🚀 go-pugleaf

Chris Eberhardt (ce@wuee1.wustl.edu) wrote:
> Anyone have any ideas and/or algorithms to create worlds similar to the
> ones generated by the game Civilization.  Possibly a little more
> intelligent in the sense that it could create mountain ranges rather
> than the seemingly random placement of terrain in Civ.

I wrote a program to do this.  I posted it to comp.sources.misc a year ago.
You should be able to get it from an archive site like ftp.uu.net; look
for the submission "planet-v1".  It computes climate for the world map
as well.

Here is a section of the README file:

This is the README file for Version 5 of tec, a plate tectonic simulator.
It is written in C and runs on any Xwindows system (X11R4) or any UN*X
machine using text or PostScript output.  Copyright (c) 1991 by David Allen.
You may distribute this freely as long as you leave my name and copyright
notice intact.

Version history:
5.  Posted to comp.sources.misc on 3 / 15 / 1991.
    - Merged with globe display and climate generator
    - Scope reduced to Xwindow graphics

TEC draws a map of some imaginary world and puts one big continent on it.
The program then graphically simulates the breakup of this supercontinent by
rifts and the drifting of the continents.  Mountains are built by
subsuming and by continental collision, and are reduced by erosion.  As
more time passes, the continents tend to drift back into a supercontinent
and split up again, forming what some authors call a "supercontinent cycle."

The program produces a map of an imaginary world which contains realistic
looking mountain ranges and continents which sometimes look like they fit
together (like South America and Africa on Earth).