Gliesa Development - Terrain Preview

Greetings members! Today I want to share with you Gliesa’s latest development results (as of February 19, 2021) and what’s coming next. This is exciting stuff, so sit tight!

The last article presented the first preview of my “The Stack” terrain architecture. I explained that the terrain in the previews was a bare-bones prototype, and that I was going to sculpt the contents. In this article I present the current progress, explain the details and touch on what’s coming next.

We’ve reached a milestone! The rock structure is done for the terrain above water level, which includes all the layers discussed in the previous article. The only block types used currently are stone and water because the block palette that decides the types of blocks making up the terrain hasn’t been developed yet. I will likely retouch the terrain (especially the top) multiple times before it’s done.

The next step is to bring over the lava caves from DWG and conceptualize the rarer large caverns that will be present between Y:30 and Y: 55. Originally, I intended to use DWG’s stalactite caves as well but because the layered terrain already has stalactites, I will work on something completely new. Once the underground terrain is done, I will implement the terrain block palette which is the component that decides what block to use when generating the terrain (grass, dirt, stone, etc.).

You can fly around this terrain by downloading the JAR from this post. If anyone wants to generate an area, terraform it and publish it’s fine by me, but please give credit here for the base terrain :). This is almost like a white canvas because everything is just stone waiting to be populated.

Previews

The previews present multiple screenshots of different features. There is a lot of them because the terrain is complex and I wanted to give a good look of the core features. I find that the still images don't give the true sense of depth that you get when exploring it in-game by yourself, so if you have the time try running the JAR on a test server and fly around. 

Picture 1: Bird's eye view of bottom layer..

Picture 2: Zoomed in landscape view of bottom layer showcasing subtle stalactite and stalagmite formations under a bridge-like rock structure.

Picture 3: Thick rocky column supporting a bridge-like structure. The roof is covered in stalactites. A small beach peaks out from under the bridge. On the left there's a cavern entrance entrance into the cliff. On the far-right you can see thicker rocky column formations almost connecting the floor and ceiling.

Picture 4: Same location as in Picture 2 but seen from a higher position. This view includes the layer above showcasing the difference in rock structure between layer 1 and 2. Thick columns can be seen aupporting the roof of layer 2.

Picture 5: Cavern entrance into the cliff of layer 1. Stalactites and stalagmites can be seen inside the cavern. A thick column is supporting the entrance with some thinner columns on its left. The floor inside the cavern is partially solid and partially water.

Picture 6: Wide low roof cavern entrance into the cliff of layer 1. Stalactites and stalagmites can be seen inside the cavern. A thick column is supporting the entrance just like in Picture 5. The floor inside the cavern is partially solid and partially water. 

Picture 7: Tall and thin cavern entrance into the cliff of layer 1. Stalactites and stalagmites can be seen on the right side with one set almost connecting  to form a column. There's a lot of beach area in front of the left-most entrance.

Picture 8: Open space of layer 2 with an opening to a tunnel into the wall. The tunnel is illuminated by a ceiling hole into the layer above. In the far end of the tunnel there is a large stalagmite.

Picture 9: Large cavern entrance into the cliff of layer 1.

Picture 10: View from inside a cavern opening of layer 1. This shows stalactites from eye-level.

Picture 11: A tall cliff with a large cave entrance revealing an opening on the other side of the interior space.

Picture 12: A tall cliff with numerous entrances into different terrain layers.

Picture 13: Balcony on layer 3 with a cavern entrance inside the cliff-wall that showcase some internal structure of that layer. A second entrance is peaking at the bottom of the image into the layer below. The right side of the picture has some rock formations and a smaller balcony.

Picture 14: Massive balcony on layer 2 seen from below. Under the balcony there is a dense thin column matrix supporting it.  On the right of that balcony there's an entrance into the cliff wall of layer 1.

Picture 15: Cave entrance in layer 1 with a wall of tightly packed thin columns covering one half of the entrance. Through the other half of that entrance you can see some internal structure of layer 1.

Picture 16: View of an open space under a thick bridge with a support column almost forming and some breach area in layer 1.

Picture 17: Giant cavern entrance into the wall of layer 2. The ceiling is supported by thick columns, and one stalactite and stalagmite pair is almost connecting right at the entrance. In front of the entrance there's a balcony with access to sunlight.

Picture 18: Side-view of layer 2's rock structure and balconies exposed to sunlight. Thick columns support the ceiling. A large ravine-like hole separates the left and right side of the image.

Picture 19: Sunlight shining through a ceiling hole revealing some thin stalactites  and a little lake at the bottom.

Picture 20: Giant cavern entrance into the wall of layer 1 seen from inside. A giant column is supporting the ceiling.

Picture 21: Tall opening into an open area on the right of the image. The left of the image shows a cavern riddled with thick columns. Through the hole on the right side you can see a cliff wall with balconies in the distance.

Picture 22: Smaller hole into the terrain viewed from the top layer. Inside the hole there are multiple levels of rock bridges connecting opposing sides.