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I know this may seem to be beating the proverbial dead horse, however I haven't seen anything specific to what language is best to terraforming and generation of a basic sandbox. Any suggestions as to what languages or even programs that can be tied into game development for interaction between static land and dynamic generation (i.e. characters, NPCs, item spawns, etc.)

What is easiest to understand? I am looking for something that I can basically get a functional prototype created to take to investors and have something to begin hiring and funding the massive project. I have played the game Second Life and liked the way the terraformation worked there despite it's huge limitations in movements in the terrain.

Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by emilo35
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Hi there!

I would suggest you use the programming language that you feel the most comfortable with. I would use C# since you get a lot of tools for building UI around your map editor.

In terrain generation, there are a number of approaches depending on how you want to represent your terrain (i.e I) semi-voxel based like Minecraft, II) a continous surface with hills and valleys, or III) a pure 3D modelled terrain (enables overhanging cliffs, caves and the likes). One pretty neat approach is called the Diamond-square algorithm which is explained here. This generates a height-map similar to II), that can be used for coordinates in the terrain, with each pixel representing a fixed (x, z) location, and its gray-value representing its height (y-value).

I hope this helps you in some way at least!

Regards,
Emil Olofsson

Edited by emilo35 because: typos
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