Whirligig Girl

unfortunately no. I'm making whirligig world as a hobby project and if i work on it continuously i will burn out. i'm taking a short break at the moment. The to-do list has 35 items on it so far and the list is currently getting longer, not shorter.

Astronomers at the Southport Public Observatory have made the announcement of two major planets orbiting Gememma. After the discovery that the blue planet next to Gememma, now called Mandrake and Rutherford, was in fact a double planet with its own moons, there was a rush of enthusiasm for finding more such planetary companions. Gememma was known to have another companion, though it spent much of its time hidden in Gememma's glare. New techniques have allowed the southern astronomers to determine that there certainly exists another planet, now known as Digress. Having been mistaken earlier in the year as distant planetary nebula Gildmore-17, it has now been conclusively identified as an apparition of Gememma's more transient visible planet. Digress has no large companion, but it does seem to have a system of satellites rivalling the complexity of that of Valyr and Mesbin, if not Reander. Further, researchers at the Southport Public Observatory have run a replication study on the orbit of Ogilvy Mesoman's new planet, and have published new and more accurate orbital data on the planet. Planet Ogilvy was discovered beyond the ecliptic plane of the Gememma system late last month, quite unlike where any planets were expected to be found. Initial mass estimates put it at around the mass of Rutherford. One Southport astronomer claims to have detected a satellite, but this has not yet been confirmed photographically. Whirligig World's next update will include two new planetary systems orbiting Gememma, bringing the tally of gas giants orbiting Gememma up from two to four. Ammenon Lowel Ollym Gannovar G1 Gallant Digress Reginar Snojii Razthys Monwaea Mandrake Rutherford Lozon Beagrid Jancy Tatian Ogilvy Surrey Horsell Erda Pragnik The new planets, bolded, have been designed and built by Wolf-Rayet (@Exo's Lab), as her style is artistically and stylistically a good match for Whirligig World. Her previous work in Whirligig World includes the Pragnik revamp from the last update, though her style has further progressed since then. As a result of including Ogilvy, Pragnik has been moved outward from a 2:3 resonance with Mandrake to a 2:3 resonance with Ogilvy, in fact putting Pragnik at the end of a resonance chain. The new objects bring Whirligig World up to a total of 60 planets. Moon System (potentially minor spoilers) You may have noticed a few unaccounted for orbit lines... THERE'S MORE TO EXPLORE HERE.

the in-development version of whirligig world will require it.

Some images of the MSB-25 "Globe" in its natural habitat. And the beloved supermassive airless whirligig world it is a "globe" of.

More of the new Mesbin.

One of the biggest features of the next update is finished at long last--the long awaited Mesbin Revamp, finally bringing it up to just about the highest fidelity as is possible. Rather than being a sort of middling-quality planet that doesn't look interesting from up close, being something put there just for you to leave it, it is now one of the mod's true showpiece worlds. Here's just a teaser--this isn't even its best side! And here's a teaser of the new Shol revamp: And the final teaser: details to come.

it's all i've ever wanted. i would make such a cool planet if i had working oblate atmospheres. (and uh. oceans. the planet would be possible but way less cool without oceans.)

the image attached uses VertexHeightOblateAdvanced. the shape i ended up going with (visible in the end of the whirligig world thread) is wider than this, to match mesbin's original dimensions so gameplay remains the same; but the slopes should be gentler now even though it's not using the pure equipotential. Atmospheric oblateness is still impossible at the moment. If Atmospheric oblateness does become a thing it will probably require Whirligig World go through something of a paradigm shift or major update (or, and no promises, a sequel) to accomodate. It's something I've always wanted to do, but it's always been this far off future thing. Atmospheric oblateness would require both physics and visuals be changed to accomodate not just ellipsoidal shapes, but all the shapes possible with VertexHeightOblateAdvanced. And for a proper Mesklin analogue we also need oceans! which means ocean heightmaps with proper physics for buoyancy and collision on oblate worlds.

incredible. i'll have to take a look at this some time soon.

The point equipotential shape above is cool because it's level everywhere... but it just looks so wrong. from a distance, it doesn't have remotely the right feeling. So I made a new shape for Mesbin which blends between the point equipotential and an oblate spheroid, thereby keeping the dimensions and properties the same, making the planet a little closer to level everywhere, and it's a good guess for what Mesbin would look like if it were real. I'm thinking this is going to be the new default. But this will be something that can be switched using a new setting in Settings.cfg. Options right now are Classic (uses VertexHeightOblateAdvanced to make an oblate spheroid of the same shape as the original Mesbin), ClassicTexture (the current 0.13.0 mesbin which uses a heightmap and has some ring artifacting around the poles), PointEquipotential (shown in the previous message), and Blend (the one shown here).

this mod is pretty revolutionary for whirligig world. so now i'm prototyping a version of mesbin which uses a gravitational equipotential surface based on a point mass--essentially, gravity will be level everywhere on the planet instead of just the equator and poles. This is also somewhat more realistic, since we should expect Mesbin to have a dense core due to gravitational compression--although the actual realistic figure would probably be a little wider than this. This particular shape is defined by keeping the mass, polar radius, and polar gravity constant, and then finding a rotation period (changing both the actual rotation period, and the rotation period setting in the new PQSmod) where the equatorial gravity was roughly the same as before. Except it turns out, through sheer coincidence, the equatorial surface gravity ended up being exactly the same as before. The new rotation period is 1204s or 20 minutes, 4 seconds. Statmun and Thresomin have had their orbits lowered to account for the change. The maximum aspect ratio of a lenticular planet with a point equipotential is 1:1.5. At that aspect ratio, the planet is spinning at a rate such that its equator is at zero gees and the equator comes to a sharp angular point. Any faster and the planet would just start tossing its crust into space rather than getting wider. This is a shame, because Mesbin's aspect ratio is such an iconic aspect of it, so I will also be playing with other shape settings which may be realistic enough (although they will not have a level surface everywhere in KSP) and preserve the original aspect ratio of roughly 1:1.7. The trouble is, the mass is the same but you're closer to it. So even though it's not harder to get to orbit (since we're rotating faster), it takes noticeably more delta-v to visit the moons and to escape Mesbin. (Although the oberth effect might actually make it worth it when it comes to interplanetary transfers). There is a branch on github where this prototype can be played with. I'm not sure if I'll ever make it the default or "canon", but it's at least an optional setting that can be enabled.

woe. lenticular mesbin be upon ye. https://github.com/GregroxMun/Whirligig-World/tree/VertexHeightOblateAdvanced

oh that's excellent. maybe i'll be able to put this into Whirligig World if i get back to it. I've been wanting to make Mesbin properly level ever sense i first released it. (I just haven't been interested in planet modding for the past year or so, since running Planet Jam 2)

Reported Version: v0.2.0 (latest) | Mods: none | Can replicate without mods? Yes OS: Windows 10 | CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3240 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3400 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB | RAM: 16GB In reality, as a planet rotates, the apparently static background stars will appear to rise in the east and set in the west, rotating around the celestial poles. the sky just before sunrise is very different from the sky just after sunset; just as the sky at midnight in summer is very different from the sky at midnight in winter. This behavior is correctly implemented in KSP1. In Kerbal Space Program 2, when landed on the surface of Kerbin, the skybox appears completely static; only solar system objects (i.e., Mun & Sun) appear to rise and set as Kerbin rotates. This behavior occurs in the KSC scene and the flight scene. This simple astronomical fact is not only a pretty major flaw for a space game to get wrong, it also makes it hard to judge the passage of time when timewarping on a planet's surface. To replicate: timewarp during night time. At any time warp level, the stars will not appear to move, but you may see the Mun zip across the sky, and the Sun may rise eventually. Included Attachments: .ipsImage { width: 900px !important; }

that might be a result of how WW handles visual mods--Mesbin is technically "Kerbin," so if you have visual mods, and Mesbin is no longer Kerbin, then things could get weird. The names and descriptions are a result of a compatibility patch in Whirligig World itself. https://github.com/GregroxMun/Whirligig-World/blob/master/GameData/WhirligigWorld/ModCompatibility/InterstellarConsortium/IC_Descriptions.cfg