It would be hard to make, but would it be impossible? i dont know...
What i've been thinking, is that the engine only have to generate new heightmap/metalmap/featuremap/typemap, which shouldnt be a big problem, it may be slow though. But not that slow. (could be cached on disk after they are done, like pathing is now). Would be superfast on the GPU, but AFAIK GPU's doesnt always render stuff exactly the same way even with simple tasks like that.
Then just render the textures on the heightmap... somehow
It's a hard task. but i think it would give a lot more attraction towards Spring... not that i know that any other game has such feature?
If you dont know what kaleidoscope is, heres example map ive made year ago:
Although i had to fix a lot of things in the map after kaleidoscope effect was applied on the texture/heightmap, but it doesnt mean there is no good variations.
Also i was thinking that if we want to make random map generator, we could make some map specifically built for kaleidoscope effect, it may be unplayable as it is, but when kaleidoscope is applied on it, it would become a lot more playable.
I think this would probably make people play more because you can make new exciting maps any time you want...
