GPlates: The First 100 Million Years - Worldbuilder’s Log 11

[@Kunabee]

For Windows, to change the extension of a file, you can right-click and directly select 'rename...' from the menu. It will ask if you're sure because changing the file extension can break it. Also, if you don't want to download anything, regular notepad comes with Windows by default. Notepad++ has some fancy things it can do, including reading and understanding code like Python, C++, Javascript, etc. Regular Notepad will work just fine.

[@Dark0Storm]

Just make sure you have file extensions visible in file explorer.

[@Avexyli]

@@Dark0Storm Which if you don't know how to do, in File Explorer click the view tab and check "File name extensions.". You can then just F2 to rename - end key and replace the extension from .txt to .rot

[@CatoConroy]

Also a thing of note, GPlates seems to be finicky with having paragraph spaces separating each craton on Windows, at least if using base text editor. I got errors with them but upon removing the paragraph spacing, the errors did not occur.

[@spaceguy20_12]

you have to uncheck the "hide known file extensions" fist, otherwise it wont work

[@scurly0792]

34:32 "These things can, like, slow up or speed down" -Artifexian, 2022

[@felipeviana6215]

Truly one of the phrases of all time.

[@yarlodek5842]

This caught me so off guard, probably the hardest I’ve ever laughed at an artifexian video

[@Artifexian]

Haha! Wait did I say that! Lol … the joys of not having a script to read from. XD

[@arondioszegi8607]

@@Artifexian Can you add an impact crater from a MASSIVE object crashing down maybe into plate 300

[@LearnRunes]

If a plate tectonics simulator yells at you, does it cause an earthquake?

[@spaceguy20_12]

im pretty sure it would if the plate was big enough

[@MichChats]

Now imagine doing all of this for like 18 cratons on 5 to 7 major continents for 1000million years in 50 mil intervals.

[@jeremypatterson71]

and then running a campaign or writing a book where literally no one else will ever know or care. that is dedication to the craft

[@TripleTSingt]

welcome to world building ^^

[@autolykos9822]

Yup, I'd probably go with cutting out pieces of paper and tracing them with a pencil. That tool is way clunky. OTOH, it's important to get the slow physics with trees on top exactly right ^^

[@ciderilion6920]

@@jeremypatterson71 lol. couldn't agree less

[@arthurmachabee3606]

Sounds like a good reason to call in sick at the office lol

[@LexisLang]

This is such a good series. In the past, you've mentioned and worked with GPlates a little, but this is so much more in-depth and easy to follow along. I'm very in-depth when I worldbuild and I want to get it right; this series might just give me the kick I need to get going again.

[@StoryMode180]

I didn't notice anyone else saying this yet, but I'm pretty sure you can use that line that GPlates added as the end line and it wouldn't snap back at the very end. ie: "100 0.0 50.02 -20.9665 -17.5823 000 ! Craton A end" Of course, this isn't really important because it will keep adding new lines as you edit, but once you have finished moving all of your plates to their final positions you can do that and it shouldn't snap back at the last million year.

[@GabeHighlander]

My thought is that this either hadn't occurred to him (which I guess is possible), and it would make things.. tidier. Or, it did, but for some reason changing the last line just breaks the simulation (which I wouldn't be surprised with a program like gplates).

[@StoryMode180]

​@@GabeHighlander The code is simple coordinate and rotational information for the plate IDs, shouldn't cause any issues to change the ending location of the plates. Theoretically you could manually add lines to that document to adjust how the plates move. I can check later today and update on whether or not it causes any issues.

[@oddscomedy7128]

(As of April 2024) there is an issue cause dby either the windows or the latest version of GPlates, in which by trying to enable pole for 3D orthographic version would cause the system to crash. If you have something similar, you could do a bug report, and as for the other personal option is to work with rectangular, Mercator, Mollweid, or Robinson, and enabling the pole in either one of these will not crash your system. I know it's not as precise as 3D, but sometimes you have to improvise like Martha Stewart

[@emilyrln]

Even though I'm not going into this much detail with my fantasy world, this is so fascinating to learn about! I love the detail that faster plates kind of shove the mid-oceanic ridge closer to the slower plates.

[@AuroraRaiju]

Absolutely loving this series. And this has been my favorite video so far. Looking forward to being able to watch the entire history of this planet as I build my own.

[@powerninja101]

For windows ypu can rename the file in the file explorer and change its extension. Just right-click the file, go to rename, then edit the extension (where it would say txt) to rot. You might get a notification that changing the extension might break the file, but just click ok and everything should be fine. If you want to keep an editable form of the rotation file, you can go to file > save as and save a separate copy. If you go to the drop down menu under the file name, you can change it from txt files to all files and write in the rot extension to save it as a rot file right out the gate.

[@adamkotter6174]

Depending on your version of Windows, you can still directly edit the .rot file. If you click on the .rot file, Windows will ask you what program to use to open the file. If you select "Notepad" or whatever other text editor you used, then Windows will let you go back to editing the .rot file directly, no extra files required.

[@minirop]

works only if you unchecked "hide known extensions" (which by default is checked). you'd have to "save file as... > all files (*.*) > roration.rot".

[@claycube9591]

minirop you're a lifesaver, thank you!!

[@thegreatdream8427]

Hey, I don't know if you'll ever read this, but GPlates seems to have a serious flaw: the kinematics thing assumes you're dealing with Earth and doesn't adjust for the size of your planet. My planet is bigger than Earth, but it incorrectly is measuring distances the same way regardless of how I change the radius number in the measurement tool. It's not designed to be used on more planets than Earth, after all. So it will be systematically wrong in its measurements of your plates' motion if you use any other planet size.

[@pacotaco1246]

It's some work, but you can change your plates to scale with GPlate's assumptions. Instead of not having a larger world, scale down your continents in GPlates to get the equivalent effect of having a simulation of a larger world. Mathematically, a ball is a ball. You'll be fine

[@JL-ti3us]

I literally finally got around to finishing the last epidsode. Awesome. Also any suggestions on how to reverse engineer continents if we have already started in the present?

[@lucas_e_jones]

One thing to note: our modern continent shapes did not come about until Pangea split apart. So don’t just cram the continents you want together, instead you should take each continent and break it apart into pieces, then make THOSE into a supercontinent.

[@adamkotter6174]

You might have to manually edit your .rot file to place the all-zeros lines for each plate at the current time instead of the beginning of the simulation. I had to go through quite a bit of trial and error to get GPlates to reverse engineer my continents.

[@adamkotter6174]

The easiest way to do this is to start at year 0.0 instead of 1000.0 and follow the instructions that way. Keep the .rot files the same, but switch 0.0 with 1000.0 in your head everywhere else.

[@gregorio7945]

I love this series. I’ll have to go back and rewatch when I’m working on mine. Thanks for the amazing help!

[@KwalityIII]

So I have a question, I have been fortunate enough to have everything set up just as I like it and am very pleased. What's interesting is that I used a triple junction to split my original supercontinent into 3 new continents. When making the new ocean crust, I have a situation much like how Edgar described the creation of the pacific plate, where I basically have a triangle in the middle of my continents that isn't covered by the new oceanic crust that's following my new continents. I'm trying to figure out how to best handle this area. Should I create new ocean crust that isn't tied to any continent (and thus categorize this region as oceanic crust), or should I be doing something else entirely? Anyone have any thoughts? (Also, I apologize if this question is at all unclear).

[@_LunarDragon]

Did you figure out what to do?

[@AaronGeo]

I'd imagine you just create a triangle-shaped hole with the 3 plates surrounding the triple junction, and then grow said plate over time

[@craz2580]

The fact that this tool sint very user friendly reminds me of a machine we have at school for the indetifucation of substances. To see the results you have to install 3 different apps, and write a code each time you have to analize something. It is very unintuitive, fortunatly our professors hang up a post it with everything needed lol

[@captnconfusion280]

as a designer who works with programs that manipulate graphics daily, the whole "moving the pole and switching between two different tools to affect one movement" is completely baffling to me. is this a case of using an application for something it hasn't actually been designed for or is this really how they programmed the UX?

[@adamkotter6174]

I think this is a case of using the program to do something it wasn't meant to do. It's my understanding that GPlates is meant to be used primarily by people who have access to geologic data that they can program directly into the .rot files to produce plate motion. edit: You can actually skip the 'O' menu entirely and just use the 'P' menu to drag your continent around, but your motions will be less precise. You can still get rotation as well as lateral motion, but it takes more trial and error to figure out where on the screen to click and drag to move your continent where you want it to go.

[@captnconfusion280]

@@adamkotter6174 ah yes, that would make more sense

[@matthewfitzpatrick2410]

As an engineer who worked on products where the UX was designed by the engineers; this looks like it was designed by engineers.

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

This program was made for Geologists to simulate the plate tectonics of Earth's distant past. So it's a little bit of both.

[@Shrooblord]

LOL 27:41 you and I said "Oooohhh" at exactly the same tone at exactly the same time xD

[@kairon156]

For GPlate instead of Left and Right Side it'll make more directional since to say Side A and Side B.

[@inxi2652]

I followed this and the previous episode today and have spent morning to night trying to learn how to use it, and get as much done as I can, I have reached the ‘add pole’ part and it closes GPlates whenever I click it, does anyone know how to fix this or am I going to have to call it a day on this?

[@a_ghost5950]

Does the mid ocean ridge need/should be N to S? My continent began in the southern hemisphere and split NE to SW with a very diagonal line. Is this okay?

[@clibfilm]

How would you even model a planet if you know the rough shapes you wanna have in present day ? I find it hard to imagine how all the continents would behave 1000Ma years ago to give me the expected results

[@Artifexian]

This is method is very much a one way kinda thing. You evolve things forward to get a modern world. The reverse doesn't really work.

[@SystemofEleven]

My supercontinent couldn't be split in half; everything just warped everywhere no matter what I did with the pole locations/rotations. The flowline center points kept crossing into the continents no matter how much I fiddled with it. Not sure if it's because of the shape I chose, or if ~31% is just unfeasibly big. In any case, I had to start over with three smaller rifts that met in a Y shape instead of one really big rift. It worked fine when I was moving the new continents around, but now I'm stuck at the end of the first time step. I can't figure out how to make the oceanic crusts meet in the middle where the triangle gap is. The video on making a second rifting event sort of shows how to do it, but it starts with the manipulation of crusts that are already there, and the narration has a lot of, "We already know what we're doing, so insert time lapse here," and instructions that otherwise aren't really explained enough for me to understand. Do I have to start the whole process from scratch with a new supercontinent shape, or is it possible to continue forward with what I have and fill the hole later?

[@alternategender8471]

Oughhh I love your stuff. But I gotta say… o dunno. When GPlates got added it started to feel a little less accessible. Even with you talking through it, it’s a pretty in-depth technical process. I do hope you’ll post more free form, maths, information and speculation, content again sometime.

[@Artifexian]

Yeah I can see that! But if you want this deep history that's what you gotta do.

[@alternategender8471]

@@Artifexian yeah! It’s impressive definitely! Maybe one day I’ll have the time to really study and work on it. And it’s great to have a tutorial.

[@Mage_Chartreux]

You don't need to use GPlates to simulate tectonic plates; GPlates is just the easiest way to track plate movement and get a good, in-depth look at what's going on. Honestly, though, you could just cut out some pieces of paper and put them on a gridded background and take a series of photographs and you could get a reasonable approximation. Also, I was reading the documentation for GPlates and some of the stuff they said suggested to me that this could be automated, or the program can be used to predict tectonic drift so long as you define initial starting conditions. If you use Earth's magma currents and a different geography, you'll still get something very different from Earth. The method to do this seemed irritating, though, so I doubt that it'll come up, and I'm not even sure that I'm correct in my interpretation of the documentation, as there is very little that they actually say about why you might want to do something. "You are able to hexaquantize the sublimation field of the Earth's exospheric centrifuge by pressing CNTRL + M + F2 and entering -- what? 'Why?' What do you mean 'why?' Don't ask stupid questions.'

[@jayfeather07]

yeah, this just killed all motivation i had to attempt to simulate my world's tectonic history. i'll just stick with tracing random bits of coastline

[@Artifexian]

I'm sorry to hear that! I totally get it, this is … um … involved but the results are great. I would encourage you to give it a go. Don't knock it until you try it.

[@trishapellis]

@@Artifexian I am trying it and I'm not finding it all that bad - in the sense that, doing this part in GPlates is the easy part. The hard part is actually getting a map that looks good and looks like it could be a real-world map, for a person with two left hands and who isn't involved enough in art in general to actually get, like, a tablet and stylus to make the drawing part easier. I have one question though. When you move your continents apart, somewhere on your planet, an edge of your tectonic plate, made of oceanic crust, is going to start subducting and cause a volcanic island chain to be formed in the middle of nowhere. I have the impression that in this example, your starting supercontinent was a tectonic plate all on its own and as it moved, the oceanic crust around it started subducting under it without forming larger tectonic plates. Is that supposed to be what happens in real life? Is it possible in GPlates to start out breaking your entire planet into tectonic plates and having them start generating island chains and such?

[@umbrynnoctis9831]

For some reason, my flowlines are SUPER offset and no matter how many times I redo them, they still won't work. They won't properly track the edge of my continent. I'm following the exact steps and there aren't many tutorials on this software so I'm at a complete lost. Anyone have any suggestions?

[@杨铭-x5z]

so nice！thanks u！

[@lennysmileyface]

It would be a lot easier to draw the 3 continents and use move vertex with snapping enabled.

[@Artifexian]

THERE'S A SNAPPING FEATURE?????

[@lennysmileyface]

@@Artifexian Yeah if you draw out like 3 plates that you want to separate eventually give them the same plate ID initially. Now in the selection tab use move vertex. On the "Modify Geometry" section you should see "Snap nearby vertices" with a threshold. You can now snap vertices together and move both around. Now you can separate the plates to different IDs or whatever you want. You can also restrict to any plate ID if you need plate 1 that you selected to snap to plate 6 for example.

[@Orthosaur7532]

PLEASE help, it doesn't show Flowline ANYWHERE!!!

[@Orthosaur7532]

Nevermind, I had to put it in the dots

[@kevinvega2507]

my plates are in the new rotation from the start instead of their original rotation. any idea how to fix this or what problems that cause this?

[@clibfilm]

After you moved a continent and applied it, is there any way to reverse that stap sth like "undo" ?

[@Liethen]

The super continent looks like a face with cyan and magenta eyes and a green mouth, the separate continents look like faces with failed rift mouths

[@dinoscarex4550]

For som reason i can't find the "Flowline" feature, i don't know what happened, can anyone please help?

[@DanielCrabbprn]

Not sure if you're still having this problem. You might be on the "New Polyline Geometry" (L) option and not the "New Multipoint Geometry" (M) option when you click create new feature. The Flowline option isn't available on the former. I made this mistake myself and it took me a while to figure it out.

[@dinoscarex4550]

@@DanielCrabbprn You are absolutely right. I no longer have this problem though, but thank you anyway.

[@socrategaming]

I have no idea what I'm watching

[@oogaooga0000]

ayo thr thumbnail lookin kinda sus

[@Artifexian]

Thanks! Hadn't noticed that until now and now I can't unseen it :P

[@Pharry_]

l ook like pebis

[@ineve7854]

Can someone review my writing System

[@magicrtrip5492]

ish thash oush planesh ?

[@terraspace1100]

He has an Irish accent

[@magicrtrip5492]

@@terraspace1100 oh yeah I was wondering. I didnt know thanks

[@rickvrieling]

Goodday

[@Khitiara_]

every time i see someone using gplates i get tempted to try and write my own software to be more user-friendly to this use-case. glad these tutorials exist given how much a pain gplates can be

[@Dryym]

I feel you. I have recently been trying to learn QGIS for fantasy mapping. And I *know* that it is theoretically perfect for my purposes on paper. But there's so few tutorials around which address anything I can adapt to what I want. And it's just really annoying that things have to be this way.

[@TAP7a]

@@Dryym i only tried to use QGIS for a couple of weeks at university nearly a decade ago and I'm still traumatised by it. Like I'm sure all the geography and geology students with their training find it good and useful, but as a schmuck in the general public it made about as much sense as serving asbestos for dessert.

[@swaree]

I'd be so in for this, I hate gplates ngl

[@Khitiara_]

@@swaree the problem of course is i am nowhere near good enough at user interface stuff to pull it off without it being just as bad

[@Dryym]

@@TAP7a It sucks how obtuse it is. Because it is *literally* perfect for my purposes. I can have infinite detail and import raster heightmaps for individual continents and islands and whatnot. but the issue is actually figuring out how to use the damn thing for those purposes.

[@TheZetaKai]

Hit F to pay respects to this continent, which we are going to rip apart.

[@mosterchife6045]

F

[@emilyrln]

F

[@charles3840]

F to select which continent you tear asunder.

[@pointyorb]

​@@charles3840 South America

[@kinalisolakhi8991]

The plates probably move back to their original position because the rotation data for 0 Mya is the same as 1000 Mya.

[@ColinPaddock]

When he’s done doing the full Ga, that’ll be fixed. Right now, he’s only set the movement frames for the earliest 100Ma. Be patient grasshopper.

[@caloob_]

@@ColinPaddock it seems like he didn’t know how to fix it, which is why he had to insert the “drift correction” line in the rotation file

[@jeremypatterson71]

@@caloob_ as someone who spent too much time building a planet based on Edgar's first tutorial videos this program doesn't have "a way to fix" the drift issue, because the whole purpose of the program is studying earth. The 0 MA date is supposed to be modern earth/ modern planet of what ever your working on, and then you work backwards. This program was not designed to work forward in time, so the final result WILL ALWAYS be the initial drawing loaded into the program

[@kinalisolakhi8991]

@@jeremypatterson71 What would happen if the drift correction was inputed in the end state 0 Mya?

[@Jpteryx]

You could avoid this issue by starting your simulation at 0 mya, and then making plates go "backwards," so that 100 mya in Gplates is actually 100 million years after the start of your simulation. The one issue I can imagine is that Gplates would animate your plate motion in reverse.

[@emilyvalentine4565]

In the video discussing the plans for the project in the future, if I'm not mistaken you said you had someone else doing the plate tectonic simulations for you (and I imagine you'd have more cratons from the start as well). Is it the case that will be something that happens later on and you'll be going forward with these three cratons and breaking them up, or are these essentially examples for the tutorial episodes which will be swapped for a different plate set-up in a few episodes?

[@felipesharkao]

This is just a simple example to show the process, someone else is doing a more complex tectonics for the project

[@Ledabot]

Since worldbuilding pasta does commissions, I wouldn't be surprised if they were the one doing the nitty gritty.

[@Squbber]

I hope someday someone makes a program like g-plates that is more user friendly. G-plates is fantastic for worldbuilding but I can’t help feeling there should be a more accessible tool

[@icefyre8331]

If there was demand for such a thing we would almost certainly have it already, and it would certainly not be free. Also, more user friendly programs would have less flexibility; take gimp vs paint for example.

[@MatthewWayneSelznick]

If G-Plates is open source or non-proprietary (it's created by NASA, I think, which makes it public domain in the United States), it's a great opportunity for a Github fork... there are SO many steps that could be automated or made into a wizard...)

[@Artifexian]

For sure, the issue is time, funding and demand. And also, a lot of this we might find really obtuse but actual professionals probably do love it.

[@MatthewWayneSelznick]

@@Artifexian For sure; it's made for capital-S Science. :-) Somewhere out there is the perfect developer sitting at the geeky nexus of Expert Developer and Deep Worldbuilder who could spearhead this. (I am not that person. I am only here to make suggestions I cannot back up with action.) 😀

[@Ledabot]

Everything was going great until I moved my second continent and my cantons all got left behind. Turns out, I had them all following the wrong canton in my big second continent lol. Otherwise, this went very smoothly. Thanks for the lesson!

[@Artifexian]

Awesome! Glad you got it sorted.

[@Ledabot]

Yea I've attempted to model 850 with the breakup of the two remaining continents but I haven't been focusing on subduction lines like world building pastas demonstration so I look forward to your upcoming videos showing me exactly how mistaken my attempts are.

[@shadowfire3827]

i also made that mistake, glad to see someone else made it too

[@MajingoPower]

Hi Ledabot, I'm having the same problem as you've had with the cratons not linked through plate ID to the continent being left behind. How did you get them to follow along if they have a different plate ID?

[@MajingoPower]

Never mind, I think I found out where I was wrong. I forgot to change the values in the rotation file as shown at @8:49

[@saturnhex9855]

I JUST went back to your channel to see if I missed an upload and was sad I hadn't. Then the second I go get some food and come back, you've uploaded. I'm so lucky today lol. Thanks for the hard work as always!

[@ChanyeolsHaneul]

Thank you so much for your hard work. All your videos are so helpful. I'm going to create my own world too.

[@MCPhssthpok]

It would be interesting to see the world that Worldbuilding Pasta is making for you at the same stage as the tutorial world at the end of each video so we can see what a more complex reconstruction looks like.

[@Artifexian]

Yup! That's what's gonna happen.

[@elias.t]

Artifexian: "So P on the keyboard..." I'm such a child, goddammit.

[@Artifexian]

To be fair … me too. :P

[@ATOM-vv3xu]

I was so bored until I saw this vid popping up!

[@sono_chi_no_sodium_chlorid7635]

Me, a normal artist waiting for anything to make fanart of

[@Dryym]

Out of curiosity. I already have a world from having followed your old plate tectonics video. And I am quite attached to it due to having been working on it for, Like, 5 years. Would it be feasible for me to effectively run through the plate tectonics simulation in reverse from my existing world map? I.E. take my existing continents and plate boundaries, And then go backwards through the process based on which landmasses and features already exist there in order to go back to the initial simulation period.

[@adamkotter6174]

This definitely should be possible, since GPlates was designed for people to take the Earth's current plate configuration and simulate what it looked like further back in time. You likely won't be able to follow the exact supercontinent process shown here, but you'll be able to produce something. I was able to do some working backwards in GPlates with one of my own worlds, but I had to do some manual changes to the .rot file.

[@Dryym]

@@adamkotter6174 That's good to know. Do you have any tips for getting good results?

[@adamkotter6174]

Mostly just follow his instructions backwards. Mentally replace 1000.0 years with 0.0 years everywhere except where he's talking about the .rot file, and follow his 50.0 year time steps in the opposite direction. You might not be able to make a super continent this way, but you'll get a really interesting look back in time.

[@guilhermeduarte7192]

I plan to try the same think when I have more time, probably in December. I, too, have a world done years ago and don't want to discard it.

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

Just to mention for the record, the Worldbuilder Pasta does mention in the blog that he doesn't recommend doing it this way. But it should work regardless

[@jonas-by5uc]

dam i really love how you went from your old gplates tutorials that were basically just drawing on a sphere to doing really awsome stuff, you're channel is awsome, thanks you for the amazing inspiration, can't wait till episode 12 !

[@travisguzman5603]

3cm over 100 million years is 3000km. Good to know.

[@xBris]

Sorry, but that software is a complete mess. UI? UX? Why be intuitive or easy to use if you can be this convoluted? The science behind this isn't all that complicated, so I have no idea why the authors of this piece of software thought that *this* would be an appropriate approach to the topic...

[@SebRomu]

Geologists don't often study UX Design, too busy getting into the science of it all.

[@TAP7a]

That's what happens when engineers and scientists make tools for engineers and scientists and they just so happen to be released (for free) to the public. Why would the engineers and scientists care? It does the job they wanted it to, quickly enough and with enough point and click to be usable. This isn't really a product, it's an internal tool that somehow is publicly released

[@TAP7a]

I've honestly been checking several times a day since the weekend for this, very excited

[@lucas_e_jones]

Same lol, I’m following along with these as a sort of tutorial for a world I’m building.

[@alexwildner6369]

Same

[@icefyre8331]

I can't seem to find the "Flowline" feature type in the create feature window. I am using Gplates 2.3, which is the newest version, I think. Edit: I just had the wrong tool selected I guess.

[@Artifexian]

Was about to say make user when you copy the rift you hit M to create a bunch of points. If you don't GPlates won't surface Flowlines as an option., Flowlines require points.

[@vitornunes07]

I've found a work out for the plate drifting issue. Instead of fixing the positions every time with the "Drift Correction" line, in the "Craton A end", for example, just write a really big negative number in the time slot, like this: 100 -1000000.0 90.0 0.0 0.0 000 ! Craton A end The plate will move so slowly it won't even be noticeble

[@brtzz2388]

Thank you for this the drift correction was my nightmare

[@yoti2155]

With a more full-size world, would you space your cratons around the globe and have extra plate attached to fill in all the dead space? You say you want to keep it simple, which is fine, but it leaves me a little fuzzled about all this empty space around the continents. How would it scale? Maybe you'll cover this in a future episode or we can see it on the final Artifexia sim.

[@icefyre8331]

He gave an example of a full sized supercontinent with cratons in ep. 10. kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6unkIqMqKp8iK8 timestamp 25:30

[@MCPhssthpok]

The way he's modelling it is to start with a supercontinent and work forward through the breakup but you can certainly start with separate continents if you prefer. As for creating the initial oceanic plates, again it's possible if you want but by the end of the first supercontinent cycle they'll all have been subducted away without much affect on the model so it's probably not worth the time.

[@anthonyschocke2831]

An Idea for next video (It can be more precise for timestamps if that is better for it) is that you could make the larger plate move more north and turn mostly around, and what would make it better is it splitting again (You could even make them move similarly to each other). PS: This is just an idea it ok if parts are not included or if the idea is not part of the next video at all it just something that I thought would be cool.

[@hawkeyealvarado999]

I watched your video about planet temperature and albedo and the planet temperature calculator website you used was outdated/didn't work anymore, have any other ideas/websites to use? I looked around for a while on the internet for something else to use, but most of the websites I found either didn't work or were to complex and didn't give answers I needed.

[@spaceguy20_12]

Me when i downloaded: this seems easy Me after seeing 5:11 : ah hell naw man edit: i cant see the .rot when i save my file edit 2: i got my .rot file on windows!!!! heres show: press windows + e press the 3 dots besides the filter press the lowest option uncheck "hide known file extensions", it is on by default, so uncheck it save it rename your .txt file to a .rot file

[@corvuscallosum5079]

When I try to move my newly rifted continents and hit apply, it just . . . doesn't apply. The old location and the new one just sit there superimposed and mothing happens no matter how many times I accept what the popup tells me.

[@corvuscallosum5079]

Solved! I forgot to label some things in the rotation file

[@daniel_rossy_explica]

There is a simpler way to correct the drift. Instead of copying the movement and setting it at 1.0, just replace the 0.0 with the last movement you just copied. I've created a small python algorithm to do that automatically and it works wonders.

[@Artifexian]

That won't work. If you paste the coordinates in the 0.0 code line things will break down the line. Always create a drift correction line beneath the 0.0 line. Will mention this next video just to be certain.

[@daniel_rossy_explica]

@@Artifexian I tried it before with no conflicts.

[@spaceguy20_12]

if you want to make colliding continents, you can set the current main continent and the colliding continents end to when they are colliding, then draw in the same timeframe, the new continent, and make it look a bit different

[@smergthedargon8974]

19:35 do WHAT

[@beesinpyjamas9617]

For some reason, and I can't figure out why, but my version of GPlates just doesn't have flowlines as an option. I downloaded version 2.3.0 for Windows (the latest version from the website) and everything else has been working, but I hit a dead end the moment you created a flowline. On your screen it's just between Fault and FoldPlane, but on mine there's nothing between them. Any idea why? Nope, nevermind, all is good. If anyone else runs into this problem, you just forgot to hit M to switch from polyline to points.

[@elephantcool9144]

Thanks for the help!

[@rasmussenrambles8576]

Evolution of the boner continent 😃

[@jern2216]

Quick question, are the oceans even necessary? Theoretically the ocean crust is everywhere so is there a reason to bother creating them? They are destroyed anyway later on…

[@tobiacancelliere6972]

I have a problem in that all of the features are stuck together. Under the F menu (select feature) they are fine, but under the P menu (rotate) they are all one and can't be split. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[@tobiacancelliere6972]

Nevermind. I'm an idiot. All continents had the plate id 100... Leaving this comment here so other people having the same issue don't break their head on the desk like I did

[@niety5914]

For the flow lines, the yellow midpoints instead of drifting to be in the middle of the two continents are instead staying on the rifting line and I can’t figure out how to change that Edit: Wait looking back it starts away from it and ends on the rift Edit 2: I FIXED IT. I think it was the time stamp I created it at mattered

[@Ertplays]

“Good morning inter web!” Me watching at night

[@Artifexian]

Its morning somewhere :)

[@annikathewitch3950]

The pole manipulation feature stopped working for me after using it once, so i did the entire rest of my simulation by manually changing the numbers in the rotation file until I got something that looked okay.

[@AlphaGareBear]

I'm struggling with getting cratons to move with other cratons. I've checked and re-checked and triple re-double checked, but none of the cratons I've designated as moving with other cratons are moving. I have 4 cratons meant to be moving with id 100 craton, but none of them are budging. I'm not sure what I've missed, I've recreated the .rot file 4 or 5 times now, I've defined and redefined the continents and rifts. I'm completely lost. Anyone have a similar experience?

[@germaniamapper6606]

Did you fix it?

[@MajingoPower]

I'm having the same issue. I've tried to recreate what Edgar has done first, with 3 cratons as a test, but I'm also running into the same issue. The continent with multiple cratons moves but leaves behind the ones to which it's not attached through the ID.

[@mysteryman2392]

At the end of your video you mention G-Plates colouring the sea floor by age, can you do that with land as well?

[@autochton]

You can, it's a question of using the render mode for that feature collection, he showed how in the last video.

[@guilhermeduarte7192]

You do. At Worldbuilding Pasta blog they mention doing it for mountains, so the idea seems to relate to objects in general, not specific features

[@EE-ed6fz]

What would happen if you ran out of time in the simulation? Is there an easy (in the gplates meaning of the word) way to extend it past the initial timeframe of 1000 million?

[@TAP7a]

Check the previous episode, you can set it to longer

[@EE-ed6fz]

@@TAP7a alright thanks, although I wonder if that would involve editing everything to make it happen earlier

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

@@EE-ed6fz It would require you to do everything over at the older time frame. The way I'd do it is to just accept the Continent arrangement at 0.0 even if it wasn't exactly what you wanted.

[@Jpteryx]

If this happened, I would just copy the 0 mya world into a new 1000 mya world and make a new project file.

[@scptime1188]

if anyone's wondering why gplates decides to let you move poles like that instead of just, you know, giving free movement, it's because it encodes motion through "finite rotations" according to euler's rotation theorem, where any motion in 3d space can be encoded as a set of rotations around a set od axes. specifcially on a sphere, this makes things easier it seems for gplates, so you have to specify a pole to rotate around and an angle to rotate by, and you can thereby encode any translation motion by way of "finite rotations". cool stuff

[@ATOM-vv3xu]

does it make any difference on the final heightmap, if you make ocean crusts?

[@ColinPaddock]

Only if you are making bathymetric data(underwater elevations). This might effect land elevations if you have bits of orphaned seabed that evaporate(strictly desert) or are uplifted(orogenic regions). At this level of spatial detail, those areas are pretty tiny on Earth. Red Sea area, maybe Great Basin and Tibetan Plateau would be particularly large examples of the latter. You could probably work all of that out by imagination without lost plausibility. If you are doing bathymetry, a whole lot of what makes ocean floor unique and interesting is indicated by this. So I’d do it in that case. It’s a lot harder to fix if you want it later, than it is to ignore if you decide you don’t need it or don’t like how it came out.

[@Ikkyblobia]

I personally find it much easier not to enable the pole; without poles enabled, you can just freely drag the continent around. That said, it's a bit harder to make continents move in a rotatey way, and involves a lot of wiggling, so enabling poles for that part is probably recommended.

[@talideon]

If the GPlates devs knew that people were using it for simulating drifts, they might actually make this easier!

[@kjellduteweert9262]

Sad I'm stuck now the windows don't seem to have an option to txt. to a rot. file so I can process please help. How do I do it on windows.

[@Artifexian]

WorldbuildingPasta has your back here. He is on windows and this is what he does worldbuildingpasta.blogspot.com/2020/06/an-apple-pie-from-scratch-part-v.html#makingarotationfile

[@kjellduteweert9262]

@@Artifexian thanks

[@braydencoversbeatles4029]

yo i know im like 2 years late, but when i try to save the movement changes to the .rot file an error message pops up

[@ToqTheWise]

You know all these numbers would be a lot easier to write if I didn’t have crippling dyscalculia! 😂

[@lucas_e_jones]

To stop it from snapping back together at the end, couldn’t you just change the end position?

[@adamkotter6174]

You can change the end position that way, but that presupposes that you know where your continents will ultimately end up. If you already know that, then that would be a very effective method.

[@MCPhssthpok]

@@adamkotter6174 You're going to have to keep going back and changing the position of the continents at time 1.0 to correct for back-drift after each time step anyway so you might as well do it at time 0.0 instead.

[@lucas_e_jones]

Good point! You can just wait until you’re done with the rest, and set the final position at 0.0

[@Orthosaur7532]

Today, it doesn't work when I try to move the continents (as per the selected location of the pole). It worked yesterday, and I thought I just had to start a new project and that something was wrong with my previous one. Yes, I also wrote ALL the coordinates for ALL the Cratons in .txt. Yes, I put it in the correct file. Yes, I then changed it to .rot and leter imported it into GPlates.

[@Orthosaur7532]

Nevermind

[@terron_kitten9070]

welp it appears the enable pole button simply crashs gplates. not sure what to do from here, also the alternative to using poles, just edit the document, nope. cant open .rot . it just wont let me. help?

[@HalfEye79]

Could the plates B and C break apart after awhile? To ask another way: Could a new rift form?

[@Artifexian]

Yes and it will in the coming videos.

[@lordofthefrogs1646]

Supercontinent got rock hard

[@LoneEagle2061]

Are you always going to lose old oceanic crust? Or is it possible for some of what preceded your created crust to plasticly deform ahead of your moving continental crust (a bow wave of sorts) sufficiently that the uplift accounts for the lost area?

[@AlexArthur94]

I don't think oceanic crust ever uplifts in front of continental crust; oceanic crust always subducts because it is thinner and denser, so the continental crust rises over it.

[@Artifexian]

The former! Old ocean crust will be subducted away as the continents move.

[@Aerostarm]

another video. wooooo!!!!!!

[@davidbruesehoff1031]

So, both of my continents that broke off have multiple cratons, but only the craton that matches the plate ID is actually moving with the continents. The rest are just sitting there.

[@Artifexian]

Kinda! Everything is moving, just somethings are moving relative to others. The smaller craton on the eastern continent (Plate ID 200) is moving relative to the larger craton (Plate ID 300)

[@MajingoPower]

@@Artifexian Hi Edgar, I think there was a misunderstanding. I'm having the same issue as the person you've replied to in which when moving a continent with multiple cratons (like you've done in this video with continent BC), the craton which the continent is not attached to (in this case I think continent BC has a plate ID of 300, so we're talking about craton B/200) is left behind during the movement of the continent, taking along only the craton to which it is linked through plate ID (in this case craton C/300). Is there a way to solve this or are we missing something?

[@MajingoPower]

Nevermind, solved! I think I found out where I was wrong. I forgot to change the values in the rotation file as shown at @8:49

[@lordofleviathans8432]

Will cratons ever change? Will they ever be destroyed or created? Or are they permanent for the entirety of the simulation?

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

Cratons are defined as chunks of crust that have never changed since the start of Plate tectonics.

[@Artifexian]

Nope! They remain constant and will be the flat, low-lying regions of your modern world once the simulation is finished.

[@volcryndarkstar]

Now I'm just waiting for someone to make a consumer grade version of this program. I'll never get the feel for this.

[@Artifexian]

It is a lot easier than one would think. The main issue once you get the knack for it is not complexity, it's time.

[@volcryndarkstar]

@@Artifexian It's the text based programming you demonstrated in this video that makes me wary. I can follow the instructions step by step but I don't think I'd ever learn *why* it works the way it does. I'm not a programmer myself.

[@gavinlaverty9803]

If I may ask, what is Kittens Game? lol

[@Artifexian]

Haha! It's a browser-based incremental in which you dominate the universe with cats! Been playing it for like 5 years now.

[@gavinlaverty9803]

@@Artifexian That's awesome!

[@terraspace1100]

I have 2 questions: When I split the continent, and change the plate ID, the continent reverts to its original position in the beginning of the simulation. How do I prevent this? How do you join continents?

[@Durakken]

Before you even get to it, you're making a mistake with your calendar tab. You're making assumptions that calendars as a whole work like modern day calendars work. This is wrong and it is relying on an Earth centric Premise. That is, to measure time one uses the sun and moon, but while I was world building I came across a conundrum... I have a civilization that formed underground and stays underground. How do they measure time? I figured out a way, but this example is one that breaks your calendar tab by itself and ignores that many calendars of the past didn't use a 12 month system but systems with less and more units, such as the Romans had 10 if I remember right...and most nations kept track of "Years" via "In the year of the present ruler". I see you have Intercalary days in there but it really doesn't work out that cleanly when you're going as large scale as you're suggesting in this series. You're not dealing with one civilization or one time period within one civilization you're dealing with multiple overlapping civilizations each with their own way of keeping time which won't neatly fit into your calendar tab without being really reductive and limiting. Just my opinion.

[@Orthosaur7532]

Thanks Artifexian!

[@etiennebenoit5131]

First of all, thank you for your work, it's complex yet easy to understand, great job ! [SOLVED] Now I'm having an issue with GPlates (the first of a long serie I guess) : when I want to apply a reconstruction pole adjustment (my first moving continent), I get nothing in the pole sequence subwindow, therefore no latitudes, longitudes or angles change, and no effect when OK is pressed. And therefore no "tadaa" - sad Solution : first is I guess keep GPlates up to date, it seemed that it had fixed it for me, BUT my later guess was I just created it but was at the wrong time and so it didn't show up. Once more insisting on being careful with the timer :)

[@phloopy5630]

Wait, I thought that this current super continent was just a test. Wasn’t Artifexian going to make his own continent with like 8 cratons?

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

It is. He's doing this as an example. Someone else is doing the one for his world

[@phloopy5630]

@@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim wait really? Someone else is doing his entire plate tectonics for him? Why?

[@icefyre8331]

@@phloopy5630 I think so he can do this for us lol.

[@Duiker36]

@@phloopy5630 Because Edgar is paying them to do it. Worldbuilding Pasta accepts commissions.

[@Artifexian]

I want to financial support other creators I admire. So I commissioned WorldbuildingPasta to create my world and this allows me focus on teaching you the basics of the program.

[@joshuabaughn3734]

Sounds like CAD software and the STL files. You have to download the STL files and import them into the CAD software. Then you have to define an origin and orientation and fix any errors that occurred. Sometimes you don't even know what was going on in the other person's head. Classic Case of I wrote the thing and I have a few questions.

[@pointyorb]

Whenever I tried to open the .rot file after saving my rotations it comes up with wingdings.