3D globe map

What would you like to see in Freeciv? Do you have a good idea what should be improved or how?
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nicemicro
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 2:40 pm

3D globe map

Post by nicemicro »

Hi guys!

I've been traveling worldwide a lot, and got interested about maps and stuff.
I'm curious if it would be possible (It would be hard work, at the least) to create a version with not a flat-but-wrapped map, but a real, 3D globe. I'm even trying to find strategy games that work this way, but couldn't.

There are some good stuff I found on the Internet concerning stuff like this (https://github.com/vraid/earthgen-old seems to be very nice).

I am very curios about the opinion of those who understand the 'soul' of Freeciv better. But I find it a very exotic, new function that definitely has a lot of challenges in itself.
sveinung
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Posts: 548
Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 4:50 pm

Re: 3D globe map

Post by sveinung »

There have been discussions about how add a globe map in the past. I'm not aware of any currently ongoing work to add support for spherical maps.
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GriffonSpade
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Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:41 pm

Re: 3D globe map

Post by GriffonSpade »

I personally just wish for some kind of northpole / southpole wrapping. Not north TO south poles, but if you go 'up' on the north pole, it taking you half way around the world to the other side of the north pole. For example, if I go north from canada, I should pop up in northern russia. Coordinate terms: If map size is 100x100y, then going north from 0x0y should take me to 50x0y. (Going South would just go to 0x1y as normal)
BrentBoyer
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 7:21 pm

Re: 3D globe map

Post by BrentBoyer »

it sounds easy. it would be nice. large maps with 50+AI make using that little map in the corner work. i end up losing interest in where i am in the world. i want to be interested in where im at.
Lachu
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Posts: 472
Joined: Sat May 04, 2013 2:19 pm

Re: 3D globe map

Post by Lachu »

So you would like to put map into circle, so north/south pole are smaller than centric of map. Am I right?
DrGuyPhD
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 12:22 pm

Re: 3D globe map

Post by DrGuyPhD »

What could be done is to use map server software like PostGIS (http://www.postgis.net/), which can handle those sort of data well. If we could get it to generate a world using a tectonic model, that would be even better!
pak
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:41 pm

Re: 3D globe map

Post by pak »

The most elegant solution is to rework the underlying machinery to work on triangles rather
than squares or hexes (Any curved manifold can be characterized by its triangulation).
This would allow quite naturally the most exotic of world shapes, but you'd need distortion-tolerant
terrain tiles.

Alernatively, adapt it to work on a network of connected points defining a surface embedded in
any dimension of space you care to think of (but probably 3). The tile shapes would then be
obtained from the dual of the network mesh; if the number of connections was three for each
point, this would be equivalent to the triangulation scheme above.

Be a bit of work to code, mind you, but the result would be by far the most elegant solution.
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