Thanks. ![]()
Got the plate boundary types partially implemented. It was one of those things where I sat in front of the computer like a zombie for 6-8 hours and then basically completed in 2 hours of in-the-zone development.
In this image the tectonic plate boundaries are marked based on whether they are Divergent(Red), Convergent(Purple), or Transform(Blue):
The key piece was ensuring that a boundary type stayed consistent from one end of the plate to another, generally only changing when crossing paths with a different plate. Also ensuring that both sides of a plate boundary line kept the same boundary type(so converging on converging, diverging on diverging).
The transform boundaries is rather tentative in the current state. It is basically acting a stopgap to handle those areas where 3 or more plates meet in one location, or some areas where a plate boundary is doubling back on itself. Ideally, transforms would occur at certain locations and stretch on for a small distance such as seen with the San fault. They are rare enough that I might not care about them though, and they generally donβt create significant geological features that differ from a convergent plate boundary. At least not enough different to matter at this level of simulation. We will see if I implement transforms any further.
There are still a few problems I am working out though. If you notice in the SouthWest ocean that the convergent plate boundary to the north is feeding landmasses down into the ocean. That boundary should have seeded water since it is convergent on an ocean boundary, yet it is seeding land for some reason.
Generally I intend for Ocean-Continent Convergence to Seed land(and mountains) on the continental boundary and water on the ocean boundary. Ideally, this would give a nice clean coastline like you see in Western North/South America.
2 Continental Plates sharing a Convergent boundary will both seed land, and later on Mountains, which should lead to a mashup similar to India hitting Eurasia, though probably on a much larger scale in many cases. It will take some serious fine-tuning to allow the players to determine how big and how often these continental convergences occur.
2 Continental Plates sharing a Divergent boundary should seed water on both sides which should lead to cases like Eastern North/South America and Western African/Europe. The mid-Atlantic rift would be this divergent plate boundary, and would cause the growth of the Atlantic ocean or similar.
My problem with the land seeds being out of place will probably be solved when I ensure ocean-ocean plate boundaries are divergent, but I will have to work this bug out first since I think the plates are being mis-labeled somewhere in the process.
