The title says it all, but i will show you this video just to completelly understand what i want to do with 3D GameStudio
here

I'm working on a space simulation, and i've learned quite a bit about programming in Lite-C in the process. I actually got the idea from the game shown in the video, it has amazing graphics and scenery
But THAT one thing that i just can't understand is how game developers do this: While in space, the planet looks like a simple 3D Sphere, but the closer you get, the more detail it has. Then, at a point, it goes from a round model to a "flat" terrain surface. And then you can go back in space and watch it lose detail, and start to appear round again, etc...
I hope you understand my question

Thank you very much, im really enjoying my experience with GameStudio

Hey, this technique is called LoD or Level of Detail. Models gain more and more dedails the closer you get and in contrast they loose details if you the distance between the camera and the model gets bigger.

hi

I think they used a much more complex thing than simple LOD, like a spherical chunked terrain that looks like : http://imageshack.us/a/img202/3064/62479621.png and http://imageshack.us/a/img717/541/35220357.png , but it is not supported by any game engine natively, I'm afraid you have to write your own mesh generain and texturing, if you want both good performance and high terrain detail. or maybe by setting a couple of planet and terrain entities invisible/visible can do the trick in 3DGS too, to simulate a planet from any distance. anyway, it is an interesting topic in game creation.

I really needded to know how this is done, so thank you both for your replys, i really apreciate it
I had heard about LODs, in some games it's very easilly noticiable when LODs are changing, like in Oblivion, for example, or any of these space games
I've been thinking alot about this, and with your replys, i think i have an ideia on how to do it: in space i'll just use the Sphere model, and when entering the planet's atmosphere, previously made terrains will start to be generated in their exact positions. So, at a distance but already in the planet's atmosphere, the terrains will be connected to each other by curving their edges, and this curve will start to be less and less noticiable when aproching the ground
I'll keep on researching, now that i actually know the techniques used.
Thanks again for those replys!

sounds easy but will be hard to make it smooth

It looks great very realistic the space and the Asteroids and the Mother Ship.Great Work. What Gamestudio Version you use for this ?

I didn't create what is shown in the video x) I'm hopping to learn how to create something close to it
Now im stuck in the "procedural planet generation" part, and this sucks because i don't even know where to start..

Ok then you have to learn to make it like this.Maybe some one in this Forum can give you some Tips to learn it.It loos not so easy to do this.

I would use a sphere model for water (if needed) and another for ground, and a generated heighmap for the latter, to modify its vertices or use a shader to do it. based on the heightmap you could blend surface textures too. just as a first thought, but there should be some articles with ideas of it.

So far im stuck, i can't find a decent mathematical algorithm to transform the terrain, vertex by vertex, into a sphere
i've been googling this, non stop
"how transform 2d plane to sphere" "mapping terrain on a sphere"(...) i've searched in many different ways and i can't get anywhere. Im stuck now and if anyone here could help me with this algorithm i'd appreciate it a lot
i don't want to work with those shader techniques, for now i want only to use ent_getvertex and ent_setvertex to change each vertex's position
now, how do i turn a "flat" terrain, into a round sphere, vertice by vertice?
thanks in advance