I think he means an image of the surface topography, as a map of the surface wouldn't be much use I think, since you can see the whole planet. Unless he's referring to the star map and planet finder.
Hard job to stitch one together. I suppose Vova has a basic bump texture that handles the topography... ahh no, he doesn't, he uses fractal generation, so it's generated on the fly during the universe generation.
Rendering a single texture is simple. I use a simple rectangle texture 512*256 to map planets that are far away, so it's not difficult to obtain a texture 2048*1024 of what you want.
Rendering a single texture is simple. I use a simple rectangle texture 512*256 to map planets that are far away, so it's not difficult to obtain a texture 2048*1024 of what you want.
I think so, and I know Vova is familiar with the similar Russian program Spaceway which uses this feature. As you approach a celestial body, a map of the surface pops up on one of the info screens (if you have it set to Surface mode) along with a crosshair showing exactly where you are over the surface. It's similar to Noctis.