Jump to content

Is the KSP skybox infinite?


Lundmunchkins

Recommended Posts

Here's a question that I've been dying to know the answer: Is there a barrier somewhere VERY far out from Kerbol, and the Planets, or does one's ship just explode or get attacked by the Kraken? Or is the Skybox infinite, which would be inpossible. Have any of you ever found the Edge of the KSP universe?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a question that I've been dying to know the answer: Is there a barrier somewhere VERY far out from Kerbol, and the Planets, or does one's ship just explode or get attacked by the Kraken? Or is the Skybox infinite, which would be inpossible. Have any of you ever found the Edge of the KSP universe?

As far as I know, if the skybox is handled the same way it is in other game engines, it is functionally infinite. It's not just a sphere with stars on the inside, but a dynamic system that appears to move with you as you get closer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What the others have said about the playable area is true. The skybox itself is infinitely large due to the way Unity renders skyboxes. It isn't a physical box or sphere; the camera simply renders the skybox texture behind all the other objects. Thus no matter how far you go, you will never move relative to it and can't hope to reach the edge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I once sent a probe out of the system. After that, I went to some other missions. Then I loaded the probe to see what happen. At first, everything seemed fine then some parts on the probe left without reason. Then the kraken appeared and ate every thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So there would be no annual stellar parallax. That must confuse kerbal astronomers. :)

Heh, reminds me of that time when you said my discovery of a form of seasons would confuse them, what yo gots against mah astronomerz?

On topic: do I even need to say it is infinte, is theoretically is, but my voygegegegeger probe reached the barrer where the game breaks down, it is somewhere around 0.5 zetametres (for my hardware at least)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In tests to make KSP work on a cruddy laptop I turn the textures down to the point most parts had 1 pixel of texture (changing the persistence file manually). The Sky-box got so blurry I could see that it is a giant cube, also the people above are right about sky-boxes they are drawn around the camera, not the object, so you are always in their center.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I sent one of my probes on a trip out of the solar system and while it was flying I did some other missions. When I came back the whole screen went black with my altitude meter flipping out finally stopping at a repeating 666666 before the probe exploded.

Sounds like the Hell Kraken; that comes up in a variety of situations, and thus might have been a result of the distance, but I suspect it isn't a limit.

Anyways, yes, the graphical skybox is a cube. Others have reported this; I personally discovered it with a bug in PlanetFactory which allows almost indefinite zoom-out. Dunno if there's any sort of distance-based limit; for some reason I doubt it, though it's very possible it is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I remember right every so often as you are moving... your location gets redefined as the center of the system. So you're never very far from the point 0,0,0. But the more you move the further away from that point the other objects in the system get and there is a limit to how high 32bit numbers can go... and if we ever get 64bit... that limit will just be higher but not infinite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unity uses floats to calculate positions and stuff. The maximum positive value of a float is 3.4028234 * 10^38 which is about 36 sextillion lightyears in KSP. You can't reach that distance. The kraken will strike way before that when the number density gets too low.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...