a solid solution. This means a solid that can substitute ions out of its structure somewhat freely. Alloys of metals are solid solutions, but mineral crystals can be too. Usually this happens when two minerals have similar crystal structures except for a substitution of one element... often in the same element series, such as calcium <--> magnesium. The different ions can diffuse in and out and essentially "dissolve" two types of crystals together. If a solid solution '''doesn't''' form, you'll get different distinct crystals next to each other instead.
+# How well they form a solid solution. This means a solid that can substitute ions out of its structure somewhat freely. Alloys of metals are solid solutions, but mineral crystals can be too. Usually this happens when two minerals have similar crystal structures except for a substitution of one element... often in the same element series, such as calcium <--> magnesium. The different ions can diffuse in and out and essentially "dissolve" two types of crystals together. If a solid solution '''doesn't''' form, you'll get different distinct crystals next to each other instead.
 Solid solutions are on a continuum, based on how WELL ions diffuse in a given situation. From perfectly, to not at all. Also, what matters is ACTUAL diffusion. Rate of cooling or density of crystals can get in the way even if a solid solution / diffusion would have occurred eventually otherwise. So "low diffusion" can mean "chemically won't ever diffuse" or it can mean "would if it could but cooled too quickly" or it can mean "Crystals sank and aren't physically there anymore to diffuse into even if they would have qualified."
 # Whether each crystal is heavier or lighter or the same density as the remaining liquid after crystallizing.