So. Our last update was well before the New Year, and since then I regret that circumstances have kept me away from this project. We’ve slowly started to get a first iteration going using XNA, consisting of a simple 2D grid. From there we’ll begin glomming on additional features until we have a sufficient model for a fun and interesting simulation.

It may be slow going for a while yet — but early April is the beginning of a new quarter and a new time schedule. In the meantime I’ll try to provide regular updates on our (albeit slow) progress. I appreciate everyone’s interest in, and encouragement of, the project.

There is a fantastic set of tutorials I’ve been fiddling around with for the last week or two, available at http://www.riemers.net/eng/Tutorials/xnacsharp.php

Last night I started more intensive testing and so far I’ve managed to shoehorn some Mars content into the tutorial program. This week we begin work on the first rudimentary ColonyKit and GUI.

Above is a 720×360 heightmap and jpg texture of Mars, with exagerated elevations. Olympus Mons is on the lower right, her sister volcanoes nearby and Valles Marineris in the center. I don’t think the texture and heightmap are perfectly aligned or even rotated on the same orentation, but as a proof-of-concept it’s exciting to see the results of a few hours of research and tinkering.