I was always fascinated with simulations. From testing structural integrity in CAD software, through mad particle counts in liquid sims – to entire worlds procedurally generated in video games. I have followed the development of No Man’s Sky for around two years now, amazed at the monumental effort put together by relatively small team of Hello Games.
No Man’s Sky does one thing really well: It generates amazing, varied planets, populated with all manner of flora and fauna – all whilst keeping a steady, carefully weighted art direction.
Playing the game, I decided to document some of the most beautiful planets and landscapes I came across by recording time-lapse videos of these worlds. Below are the first five of these GameLapses – a project I will eventually extend to encompass other games featuring day/night cycle and other simulations. For the complete list, follow this link to the GameLapse playlist on YouTube.
No Man’s Sky had a rocky launch, with crashes and PC port issues. Still, I highly recommend giving it a try, if you find procedural generation a topic of interest. You can purchase it on Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/ (PS4 version also available)
