Travis AppVeyor

This is a library to simulate plate tectonics. It is written in C++ and it has Python bindings (as part of this project), as well as Haskell bindings (hplatec).

Being a library you want probably to use it inside some larger program. From example WorldEngine (a world generator) is based on plate-tectonics.

You can also use the examples to just run the code of this library and generate a few maps. However the examples do not unleash the full power of this library. For running the examples check section Running the examples (C++).

The library offers an API to generate heightmaps and some other data about the world resulting from the simulation. The example permits also to generate maps like this one:

You can see a video of simulation based on an old version of this library: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi4b45tMEPE#t=0

We use CMake. Install it and then run the folowing commands

cmake . -G "Unix Makefiles"
make

cmake .
make

This should produce a library (libPlateTectonics.a).

cmake .
cmake --build .

If you want to build also the examples run:

# instead of cmake .
cmake . -DWITH_EXAMPLES=ON

Note that this command will build the library in the same directory where the source files are hosted. Some prefer to build out of tree the library (i.e., in a separate dir). For example in this scenario:

-- plate-tectonics
\- build-directory

You can enter build-directory and type:

cmake ../plate-tectonics
make

To compile on other platforms please run:

cmake --help

To run also the examples you need to install the library libpng.

From the root directory run:

cmake -DWITH_EXAMPLE=TRUE -G "Unix Makefiles"
make
cd examples
./simulation_rect

To run tests you need to install DevIL

We use googletest (which is included in the project). After building the library:

cd test
make
./PlateTectonicsTest

Currently the test coverage is still poor (but improving!_, tests are present only for new code and tiny portion of the old code that were refactored.

Supported versions:

• Python 2.6 (currently not supported on AppVeyor)
• Python 2.7
• Python 3.2 (currently not supported on AppVeyor)
• Python 3.3
• Python 3.4

To use it in your program you can either add a dependency use pip (pip install PyPlatec) or build and install it from source code.

python setup.py build

The library is quite simple:

    import platec

    p = platec.create(seed=3)
    while platec.is_finished(p) == 0:
        platec.step(p)
    hm = platec.get_heightmap(p)
    platec.destroy(p)

Or if you want more control:

    import platec
    
    p = platec.create(seed=3, width=1000, height=800,
                      sea_level=0.65,erosion_period=60,
                      folding_ratio=0.02,aggr_overlap_abs=1000000,
                      aggr_overlap_rel=0.33,cycle_count=2,num_plates=10)

• Improve the quality of the code and add some tests
• Support Google protocol buffer

WorldEngine, a world generator

A fork of platec http://sourceforge.net/projects/platec/ . That project is part of a Bachelor of Engineering thesis in Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, Finland. The thesis is freely downloadable from http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201204023993 .

Kudos to the original author: Lauri Viitanen!