Galaxy Map (Galaxy Generation)

Community Showcases
1

Details more info on the plugin

A galaxy map i made a while back (you can tell by the GUI buttons) for a exploration game, that never was.
I thought it looked cool so i decided to share it.

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800×450 145 KB

I use the shuriken particle system + Density wave theory to generate a spiral galaxy. Then i populate it with procedural generated planetary systems.

For the star light i use a simple algorithm to convert Kelvins to RGB color depending on the temperature of the star. (don’t mind the Borg ship)

800×450 61.7 KB

For the planetary atmosphere i use the implementation of O Nell’s Atmospheric scattering

800×450 59.4 KB

800×450 69 KB

The algorithm is not that complex, i can event modify it and make it a universal galaxy generator for spiral as well as none spiral galaxies I can even put it on the asset store if i see an interest in it.

9 Likes
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I need this.

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I like it Simeon! Can think of a few uses already :slight_smile:

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I would be very interested in purchasing this either though the asset store, or personally. Simeon please PM me if you decide not to put this into the asset store so we can work out a deal.

Thanks

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when you zoom in, do the stars still move in real time or is that a background of stars?

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everything is real time, just some trickery with multiple cameras.

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That looks awesome :slight_smile: brings back memories from mass effect 1 galaxy map. I think it definetely deserves a spot in the asset store!

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That looks fantastic.

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finish the game… looks very nice

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I started working on a plugin. Here is a test, done with GPU particles Web Demo
It has about 1 million stars, and the animation is in shader.

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It looks great :wink:
How do you plan to transform it into a plugin? I guess its a bit tricky to expand something specific into a plugin that could fit various projects.

1 Like
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Indeed! I will mainly do the galaxy generation with modules to change the look and feel of the galaxy. I will do various utility tools like:

  • Building paths between stars, based on criteria.
  • Object loading based on distance, for large scale effects.
  • Noise modules for different kinds of star fields

If you have suggestions on features, please let me know! I might event do some simple examples for uses, like a galaxy map or a rts.

1 Like
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Actually the first thing that came to my mind was an editor window about planet customization. The user could deside across various options to be generated for the planets in his galaxy. For example you could add options like

  • Habited
  • Population
  • Minerals
  • Atmosphere Composition
  • etc.

which can be affected by varius rules
like distance from closest star, distance from center of the galaxy, rotation speed, etc.

Thus someone who wants to create a mineral mining game could add only the options about minerals and create specific rules about them (e.g. if distance from star less than 15 the chance for gold is 40-60%), whereas someone that wants to create a strategy game could add only the population options with its corresponding rules.

I think modular system like this could make the plugin usefull in multiple occasions :wink:

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Expanding on moure’s idea, I think the ability to add seeding modifiers to various astronomical objects is the way to go here. Planets are all well and good but we also have things like asteroids, comets, rogue planets and whatnot. Being able to seed the galaxy with a range of stars (1 million is awesome, but smaller as well, say 30,000 or so), range of number of planets (say 0 through 9), moons and so forth.

I’m also curious to know how you’re planning to handle nebula details, volumetric space fog (if at all) and navigating the galaxy map in 3D space?

Very cool work. Keep us posted!

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The navigation is up to you, i will most likely include simple examples. But the plugin will be mainly for galaxy generation, the population and handling of planets will be up to you. I will just make it a lot easy to integrate into other projects. I might add nebulae and other astronomical objects.

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Sounds amazing !

Just to let you know the shader in the demo doesn’t work on mac, it shows as pink.

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I would like to see this in the store. Looks great!!

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Really impressive!

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I made a small demo, on my progress. Have a look: Link.
For now I have just two types of galaxies. One is a spiral and the other is a Star Clusters.
You can do unlimited layers of particles. And you can adjust size, color, rotation and all sort of stuff trough animation curves and gradients.
In the future I might even add support for node editor for noise distribution.

(Note that the particles use a geometry shader which is only available for DirectX 11, so for Mac I use Unity’s Shuriken particle system)

1 Like
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mass effect!!