u/Epic_Cube

Hi everyone, we recently shared a devlog about the procedural rocky planet generation system we’re building for Essence – Cosmic Engine. The pipeline generates rocky planet surfaces and atmospheres using Unity, compute shaders and URP. Each planet is defined by a 5-dimensional signature that affects:

• terrain
• climate
• surface colors
• biomes
• cloud coverage
• atmospheric rim The signature is derived from the planet’s formation context, including position, mass, distance from stars and other simulation-related parameters. The idea is to make every planet feel coherent: not just a textured sphere, but a world where surface, atmosphere and climate come from the same underlying state. Devlog here: https://www.epiccube.org/procedural-generation-of-rocky-planets/ Happy to receive feedback, especially from anyone working with procedural generation, shaders or compute pipelines in Unity.

Hi everyone,
we recently published a devlog about the procedural generation system behind the rocky planets in Essence – Cosmic Engine.

Each planet starts from a 5-dimensional physical signature:

• oxidation
• desiccation
• atmospheric density
• greenhouse effect
• ice coverage

These values are derived from the physical context in which the planet forms: position, mass, distance from nearby stars, and other simulation-driven parameters.

From that signature, a GPU-driven pipeline generates terrain, climate maps, moisture, biomes, cloud coverage, surface color ramps and atmosphere.

The goal is not to generate random-looking planets, but worlds where surface, climate, colors and atmosphere feel connected.

Full devlog:
https://www.epiccube.org/procedural-generation-of-rocky-planets/

Feedback is welcome, especially on the visual coherence and readability of the generated planets.