Jump to content

Planet Generators


clarence

Recommended Posts

I have recently tried some of the planet generators that's floating around the web. Here are the ones I found most useful.

 
 
 
Quite simple web-based generator. Not so many parameters to change, but it's still one of my favorites. Images can be in a multitude of projections and color schemes, and the land masses look good. With a bit of photoshop adjustments the end result can get very good. "Bump map on land only", "Non-linear altitude scaling" and coastal contour lines are fine additions to the images.
 
2lwx69y.jpg
 
 
Planetary Generator 4 (for Filter Forge)
 
For photo-realistic blue planets, this is the best planet generator I have found. It has a lot of parameters, but never feels difficult. Optional cloud layer looks very good, and is highly tweakable. Photo-realism, as is often the case, takes some time to render though. The biggest drawback is that it's not free: The generator itself is free, but you need Filter Forge 4 to run it. The good thing is that you can try Filter Forge free for 20 days. It would also have been very useful to be able to export a rectangular map of the entire planet - hopefully it will appear in version 5.
 
23vf2wo.jpg
 
 
Web-based generator with a lot of controls. With this one you see the resulting planet directly as a rotating sphere, and the resolution goes up to 4000 pixels. You also get four different image maps, if you know how to utilize them (in a 3d program for example). My two biggest problems are that the GUI is a bit difficult, and that the actual maps just doesn't look very good. I might have to spend some more time with it, but so far I've not been very lucky with this.
 
e7j72o.png
 
I would also have liked to try AstroSynthesis (as it is supposed to be very good), but as there is no Mac version, it wasn't possible.

1683589267_frostbyteloggaFsvarttiny2.jpg.22ebd7480630737e74be9c2c9ed8039f.jpg   FrostByte Books

M–SPACE   d100 Roleplaying in the Far Future

Odd Soot  Science Fiction Mystery in the 1920s

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I also enjoyed Stars Without Number's planet/society rules. The tagging system works surprisingly good. To fill all those randomly generated planets with life, rules like that are perfect time-savers. In fact, using a handful of different rules for creating societies would probably go a long way to create the right kind of heterogeneity.

1683589267_frostbyteloggaFsvarttiny2.jpg.22ebd7480630737e74be9c2c9ed8039f.jpg   FrostByte Books

M–SPACE   d100 Roleplaying in the Far Future

Odd Soot  Science Fiction Mystery in the 1920s

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...