Planet building - chemical composition and techtonic plates

[ArithonUK]

Frontier broadcast an amazing live stream last night, discussing how they are making worlds for the Horizons update of Elite. There's a summary of the video's salient details below.

[video=youtube;-Et5Ivi_yIg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Et5Ivi_yIg[/video]

Credit to CMDR Anton Sugar for compiling the following information.


  General Info
 

• Started Horizons planetary landing work about nine months ago
• Stellar Forge is their engine/generator that creates their planets procedurally
• 61% of the planets in Elite: Horizons galaxy are airless and can be landed on in Horizons
  

Surface Features
 

• Not just noise maps/patterns for terrain--planets are shaped by  scientific information (for example, tectonic plate simulation  determines location of canyons, mountains, etc.)
• Tectonic Plates 1
  
• Tectonic Plates 2
  
• Use noise patterns but Stellar Forge intelligently knows when and how to utilize them based on the planet's make up
• Created series of colour/terrain swatches based on the chemical  make up of the planet and its surface, which makes it easier to identify  types of planets
• Surface detail of red planet w/icy peaks
  
• Wider shot of red planet w/icy peaks
  
• Orbit shot of red planet w/icy peaks
  
• The chemical make up of a planet is based on its simulated "history" and place in the solar system
• Crater simulation considers the "history" of the planet--so craters within craters, on top of other craters, etc.
• Largest terrain structures (like 30 km mountains) are determined  (again, scientifically) based on the planet's size, gravity, and make up
• Canyons can be kilometres deep
• Can find mountains that dwarf Mt. Everest (shows a 30 km mountain)
• 30 km mountain
  
• Used real planets as basis for simulation factors--for example, showed how they were simulating "Europa lines" for liquid flows
• Europa lines on a planet
  
• Ice caps, again, can appear/form based on the planet's mass, orbit, etc.
• Some craters have "ejecta lines" from ancient collisions that scattered new materials across the area
• Ejecta lines on a planetoid
  
• For stations and pirate bases, they have algorithms that help them choose the most interesting locations to place them
• Tidal locking is in game
• Older planets will have more weathered down features
• Sun rises, moon rises, Earth rises--that's old hat. Some planets will have "nebula rises" which are fantastic to look at
  

Planet Sizes

 

• Smallest planetoid is ~100km in radius. For reference Earth  is ~6400km in radius, and there are planets bigger than Earth to  explore
• 22,000 km radius is largest they've found, but they can go up to  24,000 km in radius--they actually don't know what the largest planet  is, they just have an idea of what it could be

 
LOD

 

• Land-able planets will have noticeable geometry upgrades from space
• Continually improving "LOD snapping" so pop-in is decreased--it wasn't enabled/shown in this Live stream
• There will be different LOD graphics settings to accommodate lower specification machines
• Generate geometry meshes to form the terrain, then they have a material mesh on top of that
• Planets are "persistent"--they don't generate terrain/new terrain as you approach them
• Video that David Braben shared last week (which was a week-old build) is already outdated and has been improved upon
• Landings sound pretty much seamless--specifically say there won't be  any clouded view or anything as you transition from space to the planet

 
Not available or delayed availability in Horizons upon release

 

• Volcanoes are "not in 2.0" but it is definitely in the plans--it's unclear if this means it will be in 2.x or the next season
  
• Cannot land on Earth's moon in 2.0 (permit restricts you) ON RELEASE but it is coming later in Season 2
  
• No caves in Horizons/Season 2--maybe later; say they actually  haven't missed not having caves since there are so many other  environment structures to explore
• Earthquakes are not in Horizons/Season 2

 
Other Pictures

 

• Rocky planet 1
  
• Rocky planet 2
  
• Rocky planet 2 in detail
  
• Flyover canyon shots (thanks, /u/MildPeril)
  

[ArithonUK]

Here's a better quality video of the raw footage.

[video=youtube;8jIrUQnUM0M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jIrUQnUM0M[/video]