Halo ring 'planet'

[Jesusthebird]

Given this community im kinda suprised this hasnt been attempted yet as far as i know. Is it even possible?? Even with Physics Range Extender..making an accurate ring with craft parts is pretty much impossible given the required size and range at which parts can..unload from a scene via distance, not to mention massive part count lol. But has anyone tried making a ring in ksp via kopernicus? Or do planets need a core(impassable) of some kind?

[JH4C]

It has been tried. First result for "KSP ring world": 

Putting a habitation ring all the way around a planet has major issues, not least because of the render physics distances required to even try to make it stable. Someone scaled up a single part to encompass Kerbin and it cast a shadow, but you can't do anything with it because you're considered "too far away" from the centre for it to be rendered when you approach any of its surfaces... Which is a good way to end up dead very fast.

[Gordon Fecyk]

4 hours ago, Jesusthebird said:

But has anyone tried making a ring in ksp via kopernicus? Or do planets need a core(impassable) of some kind?

Via Kopernicus? A single celestial body needs a PQS surface defined so you can land on it, but those surfaces have to start out as spheres. And you can't land on the inside of one; even if a small body had a terrain glitch that let you travel inside it, your craft would self-destruct upon crossing the threshold.

Maybe there's another possibility. Kopernicus appears to support a barycenter object, so you could have two or more celestials orbit that. The barycenter need not be solid. Maybe you could construct a ring out of multiple celestials orbiting a barycenter. You might not be able to make a Niven-style ring around a star, but perhaps a smaller ring Halo-style, constructed of identical objects orbiting a barycenter. I don't know what would happen to the space between your ring segments though, as you're talking about each segment's sphere of influence intersecting with its neighbours. 

Edited October 29, 2018 by Gordon Fecyk

[Jesusthebird]

@Gordon Fecyk ahh interesting..I knew there had to be some sort of limitation involved that I wasn't aware about. Seems a replica wouldn't be possible, at least currently..but your idea of multiple "celestial bodies" orbiting a barycenter is pretty neat tho. Defiantly has a little potential for imagination concepts(a shattered ring with gyroscopic rotations perhaps??) I suppose that depends on what kind of shapes you could make(not including spheres); if any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQb-N486mA4

Found a pretty neat vid regarding gyros in space, tho it doesn't relate much to what I was talking about lol, was just something that popped up when I was looking for an example of my imagination. 

And I also really enjoyed watching the Ringworld episode on YT from that forum link @JH4C. I totally forgot about that mod! I didnt look too much into it as it was made clear it was just for visual kicks.  Ill have to keep my eyes and ears out to see how this sort of idea could manifest itself one day..Im sure its always on planet makers minds now and again

Thanks for the replies guys!

Edited October 29, 2018 by Jesusthebird