Random maps and menu screens
by Geom · 04/17/2006 (4:33 pm) · 6 comments
Lately I've been working on generating random maps for Orcs vs. Martians. It's been pretty fun since it's all very visual work.
I owe Derek Adams a beer for this.
Screenshots:
One of the interesting challenges I haven't tackled yet is, how to ensure that a generated map is playable !!! LOL That's the problem with randomness, you're not sure what you're going to get. For this game, the main problem is that player locations must be reachable from each other. Namely, they should not be isolated by bodies of water, cliff ledges, etc. I am not planning on having any air or water units in the game, so player locations must be mutually reachable by land.
I've also been working on the out-of-game screens and menus for the game. I got tired of looking at the placeholder art for the RTS-SK. That orangey-pink background color gets to you after a while.
Menu screens:
More ramblings at
I owe Derek Adams a beer for this.
Screenshots:
One of the interesting challenges I haven't tackled yet is, how to ensure that a generated map is playable !!! LOL That's the problem with randomness, you're not sure what you're going to get. For this game, the main problem is that player locations must be reachable from each other. Namely, they should not be isolated by bodies of water, cliff ledges, etc. I am not planning on having any air or water units in the game, so player locations must be mutually reachable by land.
I've also been working on the out-of-game screens and menus for the game. I got tired of looking at the placeholder art for the RTS-SK. That orangey-pink background color gets to you after a while.
Menu screens:
More ramblings at
About the author
My email address is my GG handle, at redbrickgames.com.
Recent Blogs
• Orcs vs. Martians - updated video• Orcs vs. Martians November update
• Milestone!
• The Burninating
• Victory flags
#2
04/17/2006 (7:01 pm)
Impressive stuff Geom! that looks like its coming along very nicely 
#3
04/18/2006 (4:33 am)
Nice, random maps must be hard to do (getting building to spawn on land, water to stay a decent hight, etc)
#4
thanks for the encouraging word!
@James
I'm generating the basic landscape using a sinus (? not sure if that's the right name) fractal function. But by itself that produces terrain that is too "hilly" and doesn't have enough flat spots for buildings. So I then run a "sharpening" algorithm. It tends to steepen the sides of hills, while flattening the tops. That produces cliffs, which is nice since cliffs are interesting to look at, and also elevated plateaus, which is nice since flat plateaus are suitable for building buildings on.
04/18/2006 (10:36 am)
@Toddthanks for the encouraging word!
@James
I'm generating the basic landscape using a sinus (? not sure if that's the right name) fractal function. But by itself that produces terrain that is too "hilly" and doesn't have enough flat spots for buildings. So I then run a "sharpening" algorithm. It tends to steepen the sides of hills, while flattening the tops. That produces cliffs, which is nice since cliffs are interesting to look at, and also elevated plateaus, which is nice since flat plateaus are suitable for building buildings on.
#5
04/27/2006 (9:46 am)
wow nice, what's the load times?
#6
Lately though I've noticed that the map generation still seems to have problems, somewhere. When loading, I get crashes in maybe 1 out of 10 times. And occasionally it will load, but then the terrain has transparent square holes in it here and there.
04/27/2006 (2:10 pm)
It's pretty fast, I think it's like 3-5 seconds to generate the map (.ter) file. This is on an Athlon64 4000+.Lately though I've noticed that the map generation still seems to have problems, somewhere. When loading, I get crashes in maybe 1 out of 10 times. And occasionally it will load, but then the terrain has transparent square holes in it here and there.
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