While opinions on the quality of No Man’s Sky may vary, there’s no denying that Hello Games’ sandbox title is an impressive feat from a technical standpoint. It’s amazing that such a small team could create a universe so vast, and to many it seems like they accomplished it via magic. That’s not the case, though, as it actually was due to a lot of math.
To shine a light on just how No Man’s Sky was made, Hello Games’ founder Sean Murray will be giving a speech at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) called “Building Worlds Using Math(s).’ The one hour talk takes place Thursday, March 2, and begins at 5:30pm. Those with the following passes will be able to attend: GDC All Access, GDC All Access + VRDC, GDC Main Conference, GDC Main Conference + VRDC. It’s intended for programmers and technical artists that are interested in creating procedural based games.
Here’s the description of the lecture from the GDC website:
No Man’s Sky is a science fiction game set in a near infinite procedurally generated universe. This lecture will describe some of the most important technologies and interesting challenges behind generating both realistic and alien terrains without artistic input, using mathematics. It also focuses on creating and testing an infinite environment with small team, in particular programmer generated worlds and art.After this lecture, attendees will have the knowledge required to be able to generate, populate and render a unique looking planet. They will have a deeper understanding of pitfalls to avoid and be inspired by where these techniques can go in the future.
The Sean Murray GDC talk looks to be one of the marquee lectures this year, and one definitely worth checking out for anyone with an interest in how procedural-based games are made.
(Source: Game Developer Conference via Gamasutra)
