A Little FT3 Magic - So Many Worlds To See (A Mini Gallery)!

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Hi Y'all!!!

Well, I am now hitting here and there a little book project that I am working on half heartedly at present that I might include in T1.0 (when it gets finished - or started - whatever the case may be), and I have been doing artwork for it - of course - using FT3, as well as BRYCE, and a slew of other resources. Here are a few examples of what I have completed thus far, and please - no wagering...

First in our cavalcade of new images is a depiction of an Earth like moon orbiting a warm Carbon Dioxide / Hydrogen Gas Giant in the Goldilocks Zone of a nice "G" type star:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Next - we have a lovely example of a "run of the mill" Earth like planet with two tiny moons as opposed to our familiar Terran arrangement of one big one (this is my least favorite of the bunch thus far BTW):

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Next is an Earth like world about 1.5 times our Earth's size , with a nice little Mars sized living desert moon in tow:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

This next image is very interesting - a "Water Vapour Giant" gas planet with an atmosphere chiefly comprised of hydrogen, water vapor, hydrogen peroxide vapor, carbon dioxide,and ozone - with a nifty little Earth like moon about 0.86 times the size of Earth in an ice age state orbiting it. One of my favorite images thus far:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Next is a brilliant, warm, ringed gas giant with an Earth like moon. This is by far my very favorite image, notice the other Earth like desert moon at a fair distance away to the lower right:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Next up - we have a haunting view of twin binary orbiting Earth like planets facing their "G" type sun. "Binary orbiting" means that both worlds orbit each other at the same time - and are simultaniously each other's moons. They are actually a double planetary system.

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Next is yet another Marvellous blue moon orbiting a Gas giant (The moon is NOT that big in relation to it's planet - but it's size is a function of it's distance from it's mother planet, in conjunction with it's perspective from the viewer):

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Next is an interesting view of a "Super Earth" about 2.5 times the size of our Earth with a living Earth like moon orbiting it that's just a tad bit bigger than Mars, and just a tad bit smaller than our own world:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Next - a lifeless, rocky, poisonous world four times larger than Earth - with an atmosphere of Carbon Dioxide - that fortunately harbours a green and living moon:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

All of these images were done using FT3 for the "Earth like" planet textures - the gas giant textures are from various free ( royalty free - commercial use cleared) texture sources . I'm going to do a stockpile of images and then "cherry pick" the one's that I want to use on this project. These images are NOT at original resolution - but were scaled down for the forum.

Old Guy · March 2012

Very beautiful images!

However, I think the objects are a bit too close to each other to be sustainable. For instance, the earth and the moon (roughly 13,000 km and 3,500 km diameter respectively) are around 360,000 km apart (larger masses would be much further apart), which would look something like this:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Thank you Old Guy - what your seeing are the effects of viewer perspective. The sizes are false in relation to the viewer (angle of view), note image #9 that shows a barren world four times larger than Earth that harbours a roughly Earth sized "green" moon. In the image the mother planet does not look four times as large as it's moon - but roughly eqaul in size - which is an illusion of perspective.

JimP · March 2012

wowsers !

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Thanks Jim - I did these in an effort to show different scenarios and configurations for possible "other Earths" out there. The universe is so huge - that even though these seem a might far fetched - statistically each one is probably represented in reality at least once some where out in the vast cosmic mixer, lol. I'm not saying that these objects are represented 100% scientifically accurately scale and view wise - but they are sufficient enough to get the point I was trying to make across I guess, lol.

Ralf · March 2012

Wonderful worlds!

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Thank you Ralf. The one thing that I regret is that I can't really figure out a way to make .ftw files truly portable and self contained to where I can open them on any puter or fresh OS installation / FT3 installation without them coming out looking all garbled up and mushy and junk - otherwise I would have packaged these worlds onto a DVD-R for detailed mapping later, Apparantly I'm doing something terribly wrong somewhere. I ain't bright - but at least I'm cute - wait - oops, wrong on both counts, lol.

I have the Bryce scenes saved and can tweak them later.

Clercon · March 2012

Really nice pictures. The one with two "earths" orbiting each other really made me thinking. Imagine if that had been earth, two worlds being able to watch each others progress, both desperately trying to win the race to conquer the other one.

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Here's another image - this time showing a tidally locked world orbiting a red dwarf ("M" type) star. The Habitability Zone is so close to the star that the planet - in this case - is tidally locked - causing it's surface to be stormy because of rapid warm air advection across it's "dark side", and drenched in low grade radiation. Life on this planet would be extremophiles that are simple - yet tenacious and resiliant. A real life example might be Gliese 581c:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Here's an image of an Earth like world 1.4 times the size of Earth that is located in a very dirty, dusty solar system - as it bares thin whispy rings of fine rocks, captured meteorites, and dust. It's two moons are captured asteroids. A world located in this environment would be subject to consistant meteorite bombardment - and would have a history of somewhat frequent mass extinctions. This could easily represent a terrestrial world located in a dusty solar system like that of the Tau Ceti system:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Here's a nice image of an Earth like moon orbiting a huge rocky terrestrial planet 6 times larger than the Earth that has a thick Carbon Dioxide atmosphere. Note the smaller second moon in the upper right side of the image:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Hope these gives you guys inspiration - keep the feedback coming, critics welcome, lol.

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Anybody else have any other possible scenario ideas for Earth like worlds that I haven't thought of yet? lol.

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Yet another image I whipped up to attempt to inspire - a warm, hydrogen / water vapor ringed giant with a living desert moon in the foreground and another green Earth like moon in the background, Snow is visible on the high, mountainous continental divide of the green moon - where this mountain range is 3 times higher in elevation than the Himalayan mountain range on Earth, and sports a mountain as wide as the state of New Mexico :

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

This image portrays a moonless, living Earth like planet orbiting the greater of two widely separated twin yellow suns. The other yellow sun is opposite of the viewer's perspective and is not visible in this image. The planet does not need a moon really - because it's sun's distant twin sister exerts tidal forces upon the planet that stabilizes it's rotational obliquity "somewhat", but also causes the spring / summer seasons in it's southern hemisphere to be extended to about 60% of the entire year, and the autumn / winter in it's northern hemisphere to likewise be as long due to revolutional drag exerted upon it as it orbits it's home star. As a result of it's pecular situation - it only experiences roughly 5 true "completely dark" night time periods per year in it's north and south hemispheres respectively - as for the rest of the year - nights at their darkest are eqaul to very early morning / dim, dusky twilight on Earth because of it's secondary solar neighbor. It is a cooler planet than one might expect because it is located a little more towards the outer edge of it's sun's habitability zone as opposed to dead center within it for most of it's year. The amount of solar radiation that it recieves from the secondary sun is marginal compared to it's mother star. The length of it's day also changes seasonably - ranging between roughly 21 to 30 hours, depending upon it's orbital position annually.

jonasgreenfeather · March 2012

Posted By: Terraformer_AuthorThanks Jim - I did these in an effort to show different scenarios and configurations for possible "other Earths" out there. The universe is so huge - that even though these seem a might far fetched - statistically each one is probably represented in reality at least once some where out in the vast cosmic mixer, lol. I'm not saying that these objects are represented 100% scientifically accurately scale and view wise - but they are sufficient enough to get the point I was trying to make across I guess, lol.

Read this and thought of this thread...
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-scientists-billions-of-habitable-planets-20120328,0,7725764.story

also, in your 7th picture (the one that uses Jupiter as the gas giant) I really like that it has a shadow from one of the moons cast on its surface, and how you seemed to place the smaller world in juuuussst the right spot to accent it (or I could be seeing things that aren't there...)
Great Job!
Keep Calm
and
Map On

jonasgreenfeather · March 2012

Posted By: Terraformer_Author The amount of solar radiation that it recieves from the secondary sun is marginal compared to it's mother star. The length of it's day also changes seasonably - ranging between roughly 21 to 30 hours, depending upon it's orbital position annually.

Let's see those crafty Maya create a calandar for this world! To get the variation in length of day, was there a formula you followed or was it a "just wing it, cause it sounds cool"? (not a math guy, so if you start throwing massive equations around my eyes will glaze over

)

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

@jonesgreenfeather

Posted By: jonasgreenfeather
Posted By: Terraformer_AuthorThanks Jim - I did these in an effort to show different scenarios and configurations for possible "other Earths" out there. The universe is so huge - that even though these seem a might far fetched - statistically each one is probably represented in reality at least once some where out in the vast cosmic mixer, lol. I'm not saying that these objects are represented 100% scientifically accurately scale and view wise - but they are sufficient enough to get the point I was trying to make across I guess, lol.
Read this and thought of this thread...
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-scientists-billions-of-habitable-planets-20120328,0,7725764.story

also, in your 7th picture (the one that uses Jupiter as the gas giant) I really like that it has a shadow from one of the moons cast on its surface, and how you seemed to place the smaller world in juuuussst the right spot to accent it (or I could be seeing things that aren't there...)
Great Job!
Keep Calm
and
Map On

Thanks jonas - yep - the tiny moon with the shadow is there and was intentional - and thank you my friend for the link - RESEARCH!!!

Yeah - actually judging from the fact that there are probably TRILLIONS of galaxies out there - even "billions" of other "Earths" might be an understatement. Lol.

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

Posted By: jonasgreenfeather
Posted By: Terraformer_AuthorThe amount of solar radiation that it recieves from the secondary sun is marginal compared to it's mother star. The length of it's day also changes seasonably - ranging between roughly 21 to 30 hours, depending upon it's orbital position annually.
Let's see those crafty Maya create a calandar for this world! To get the variation in length of day, was there a formula you followed or was it a "just wing it, cause it sounds cool"? (not a math guy, so if you start throwing massive equations around my eyes will glaze over )

Actually it was a guesstimate, because that secondary sun would probably cause not only a drag down (or speed up) in revolution - but also rotation - because our moon actually helps to keep us spinning at a 24 hour rate - otherwise we would slow down our rotation and our days would be longer - and the planet's tilt angle would dance around a lot more, but I'm guessing that a secondary solar pull might effect a planet in roughly the same way if it were "just right". The question is would it give the planet an "umpff" to keep it spinning faster - or would it drag it down to being a slowing factor proportional to the slowing of it's journey around it's mother sun because of drag? I have a good gut feeling about "what kind" of effects it would have - but when they would kick in exactly is something else.

I don't like just "making up stuff off the cuff" when I do something like this - but rather than whip out my Physics and Pre-Calculus text books and dig into them for just a brief outline like these are - I'll make an educated guesstimate. If I wanted to "flesh it out", and really refine that particular model, for example - if it were the setting for a game campaign or something - then I'de trim away the fat on it and give it rock solid stats. If any stats in the descriptions seem "screwy" - then mathematical corrections are certainly welcome, lol.

All of these scenarios are scientifically sound however - and are definitely possible. I like awsomely cool yet possible, which is why although I love the fantasy genre - I'm more of a sci-fi dude (yep - unicorns are possible - but only with highly complicated genetic engineering - and a horse acting as a surrogate, lol).

Also - the images are mine - but since the "concepts" that the images portray are actual possibilities and not contrived - then you guys can use them (the CONCEPTS) as a basis for whatever game worlds and fiction that you can come up with. These are illustrations / simulations of general principles - not specific fictional or real places.

If you want to use my images - ask my permission first. Since Profantasy is hosting my stuff here - then naturally they can use these images for promotional or other purposes - just like the images in the Terraformer package. These images will also be used in any books, products, or projects that I might do later on. Private stock fodder. You guys can use these to generate ideas for places and cosmologies for your game and fiction settings - sorta like picking out the right color of house paint I guess, lol.

Question...Are these images technically maps - or are they more like diagrams?

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

A yet newer image, an Earth like planet immersed in an ice age - with three tiny moons - in a solar system skirting the outer rim of the galaxy:

Terraformer_Author · March 2012

This image portrays a ringed hydrogen and water vapor giant - with it's living Earth like moon in the foreground - orbiting binary suns. The larger sun is a late phase "G1" star, on the verge of becoming a "G2", and the smaller is a stable "K3" dwarf.

SOFTWARE USED:

Fractal Terrains 3 with Terraformer,
Universe, by Diard Software (free shareware version - for nebula effects and starfield compositing), starfields are pretty easy to do with a wide variety of techniques other than using Universe, but I'm lazy, lol.,
Bryce 7 (any version of Bryce will do actually),
The GIMP (Supernova and Lens Flare Filters and additional painting and editing),
Microsoft Paint (For image pasting and additional editing).

jonasgreenfeather · March 2012

Actually it was a guesstimate, because that secondary sun would probably cause not only a drag down (or speed up) in revolution - but also rotation - because our moon actually helps to keep us spinning at a 24 hour rate - otherwise we would slow down our rotation and our days would be longer - and the planet's tilt angle would dance around a lot more, but I'm guessing that a secondary solar pull might effect a planet in roughly the same way if it were "just right". The question is would it give the planet an "umpff" to keep it spinning faster - or would it drag it down to being a slowing factor proportional to the slowing of it's journey around it's mother sun because of drag? I have a good gut feeling about "what kind" of effects it would have - but when they would kick in exactly is something else.

I remember reading somewhere the Moon will one day be in a fixed orbit around Earth (as it is moving away from us about an inch a year, yes I did know this before Terra Nova was on TV), there won't be a moon-rise or set, it will be in one position. I always thought that would be a strange, one side of the planet would have an always visible moon and the other would never know of it.

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A Little FT3 Magic - So Many Worlds To See (A Mini Gallery)!

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