Tectonics, weather and other processes

[SpacePioneer]

So I want to design the most realistic Earth-like planet I can, possibly whole solar system but that's a pretty huge project. So where do I start, at least on the subject of the Earthlike planet? I want to have almost all variables covered (Ocean currents, jet streams, atmospheric convection cells, plate tectonics and by extension volcanism, continental shelves, different climates, if there large tides then showing that, etc.) Is there any software that will simulate this that doesn't require a supercomputer or will I have to do most of it essentially by hand? I know of a few different ones that will probably be useful but I'm no expert.
On where to start, I would think to get climate, I'd have to work with weather, and to get the weather right I'd have to assign the exact atmospheric composition and design the terrain, and to do that I'd have to work out the plate tectonics of this world, which would require an understanding of the planet's interior, size, age, and composition, no?
Also, if anyone is curious, I don't have an extremely specific purpose for this, I guess I just like worldbuilding, and maybe would like to see how realistic I can actually make this planet without using a supercomputer and having to design my own software just for this. I'd really like to be able to end up putting this planet in Blender or something and get very real-looking views of it, though on that I'll have to figure out how to make atmospheres, which if anyone here knows I'd highly appreciate that...

Also, there were several other subforrums I could have posted this in so if it's the wrong one, I'm sorry. Just figured that since I'm doing a wold map and then doing other stuff with that, this would be the right place to post this. There's also a lot more details to be worked out so ask as may questions as you like, it'll just help me pinpoint what I need to do and what information I need to create anyway.

[Mouse]

Hello SpacePioneer

This sounds like an exiting, if ambitious project. Is it your first map, or are you a seasoned veteran of cartography?

We have a few specialists around the place with expertise in worldbuilding (I'm not one of them but I lurk a lot at these events). I guess the best way to get the ball rolling is what you've already done - start a thread to ask the questions and get the answers.

I believe this is the right forum, but if you don't get much of a response from the resident worldbuilders, you could always try the How Do I? forum?

Anyhow - give it a couple of days and see what happens here

[SpacePioneer]

I suppose it is a bit ambitious, though as for how much experience I have, I'm certainly not new, I've been a bit of a cartographer since I was a kid, while I'm now currently 16 (almost 17) so quite a large portion of my life, though during a lot of that same time I've been highly interested in astrophysics so I've spent a lot of time on that too. In the last couple of years, mainly ever since I got my own computer, but especially recently, I've become more and more interested in stories and worldbuilding and the such, and have made quite a few maps, mainly via a program called Grand Designer, for completely new worlds and I also have the occasional alternate history Earth map but I don't really go very far or do too much with those, pretty much just something I do when I'm bored. I could share quite a few of these but I'm sure in comparison to everyone else's, my maps are probably pretty newbish.

Yeah, I've done a bit of lurking, not a ton though, but that's why I only have like 4 posts but my account has been around a while. And I'm glad I did the right thing here and possibly put this in the right forum, I try to put threads in the right forum because I know how on some forums putting a thread in the wrong forum is like this huge problem that annoys everybody to death

I can definitely wait if necessary, I'd rather wait and do especially well than be in an unnecessary hurry and not do as well as I could.

[Azélor]

Id recommend starting with the tectonics. It influences water circulation and climates.
Wilbur and fractal terrain (?) can generate climates but the model is not perfect.
Gplate enable you to simulate tectonics plate movement and evolution.
Blendre is 3d modeling, good looking planets don't necesserily need to be that realistic.

I heard of Grand designer when it came on Steam. I was reluctant to buy it because the planet textures looks bad.
AstroSynthesis is another software that allows you to generate universe. You can plop different elements like planets and play with different settings. The graphics look outdated but I've never tried it.

[SpacePioneer]

Suspected that, thank you.
Wilbur can do climates??
Okay, I'll check that out.
Maybe I can just keep it in Grand Designer once I get it there, I don't know.
Grand Designer has gotten a lot better since then, and wasn't even that bad when it came out, you just had to learn what works well.
Eh...I've tried AstroSynthesis and I really don't like it...

Is there any way you could direct me to software that doesn't require coding knowledge? I'm not exactly at the point where I can do that other than strictly following tutorials in which case I'm not exactly making something of my own...

[johnvanvliet]

for the sea and air currents , including the rain and weather you need to use a sim
now a low resolution set of maps can be done on a good desktop computer

for water and air something like MITgcm will do ( it uses FORTRAN 90)
http://mitgcm.org/


for landscape something like CHILD would do
http://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Model:CHILD


or " Badlands " might do , you can use Docker to run install and run it
http://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Model:Badlands
-- gethub
https://github.com/badlands-model

i use blender and a few other tools to make full planet textures/maps for celestia and a few other programs like space engine and orbiter and the planetarium software " stelliarium "
for examples see:
earthlike
http://forum.celestialmatters.org/vi....php?f=4&t=878
mars like
http://forum.celestialmatters.org/vi....php?f=4&t=830
a KBO
http://forum.celestialmatters.org/vi....php?f=4&t=857
some random things and a Gas giant
http://forum.celestialmatters.org/vi....php?f=4&t=775

or this gasgiant

[Azélor]

No I think it's fractal terrain that does the climates.

[Pixie]

Definitely start with tectonics if you want to go into detail and realism. But tectonics is a tough trip, so be advised! If you can be patient reading through 7 pages of a thread, have a look at this one by Charerg. He's the go-to guy for using tectonics related software and is reasonably active.

Fractal Terrains does climates, but in a lame / limited manner. You don't want to invest time in doing tectonics and then trash that level of realism. Best way to do the climates is by hand, after a lot of reading.

[SpacePioneer]

Okay...I don't mind a bit of reading so its all good.

Figured I would need to do that...Well, eh, just more personalization/customization I suppose.

[Agricolus]

You may be taking on a project that is too ambitious. Why not just copy Earth's climates and tectonics and edit those processes that you feel may be different? Changing too many features at a time may create interrelations that may be too complex to forecast. I don't think too many will look at it and comment that it's too earthlike.