How to Procedural Planet generation => Creating a sphere from 6 planes

Unity Engine
1

Hello everyone,

Im trying to figure out how to use a relief map / normal map / displacement map on a sphere, to create a Planet with that.
But from what I know now that is not possible.
But it is possible to make a sphere out of 6 planes (and it is possible to use normal maps on planes), but I dont know how to do it.
Someone has maybe example code or a tutorial on how to do it?
Or any other idea how to generate the planets (the normal maps are not the problem, I will work on them after I can use them on a “sphere” or cubesphere)

Thanks in advance,
Ebil

2

there are plenty of (non unity) tutorials out there covering the basics. also i suggest using an icosaeder as the generated sphere has less distortions than a cube based one.

this is not a unity specific topic so have a look how others do it. this is a wide field and covered well all over the internet.

there is a js script parametricsphere or proceduralsphere by andeeee in the forum. you can use this as a start albeit its a lat/long sphere causing significant visual artifacts at the poles. but this at least gives you an idea on how to work with meshes in unity. theres also a procedural package by unitytech in the resources section.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/104140-Full-sized-planets-for-Unity3D-interesting have a look if that is what you need.
if you need just a distant view there is a planet shader in the asset store.

i dont know your programming background but as this is a complex topic i hope you have one. creating procedural planets as first project may be more than you can handle. start small do some tutorials and smaller projects, read forums + documentation and when you are comfortable with unity and programming it do your project.

3

Thanks for your answere.
I have programming background in several languages, but fairly new to unity (and js, but its easy to adapt), but had several testing projekt and my knowledge is growing, just procedural and mesh deforming is new to me.
I will then start searching outside of unity and look for tutorials in general.
I need to create a whole galaxy, and with full space to close planet look. Of course its hard to do, but im doing it step by step. That worked always for me :slight_smile:
I do not want to buy things. I like doing it on my own, also cause of learning something.