[WIP] Gargantua - A Pack for StarSystems - PAUSED

[Chezburgar7300]

I've embarked on a project to re-create the system of Interstellar in a config/texture pack for Starsystems and a few other plugins. It includes the visuals, (almost) accurate physics and an overall fun and challenging experience!

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In the next Update:

• A new gravitational lensing shader with a new, minimal corona that is less buggy and more appealing.
  
• An updated Accretion disk texture with a more accurate and realistic size.
  
• Some bug fixes.
  
• More/Better Star Systems.
  
• A custom sunflare.
  

In later updates:

• More extensive bug fixes, and fixes for the more tedious issues.
  
• Asteroids being moved to Kerbol.
  
• A download link with a standalone folder - At the moment files are directly altered.
  
• Jool being turned into a Saturn analogue - near complete
  

• Planets that resemble the 3 planets visited in Interstellar, all in orbit of Gargantua
  
• Possibility to go 'inside' Gargantua - if only for a short few seconds
  
• Ability to give different stars different flares.
  
• Give Gargantua a flare from a distance as is seen in the movie.
  

• A Bug-free mod.
  
• A Kerr rotating black hole. KSP can't create oblate spheroids for celestial bodies, and the math for generation is too complex.
  

• Large Black Hole (5.217584 Million km in diametre)
  
• Game-Breaking incompatibilities with KittopiaTech
  
• Final Texture of Saturn [v.1.2.5]- A finished cloud layer is in there as well. [v.1.3] Finished rings around Saturn! [v1.3]
  
• Better (almost finished) accretion disk texture. [v.1.2.5]
  

Special Thanks to:

OvenProofMars, Fastwings and the testers of the StarSystems mod.

Medsouz - For practically making this with me and currently maintaining the StarSystems mod.

Kcreator - For creating the now unmaintained KittopiaTech Plugin.

rbray89 - For possibly helping with some shader effects and for helping with EVE.

shaw and Space_Kraken - For providing the TextureReplacer plugin and for providing a 4k Skybox of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Links:

Star Systems

KittopiaTech In-Game Terraforming Tools

WIP Endurance (From Interstellar) Spacecraft

Texture Replacer

EVE Overhaul

*A download link and license will be provided once it reaches a play-able state.

I will post the changelog here with imgur albums only appearing in the  latest edit. Links will be present from earlier changes, but will be  provided in a spoiler. Although it isn't exactly relevant at the moment  as there is no download, I will still maintain a changelog to inform you  of progress.

[SIZE=3][B][SIZE=4]Changelog
[/SIZE][/B]
[LIST]
[*][SIZE=4][SIZE=3]Version 0.1.3 - "Biggest since 0.1!"[/SIZE]
[/SIZE]
[LIST=|INDENT=1]
[*][SIZE=2]Switched EVE 7-4 install to a newer EVE Overhaul install[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Changed .cfg file to accommodate [/SIZE][SIZE=2]this change.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Added individually rotating cloud layers to  Saturn (Jool). Some spin faster than others. Looks quite nice, but there  is a rogue (small) white line I can't seem to fix. Shouldn't be much of  an issue for a while.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Updated to StarSystems v0.7 which I helped with (kind of). [/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Found a fair few of the issues with the .7 version of StarSystems that I'm telling medsouz about so he can fix them.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Changed name of the Black Hole to Gargantua, also added a stock-alike description for it.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Updated StarSystems allowed for a more accurate diametre of Gargantua. Was a typo in the math.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Medsouz fixed some code to make for a more 'appealing' light system for Gargantua.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]New, more realistic ring texture as voted from the chaps over at #kspofficial[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Sorry, no imgur album for this one. Next update should be pretty big though, and I'll [I]try[/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=2]to include both a video (yay!) and an extensive imgur album showcasing the changes of v0.1.3 and v0.2.[/SIZE] 
[/LIST]

[/LIST]


[LIST]
[*][SIZE=4][SIZE=3]Version 0.1.2.5
[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[LIST]
[*][SIZE=4][SIZE=3][SIZE=2]Finished texture of Saturn. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=4][SIZE=3][SIZE=2]Added a WIP cloud layer using EVE.[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE] [SIZE=2]More layers to come[SIZE=3].[/SIZE][/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Added atmospheric scattering to Jool thanks to the help from Astronomer and his config.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Better texture for Accretion disk. More movie-alike.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2][spoiler="Album"] [URL="http://www.imgur.com/a/huwvT"]Click on me![/URL][/spoiler][/SIZE] 
[/LIST]

[/LIST]


[LIST]
[*]Version 0.1.1
[LIST]
[*][SIZE=2]Updated ring texture.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]- Is now finished.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Better, more accurate Saturn Texture. Still not finished. Low res (2k)[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]New Skybox using shaw's TextureReplacer and Space_Kraken's skybox[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2][spoiler="v.1.1 Album"] [URL="http://imgur.com/a/VqAB9"]Click on me![/URL] [/spoiler][/SIZE] 
[/LIST]

[/LIST]


[LIST]
[*][SIZE=3]Version [/SIZE]0.1
[LIST]
[*][SIZE=2]Initial version.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Increased size of black hole from 203km in diametre to roughly 2 640 000[/SIZE][SIZE=2]km.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Added light to black hole to simulate effects of accretion disk.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Added a WIP ring to Blacky Karman that acts as an accretion disk.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Added a better corona to Blacky Karman to simulate better a gravitational lensing effect.[/SIZE] 
[*][SIZE=2]Game Breaking Bugs. Caused from interaction  of StarSystems and KittopiaTech. May not be fixed, jeopardising progress  and possibly entire project.[/SIZE] 
[*][spoiler="Initial Album"][URL="http://imgur.com/a/hzKYd/embed#3"]http://imgur.com/a/hzKYd[/URL][/spoiler] 
[/LIST]


[/LIST]
[/SIZE] 

*This is paused until the StarSystems mod is better maintained or another solution appears. Because of my inability to code, I can't help fix the current issues. If you're an adept coder or just have a fix, hit me up and I'll continue with this. Until such a time until this happens, I will not be working on this as I also have to focus on school.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Chezburgar7300
Cleaned up OP, moved changelog

[RogueMason]

Don't forget to

place the tesseract inside it

Looks pretty decent for a very early WIP though, keep it up

[Chezburgar7300]

I don't know about that, but I am thinking of ways to 'go inside' it using EVE.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Chezburgar7300

[Tynton]

Chez, I have a solution if the "green rim" around Jool/Saturn would annoy any, but I doubt it's noticeable, but I have a solution for it. You should have a cloud layer (preferably an all-white texture) and set it to 0 altitude, then set its opacity to around 5 or more. And then you can re-color the "rim" of the planet as much as you like. Anyways, it looks great. Hope you finish it!

[Chezburgar7300]

Chez, I have a solution if the "green rim" around Jool/Saturn would annoy any, but I doubt it's noticeable, but I have a solution for it. You should have a cloud layer (preferably an all-white texture) and set it to 0 altitude, then set its opacity to around 5 or more. And then you can re-color the "rim" of the planet as much as you like. Anyways, it looks great. Hope you finish it!

That would fix some things if there were no clouds, but now from orbit you can't see the surface. The problem is though that the Atmosphere is still the stock green. Because of Astronomer's help though, almost nothing looks green from orbit. I will fix it eventually, but for now I'm looking into some potential bug fixes. Thanks though, I never thought of that.

[Tynton]

Also, quick question, are all the celestial bodies re-scaled to fit their real-life counterparts? I presume Laythe will moved to orbit Gargantua if I'm correct?

[Chezburgar7300]

Also, quick question, are all the celestial bodies re-scaled to fit their real-life counterparts? I presume Laythe will moved to orbit Gargantua if I'm correct?

At they moment they aren't. This is probably still too early to be talking about these things (rescaling almost everything), but I can't lie in saying I haven't thought about it. About Laythe, that is a good idea, but I thought of creating entirely custom planets using a mod or something else. Please look back over the things to expect sections and things I might do. So far, I've done nearly nothing, actually. I've just tweaked a config or two and created some textures. Medsouz is the guy behind this, I'm just putting things together.

[StarDrive85]

When this is finished. will the BH have the gravity to suck you in?. also what will happen if you fall in to that thing. (IRL black holes are gods cameras. Its true!)

[Chezburgar7300]

When this is finished. will the BH have the gravity to suck you in?. also what will happen if you fall in to that thing. (IRL black holes are gods cameras. Its true!)

Gargantua already sucks you in, I've found. Either that or it sends you on an escape trajectory. Right now, if you fall in (god rest your soul), your ship just explodes. I'm thinking, once a few game-breaking bugs are fixed, I'll add several super high, pitch-black cloud layers to simulate 'going in'. This way you can have a few seconds of terror before your craft explodes due to 'high-g force'.

[StarDrive85]

Gargantua already sucks you in, I've found. Either that or it sends you on an escape trajectory. Right now, if you fall in (god rest your soul), your ship just explodes. I'm thinking, once a few game-breaking bugs are fixed, I'll add several super high, pitch-black cloud layers to simulate 'going in'. This way you can have a few seconds of terror before your craft explodes due to 'high-g force'.

sweet. also i was sires about IRL black holes are gods cameras .

[Chezburgar7300]

Okay, so with the v.1.3 update, I changed the name of the Black Hole from Blacky Karman to Gargantua (thanks to an updated StarSystems .cfg) but also, more importantly, changed the description of Gargantua. I'm tossing up between a realistic description that uses scientific language and/or mathematical terms or a (roughly - I try ) stock-alike description. I've gone with the stock-alike one for now, but that can be easily changed. Here it is, let me know your thoughts (preferably in PM to avoid clogging up thread) and if I should change style; "After Kerbalkind found that Kerbin could support life for only a limited time, they turned to the stars only to find a massive black object that seemed to have filled the sky. Upon more observation they found that there were planets orbiting it that could sustain life. "Better than staying here...""

[StarDrive85]

In Real Life nothing can physicaly orbit a black hole. so how will planets orbit the BH in KSP?. also will there be no day time on the planets?. since there is no sun

[66ukly]

???? Yes they can, within a certain distance, something can keep a full stable orbit around a black hole. And, black holes emanate a LOT of light, from the photon sphere, which is a point at a black hole where the gravity is strong enought to pull light into orbit of the black hole, which is obviously orbiting at the speed of light.

[Chezburgar7300]

In Real Life nothing can physicaly orbit a black hole. so how will planets orbit the BH in KSP?.

Actually, that's a common, but false, belief. From a distance things orbit Black Hole like any other celestial bodies. Weird things only start to occur when you get close. Although we (humans) have never actually seen a black hole, much less been near one, so we can't be certain but it is still possible to orbit a rotating black hole in the direction of it's rotation. Non-rotating black holes however are a bit more tricky and have much less stable orbits the closer you get in compared to rotating ones. I assume you've seen the film Interstellar? Miller's planet in that (the water one) can only orbit that closely because Gargantua is a (very quickly) rotating black hole. I suggest you do some research even just on wikipedia (it's more trustworthy than you think) about Black Holes. Most people have their facts wrong about them.

also will there be no day time on the planets?. since there is no sun

Well, thanks to medsouz, there is working light from the black hole that simulates the effects of an Accretion disk. In real life, accretion disks are really compressed and thus superheated (temp of surf of the sun) rings of gas and other matter. In KSP, it's just a ring and the Black Hole itself emits the light. If you actually looked at the pictures you could see there was working light.

Also, I'm not even sure I'm going to be doing planets as it's a bit more in depth and tedious that texture work. I'd say don't get your hopes up.

[Chezburgar7300]

Okay! So I've gotten down the cloud layers for Saturn perfectly except for the rogue white line I can't seem to fix (it's hardly noticeable). Kittopia isn't working with my install OR .90 for the moment, so until that is resolved there won't be any pics. I'm playing around with some effects for Kerbin and the Stars. Nothing major like the things that Astronomer has done (I'm no wizard). Right now, I have a working Neutron star named Pantagruel that has replaced Dolas. Everything is fine and the escape velocity is nearly c, but there are some issue with the sun flares. I'm talking with someone (I won't name who) to see if I can create a custom flare that is a tad more appealing than the stock one. Medsouz has helped so much with some issues and even additions of features to the StarSystems mod to make my life that much easier. Because of him I don't have to learn C#! You can expect a LOT of progress next week. I won't say why, but there will be progress. I'm thinking of adding a Binary White Dwarf - Brown Dwarf System in the place of Corbo, and adding a Blue/Red Hypergiant to the game. Medsouz is also thinking of creating something truly ambitious (but will be spectacular if he pulls it off, or atleast does it) that will make my life alot easier - he is a champion.

I'm starting to have RAM issues with the game. It crashes more often than not on a scene change from the Tracking Station to the Space Centre. OpenGL is playing up for me, and I'm not ready for a 2+ hour initial load for ATM, so I'll just have to deal with it. You know that person I mentioned earlier (who I won't say their name)? I'm also talking with them for custom cloud layers and/or atmospheric effects for celestial bodies.

In regards to the Wormhole idea, I'm saying it probably won't happen. I talked with someone, and they said I practically can't do the thing I was thinking of. So, until I can or if I can find a solution, it won't be happening. I've got the textures for the rings down pat, but Kittopia is simply not working so nothing is showing up.

I noticed yesterday that I am having some severe issues with SOIs. Kerbol's SOI hardly goes past the orbit of Eve and isn't near the orbit of Kerbin. A fix on that might be coming. I'm also having some issues on eccentric orbits for stars. The stars aren't following their orbits and there are some pretty weird things happening when you activate timewarp.

Anyway! I think that that is quite enough for the moment. I'll keep the community posted if they (you) so desire.

[benjee10]

This looks very promising. Excited for this! Hope you can iron out the bugs.

[Chezburgar7300]

This looks very promising. Excited for this! Hope you can iron out the bugs.

Should look good together with your parts pack, when they're both released.

[xXIndestructibleEVAXx]

In the OP, in the what you might do section, it says the planets all orbit the BH, when in the movie, the last planet (Edmund's) orbits Pantagruel, the Nstar. For example, at the point when they argue what planet to go to next, Brand says that they can't find a habitable planet around Gargantua is because not enough can happen around a black hole, because asteroids 'n stuff get sucked in, and that's why they should go to Edmund's

EDIT: 100th post!!!!!!!!!

[Chezburgar7300]

Oh ok! When the film gets released on Dvd (hopefully around Feb/Mar) I'll refine some things and make sure that everything is as accurate as possible to the movie within limits. I didn't remember that as I have a terrible memory and I watched it a few days after the first screening which was near the beginning of November.

Edit: For cosmetic and practical purposes, I'd need some info on it's orbit/the size/mass of the star and the planet. So, once again, I'd need to wait until the movie is released to be able to do these things. In the game currently I have a realistically sized and weighted Neutron star, but it is obviously not accurate to the film.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Chezburgar7300

[Chezburgar7300]

I've made some skyboxes! Partly to do with this, but I made some nonetheless. You need Texture replacer for them to work, and some of them don't look great. There are 6 in total to choose from and you can read a brief description of each in the link. Link.

[Nicholander]

Any updates or news on the progress of this?

[Chezburgar7300]

Yeah! I'm waiting on some fixes from medsouz because of the incompatibilities and just overall buggy-ness, but a friend of mine has created a gravitational lensing shader which should be ready within the next few days. I'll just need to talk to rbray about how to implement it, but I have a video of it in action if you'd like to see. I have some nice textures for it and am using the EVE overhaul to make the stars look better. I'm thinking I'll see if I can add Solar Flares at a later date, but not now. Right now, I'm working on another project while I'm waiting for fixes and helping out Pingopete with RVE (a little bit).

[msaf_kerb]

I think KSP can't simulate Gargantuan system. It seem to need super awesome/realistic gravity simulation & multiple sun/multiple blackhole/multiple neutron-star for spaceship navigation at near light speed.

Here's an extract from the book: ("Science Of Interstellar" by Astrophysicist Kip Thorne (gulp!)).

Gargantuan:

-100 million solar mass

-the horizon CIRCUMFERENCE works out to be approximately the same as the Earth’s orbit around the Sun: about 1 billion kilometers.

-Gargantua’s RADIUS, in (event horizon) sense, is about 150 million kilometers, the same as the radius of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

-huge slowing of time requires Gargantua to spin almost as fast as the maximum (speed of light)...to spin no faster than about 0.998 of the maximum

Miller planet:

-100ms orbit, really near horizon

-giant buldge toward gargantuan

-not quite locked to Gargantua. rock back and forth (1 hour period) relative to Gargantua by a small amount

-1.2-kilometer-high waves

-the entire accretion disk should be outside the orbit of Miller’s planet.

- trip from (Endurance at) Parking orbit -to-> Miller planet took Ranger 2 1/2 hour

- Endurance move at c/3, where c represents the speed of light. Miller’s planet moves at 55 percent the speed of light, 0.55c.

- huge speed changes, c/3, required gravitational slingshots around black holes far smaller than Gargantua.

- Stars and small black holes congregate around Gargantuan

- the deflector must be a black hole at least 10,000 kilometers in size (about the size of the Earth)... weighs about 10,000 solar masses (IMBH)

Mann planet:

-orbit highly elongated

-outer part of orbit: 600 Gargantuan radii or more

-"The whirl of space near Gargantua makes the planet fly around Gargantua once or twice on each swing by, and makes its orbit precess through a large angle from one outward excursion to the next"

- trip from Gargantuan to Mann require 2 slingshot (from parking orbit)

- speed of the planet is roughly c/20, the first slingshot must accelerate the Endurance up to nearly c/2. (find & use intermediate sized black hole: IMBH)

- once the 1st slingshot is completed, the trip to Mann’s planet, with speed about c/2 initially and gradual slowing to roughly c/20, will take roughly an additional forty days.

- second slingshot, near Mann’s planet, Endurance swings around a suitable IMBH and gentle rendezvous with the planet

Endurance:

- explosion sets the ring spinning so fast that its modules feel 70 gees!

Earth:

- the Earth’s gravitational pull in North America weakened a bit, and in South Africa it strengthened!

Edmund planet:

(after Mann planet)

- (Cooper) lifts the Endurance high enough for Gargantua’s huge tidal forces to pry it away from the planet, sending it on a separate trajectory

- (analogy trying to explain something complicated: ) "The Endurance, after being pried away from Mann’s planet, is like a tiny marble that rolls freely on this granite surface. As it rolls inward toward the moat, the marble picks up speed, because of the surface’s downward slope. It then rolls up the volcano’s side, slowing as it goes, and arrives on the volcano’s rim with some residual circumferential motion. And it then rolls around and around on the rim, delicately and unstably balanced between falling inward, into the volcano, and falling back outward and down to the moat."

- "Because the critical orbit is so unstable, a small rocket blast is sufficient to send the Endurance off it" (to Edmund) (at any direction!).

- (no Edmund orbit specified)

Edited January 7, 2015 by msaf_kerb

[iliketrains0pwned]

I remember hearing somewhere in the movie about a neutron star orbiting Gargantua named Pantegruel. The wiki for Interstellar doesn't have any specific information about the star except that it orbits much farther away than Miller and Mann. Also, Edmunds orbits the neutron star, not the black hole.

[Chezburgar7300]

I remember hearing somewhere in the movie about a neutron star orbiting Gargantua named Pantegruel. The wiki for Interstellar doesn't have any specific information about the star except that it orbits much farther away than Miller and Mann. Also, Edmunds orbits the neutron star, not the black hole.

I'm aware. I'm afraid that StarSystems is practically discontinued at the moment, and because of that the bugs that are hindering progress won't be squashed.

I am very reluctant to move over to KopernicusTech but if I hear of nothing in the next few weeks I likely will. If school won't let me have any spare time, I'll release what I've done and let people do with it what they will.