I don't personally feel like something like this should be patentable, but Gielis is definitely following both the rule and spirit of the patent law. I hope Hello Games and Genicap can come to some sort of agreement.<p>Edit: As another comment notes, the patent might have expired in 2006 due to fee non-payment, in which case Gielis doesn't have much of a standing.<p>Edit 2: Nevermind, Gielis does seem to hold a valid patent: <a href="https://register.epo.org/application?number=EP00929732" rel="nofollow">https://register.epo.org/application?number=EP00929732</a>
It looks like this is the patent, and that it was withdrawn because they stopped paying the fees:<p><a href="https://register.epo.org/application?number=EP05100648&lng=en&tab=main" rel="nofollow">https://register.epo.org/application?number=EP05100648&lng=e...</a><p>Assuming this is the same patent, either Gielis is so irresponsible and disorganized he didn't realize his patent expired, or he's just trying to rustle up some bad press to extort money out of them.
> Company claims No Man's Sky uses its patented equation without permission<p>is pretty damn different from<p>> No Man's Sky sued over procedural generation algorithm patent
The paper with the "Superformula" : <a href="http://www.amjbot.org/content/90/3/333.full" rel="nofollow">http://www.amjbot.org/content/90/3/333.full</a>
> creator Sean Murray acknowledged in a 2015 New Yorker interview that he had struggled with elements of procedural planetary generation, until he discovered an equation published in 2003 by Belgian plant geneticist Johan Gielis that he called “Superformula.”<p>I sense a settlement (or partnership) in the near future
UPDATE: Hello Games has finally posted a response to the patent infringement claims, this is what they tweeted:<p>"No Man's Sky doesn't actually use this "superformula" thing or infringe a patent. This is a non-story... everybody chill
(シ_ _)シ"<p>Tweet is here: <a href="https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/756889227095318528" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/756889227095318528</a>
The superforumula is public knowledge and these guys are clowns. Dumb patent trolls...
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superformula" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superformula</a>
Why as this formular so cool? Cooking it the shapes on the wikipedia shapes, once unraveled from the circular shape the curves don't look too interesting to me. But these might be simple examples...