Continuing with the planets refresh, I've been refining the system that generates Earthlike worlds. It was quite fiddly to get all of the various layers combined into a unified global normal map, but ultimately well worth the effort. I'm particularly pleased with how the ocean turned out because breaking up the flat specular response with waves really helps to ground the surface more.
The shader is also able to add lights from surface settlements in the low-lying areas, which I'll also use to add alien cities and things in a future update. That will all be tied into the system that defines whether or not life exists on the planet, and if so how advanced.
I still need to do some work on the actual continent details, because right now they're a bit too plain. I'll rough them up a bit with some noise variations, and again this will soon be tied into the actual galaxy system where it defines things such as "giant red-leaved forests". The surface textures will reflect that ːsteamhappyː
