P-152: Virtual World Concept Update 22: Spherical Terrain: Improved Sphere Texturing

I have made some significant improvements to the texturing and rendering of the Spherical Terrain. I think I am confident calling it a “planet” now.

I have modified the Resolution of the Terrain, and the Octave Count, Frequency, and Persistence of the Perlin Noise, as well as adding a gradient to the coloured areas of the Terrain, instead of a single colour. The result, I think, looks excellent.

I think I will begin the research and implementation of the collision system now. The texturing still needs a lot of work, it has no normal or bumpmapping, no lighting, shading, or any other fancy effects at all. However, I am eager to cross of the last two essential requirements for the success of the terrain, which are collision and terrain paging/LOD/Optimisation.

The video below seems choppy, but the terrain actually renders very smoothly, even at a relatively decent resolution of 256.