Automatic map generation

I have heard rumors this has been worked upon somewhat, but I'm not sure what direction to point you in. Better to ask on the spring engine forums.

I think the main issue holding this back is that maps must be precompiled before being usable in spring. Heightmap could in theory be generated using techniques like in terraform, texture is another thing. Ground decals (what is on top of terraform) are good for small areas but I'm not sure if covering an entire map with them is feasible performance wise.

I was thinking about making a map generator that works outside of spring engine itself and rather as a standalone tool - and notAmap is more like a bunch of LUA. The purpose of that would be to make maps for 1v1's as well as for potential reincarnation of planetwars.

Why not go with existing maps? Well primarily because it can be done so why the hell not? After all, starcraft-style maps can be generated without massive difficulties technically and can be very very playable. A few existing maps can be cannibalized to extract texture data and lua and then a few patterns can be made:
desert (hills + some rocks)
forest (small cliffs + ton of trees and some lakes)
Ice planet (Icy cliffs with pools of water)
lush planet (ton of small swampy areas with orientation on amph and hover play)
archipelago (water with small islands)
lava (islands of land connected with bridges with lava in between)
mountains (huge elevations with passes connecting bases)
Last stand (for chicken play) - small base with desolate landscape all around it

Launch a small-ish server that makes a few of each type and then just load one when someone needs it to play.

Maybe it would pay off to actually try to come up with design patterns first and after that is done get the algorithms to replicate them. That is assuming engine devs do not kill the sm3 format...

that is exactly my concern... if they do that we are screwd, as there will be no way in hell autogenerated maps would work...

Yeah... and sm2 is an old and very inefficient format that is completely worthless when it comes to dynamic map generation...

There is already a function in blender that would make this possible. Just use the displace modifier with a procedural texture and then render it as a heightmap. Get a look at this.

You keep claiming sm3 is a better format. Have you ever actually made a map with sm3?

smf is not useless for procedural map generation, just check out hex farm: http://zero-k.info/Maps/DetailName?name=Hex%20Farm%207

All of that map is generated when the game is loaded, texture, height, everything. Also notice how the sides of the hexes don't have texture stretching despite being totally vertical

if this automap generator will exist sometime, i demand the generation of maps with fancy colors! see http://zero-k.info/Maps/Detail/12145

I'm surprised no one has mentioned springs built in random map generator. No idea how well it works but it's probably worth a mention.