[BUG-5387] LindenLab purchase Pandromeda - replace current terrain with MojoWorld procedural/fractal terrain

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How would you like the feature to work?

Take the source code to Pandromeda.com's MojoWorld generator and viewer and merge it into the SL server and viewer code base, replacing the current 256x256 terrain patch per simulator with procedurally generated world surface data - in a proper orbit around a star, with proper moons. Currently a region simulator manages a 256x256m mesh and load of "neighbor" connections. An avatar has a region coordinate within a region, and the region has a map coordinate. Replace this with a astronomically scaled coordinate system centered on a fictional star with simulated regions based on the surface of the fictional planet. Have the region simulator download the world set and a rendered patch for the user viewer to render from. Landmarks would change to "star system, world, lat long" The purpose of this is to make a world where you can walk/fly any direction, at planetary scale, across procedurally generated terrain. A simulator would basically be the "local renderer" for a patch of that terrain for a user, and an I/O handler with other users in the vicinity - say by draw distance. The simulator handles "wilderness" and merging "developed" areas onto it. Edited terrain would override the procedural terrain mesh generation, but still be able to blend on it, because edits would naturally start with the procedural section. Abandoned areas could go "wilderness" then revert to the undeveloped procedural data as it was freed from the database.

Why is this feature important to you? How would it benefit the community?

The current region is a 256x256m patch which is too large or too small. Adjacent regions can be a painful nightmare. The SL sun "path" and timing makes no astronomical sense. The moon is a texture stamp that used to get changed for fun but seems dormant now. Replacing these with a procedurally generated "star system" with a planet orbiting a star, and moon(s) orbiting the planet would allow SL to build a true "world" out of the map patchwork. Teleports to private islands could be jumps to other privately designed star systems, with new worlds to discover. Roleplaying sims could hugely benefit from being able to set custom suns, additional moons or no moon, constellation maps, and more. The current messy map could be cleaned up and look far far more like a world. SImulators would handle "users" directly, and groups, by rendering from a shared "dataspace" rather than simulators rendering space no one is using. More land to sell - and a whole new speculation model - explore a world, find a spot, and stake a claim as a land rental/sales model.

Original Jira Fields

| Field | Value | | ------------- | ------------- | | Issue | BUG-5387 | | Summary | LindenLab purchase Pandromeda - replace current terrain with MojoWorld procedural/fractal terrain | | Type | New Feature Request | | Priority | Unset | | Status | Been Triaged | | Resolution | Triaged | | Reporter | Allen Kerensky (allen.kerensky) | | Created at | 2014-03-14T23:06:43Z | | Updated at | 2014-03-19T18:30:01Z | ``` { 'Business Unit': ['Platform'], 'Date of First Response': '2014-03-19T13:25:34.709-0500', 'How would you like the feature to work?': 'Take the source code to Pandromeda.com\'s MojoWorld generator and viewer and merge it into the SL server and viewer code base, replacing the current 256x256 terrain patch per simulator with procedurally generated world surface data - in a proper orbit around a star, with proper moons.\r\nCurrently a region simulator manages a 256x256m mesh and load of "neighbor" connections.\r\nAn avatar has a region coordinate within a region, and the region has a map coordinate.\r\nReplace this with a astronomically scaled coordinate system centered on a fictional star with simulated regions based on the surface of the fictional planet.\r\nHave the region simulator download the world set and a rendered patch for the user viewer to render from.\r\nLandmarks would change to "star system, world, lat long"\r\nThe purpose of this is to make a world where you can walk/fly any direction, at planetary scale, across procedurally generated terrain. \r\nA simulator would basically be the "local renderer" for a patch of that terrain for a user, and an I/O handler with other users in the vicinity - say by draw distance.\r\nThe simulator handles "wilderness" and merging "developed" areas onto it.\r\nEdited terrain would override the procedural terrain mesh generation, but still be able to blend on it, because edits would naturally start with the procedural section.\r\nAbandoned areas could go "wilderness" then revert to the undeveloped procedural data as it was freed from the database.', 'Target Viewer Version': 'viewer-development', 'Why is this feature important to you? How would it benefit the community?': 'The current region is a 256x256m patch which is too large or too small.\r\nAdjacent regions can be a painful nightmare.\r\nThe SL sun "path" and timing makes no astronomical sense.\r\nThe moon is a texture stamp that used to get changed for fun but seems dormant now.\r\nReplacing these with a procedurally generated "star system" with a planet orbiting a star, and moon(s) orbiting the planet would allow SL to build a true "world" out of the map patchwork. \r\nTeleports to private islands could be jumps to other privately designed star systems, with new worlds to discover.\r\nRoleplaying sims could hugely benefit from being able to set custom suns, additional moons or no moon, constellation maps, and more.\r\nThe current messy map could be cleaned up and look far far more like a world.\r\nSImulators would handle "users" directly, and groups, by rendering from a shared "dataspace" rather than simulators rendering space no one is using.\r\nMore land to sell - and a whole new speculation model - explore a world, find a spot, and stake a claim as a land rental/sales model.', } ```

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Alexa Linden commented at 2014-03-19T18:25:35Z

Thank you for your suggestion.