Planet generating algorithm
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2018 2:59 pm
First of all: thanks to the Oolite team for their detailed explanation of the planet generating algorithm (here and here).
I have started building a little "planet browser" for the Sinclair ZX81 (which of course is not really a "port" of Oolite, but I hope my thread somehow fits into this sub-forum). A few things are still not clear to me, maybe these could be further explained in the Wiki:
1. Planet Names: why are some of the two-character parts left out? See for example the second planet "QUBE": the second part of the name has the value 0 and is therefore empty, that's clear. But the fourth part in the w2 hsb would be 1101 (decimal 13), which would be "DI". How do you decide that this part is not included in the planet's name?
2. Planet radius: according to the wiki, for the first planet TIBIDIED it should be 256*(11+7) = 4608. The original BBC game and Oolite show this value as 4610 (obviously rounded).
The Elite DOS games (Elite and Elite Plus) show the radius of TIBIDIED to be 7103 km. I would like to optionally generate the DOS radius value. Has someone already figured out how to do this?
BTW, the Amiga version shows the radius of TIBIDIED to be 38114 km, which seems quite uncomfortable for an earthling like me (too much gravity )...
3. The following values are not explained in the wiki:
Tech. Level
Population
Inhabitants Type
Productivity
Can you please explain what bit patterns are used to determine these values?
Many thanks in advance.
Robert (Commander, Rating Harmless)
I have started building a little "planet browser" for the Sinclair ZX81 (which of course is not really a "port" of Oolite, but I hope my thread somehow fits into this sub-forum). A few things are still not clear to me, maybe these could be further explained in the Wiki:
1. Planet Names: why are some of the two-character parts left out? See for example the second planet "QUBE": the second part of the name has the value 0 and is therefore empty, that's clear. But the fourth part in the w2 hsb would be 1101 (decimal 13), which would be "DI". How do you decide that this part is not included in the planet's name?
2. Planet radius: according to the wiki, for the first planet TIBIDIED it should be 256*(11+7) = 4608. The original BBC game and Oolite show this value as 4610 (obviously rounded).
The Elite DOS games (Elite and Elite Plus) show the radius of TIBIDIED to be 7103 km. I would like to optionally generate the DOS radius value. Has someone already figured out how to do this?
BTW, the Amiga version shows the radius of TIBIDIED to be 38114 km, which seems quite uncomfortable for an earthling like me (too much gravity )...
3. The following values are not explained in the wiki:
Tech. Level
Population
Inhabitants Type
Productivity
Can you please explain what bit patterns are used to determine these values?
Many thanks in advance.
Robert (Commander, Rating Harmless)