Progress is still on hold while I complete course work and I missed screenshot Saturday :( However I'll be done by the end of the week and done with exams in two weeks. Anyway, island terrain generation is still damn fun. I've added variables for customization for a little variation on the islands.
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| This is the player island, blue squares mark available slots for boats and light colored chunks of terrain are available to place buildings like farms and factories. |
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| Extra large beaches, extra large island, less exponential terrain |
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| Small beaches, smaller island, |
So, why not use unity terrain? I chose early on to generate this terrain and build the meshes with code while unity terrain sounds like a simpler choice. A few factors led to this, of course one is that I love procedural terrain. Otherwise though: first, once written the code can generate any amount of islands. Although we're not using more than four or five we have made a lot of changes to what we wanted from these islands. The size was originally going to be much smaller but we increased it as we needed more land to work with. I can easily change the size of my islands without rebuilding anything. Secondly I base where you can build on heightmap data, something that I have simple access to in my own code. And lastly the way I've implemented these meshes has let me create a simplified pixel graphic look for the terrain that is minimalist and almost cartoony. This lets us get away without breathtaking visuals while still looking good.
With all this in place it's fun to think about larger applications of it, maybe getting to sail around an infinite sea of islands, trading with them, maybe fighting off pirates and eventually running your own island. I wish I had time to program everything I think of.
