Silicate planets

An interesting article on planet formation, specifically the various permutations on the silicate planet formation process. A few favourite lines but "Differentiation is an orderly and predictable process thanks to our knowledge of chemistry and mineral properties under pressure" is particularly pertinent. Given a known set of initial conditions (protoplanetary dust cloud composition, energy output from star/s, distance from star etc) accurate simulations of all the silicate planet permutations are possible.

Habitable zone

Interesting ideas regarding earths habitable zone and implications of anthropogenic warming.

Sandstone desert

Here are a few renders of a sandstone desert. Thinly bedded sandstones deposited in a rhythmic process. Some beds horizontal, some dipping at various angles. A band of carbon rich material visible in one render. Low flat areas partly covered in a salty crust indicating onetime presence of a lake or seaway.

 

 Carbon band.

Arenites

Sandstone. Arenites. Quartz, felspathic and lithic. Some links to interesting examples...

1  2  3  4  5  Uluru Flinders Ranges Jamison Valley


Some more sandstone country renders. Tinkering...

The light in this render makes it look a little alien I'm thinking. Love how the dip correlates with the bedding planes. Thinly bedded sandstones like this may indicate a rhythmic depositional environment, perhaps lacustrine or marine in nature, the dip may indicate uplift due to compressional tectonic forces. Fun to speculate on the origins of a purely simulated landscape!
 

I like the light in this render although the bedding planes do not stand out as much. Low level clouds seem more appropriate in this render, indicating cool and humid air accumulating in valleys during the morning.

Terragening Part 2

A selection of scenes rendered on the desktop. Same view, different time of day and variations in snow/cloud cover. Reminds me of a high latitude environment much like the dry valleys of Antarctica.

Terragening

Doing some Terragen terrains these past few days. Downloaded a free version of the software on the weekend and found a fairly good YouTube tutorial series on the basics. Once you get past the guys constant sniffling (blow ya fucking nose!) he goes through a fairly good step by step process on creating a basic scene. With the basics down, you can start to tweak and explore. At the moment I'm trying to master the terrain "strata and outcrops" shader and so far the results are pleasing. My geological interests primarily center around sedimentary rock systems so generating realistic looking sedimentary rock outcrops pleases me immensely!

I am interested in applying Terragen terrains to GIS (one of my current study units) or the other way around, applying rasters used in GIS generated from real world maps and sensing to Terragen. This would be a fantastic way of generating 3D renders of real world data, eg: radar terrain height maps. This is being done by people, a quick search through the Planetside forums reveal that people have been rendering GIS data in Terragen already. Ultimately, I would like to generate a GIS of a virtual world consisting of a wide range of data types in a meaningful layered way. This is something I have been wanting to do for a VERY long time, I just didn't have the tools or know-how to do it!

Here are some of the terrains I have generated this week. Keep in mind I have just begun exploring this software, and scenes so far are a little half baked in some ways.

Simple fractal landscape with little modification, only 3 surface layer shaders and basic water and atmospheric features. Desolate yet nice.

Simple fractal landscape (some artifacts quite visible) with snow. The white layer above the water surface is reminiscent of precipitation left by evaporation.

 High latitude islands shrouded in low cloud.

Playing with object placement. In this case pine trees. Very processor intensive. Realism in this pic is not the best but it was a useful experiment.

Rather pleased with this mornings effort, the cliffs and ridgetops in particular. I would like to superimpose some sort of erosional softening over the layers in the lower half of the image, not sure how to do this yet.