The universe is vast and mostly devoid of life as we know it. Where life does exist, it explodes but rarely beyond the confines of its star's gravity well. Ecumenopolis studied the most densely populated places in our galaxy. Planet-spanning metropolises teeming with conscious experience. Life built these worlds, but what of the lifeless places? Living worlds are scarce. Lifeless worlds are plentiful. They are not shaped by life, but by the universe itself. Wielding the hammer of gravity, the forge of volcanism, and the grinding wheel of erosion, the universe shapes matter into the complex works of art we call planets. Without life, their features are preserved perfectly, but never witnessed. Vast, beautiful landscapes of towering mountains, deep valleys, and windswept dunes surrounded by a silent void, never acknowledged by any conscious being. Isoplanet shines a spotlight on these worlds.
Isoplanet is a collection of lifeless worlds from the most desolate places in our galaxy. Each edition includes a copy of the latest Sandcast Imaging software, along with a data file from one of 300 unique planets. This data file was created through surface analysis from Autonomous Frontier Analysis and Research (AFAR) probes sent out to these worlds. It contains general information about the planet's surface and its star, along with the necessary information for the Sandcast Imaging software. Upon opening your Isoplanet edition, your computer will load the Sandcast Imaging software, input the AFAR data file, and generate a sandcast image of the planet's landscape. At that moment, you will become the first conscious being to acknowledge that planet's existence and discover the beauty of its landscape.
Over cosmic distances, light pulse data transmission is prone to corruption from rogue gravity waves. This makes it near impossible to transmit images. A single, low-resolution image contains millions of bytes of information. In these large data sets, small corruptions of data cascade into massive errors, making most image transmissions a mess of noise. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the size of data transmissions to reliably image extrasolar space.
Sandcast Imaging is an image generation software that uses a simple 'falling sand' simulation to replicate planetary landscapes. In one of these generated images, each pixel is a simulated particle of sand with a specified mass, color, and sideways stability. The placement of each particle of sand is dictated by up to 4 'sand generators', which follow the path of a closed loop shape at specified rates, orientations, and offsets, pouring sand onto the canvas as they move. This shape is the key to creating images of distant worlds. AFAR probes were built for the sole purpose of analyzing alien terrain and translating it into a set of coordinates that define such a shape. Now, instead of transmitting millions of bytes in the form of an image, simple x and y coordinates (along with interpretation instructions) take only a few thousand bytes of data.
S saves a .png of the current image
F visualizes the falling sand simulation in higher detail(runs slower)
I cycles through visualization of the closed loop shape that defines the terrain
D resets the simulation, and shows how the closed loop shape was generated
T saves a .txt file of the AFAR data file
