Universe Sandbox 2 -> KSP?

[Bej Kerman]

Is it possible to make a program that reads US2 simulation files into Kopernicus (Possibly CustomAsteroids?) configs? If so, I'd love to see if this community could pull off this sort of feat. I'm obviously not a programmer and don't know if this is even possible, and if I could I would. Idk if this is the right thread.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I'm gonna go ahead and say no. Lol.

KSP doesn't even have N-body physics in stock.

I doubt the two systems are even remotely compatible.

[Bej Kerman]

6 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

I'm gonna go ahead and say no. Lol.

KSP doesn't even have N-body physics in stock.

I doubt the two systems are even remotely compatible.

Yeah, I know it's a long shot but wouldn't it be possible to just ignore the asteroids and N-body stuff, and just convert the bodies and make their biggest gravitational influence the parent object of it? Even if we needed to use N-body calculations, there's still Principia.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

20 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Yeah, I know it's a long shot but wouldn't it be possible to just ignore the asteroids and N-body stuff, and just convert the bodies and make their biggest gravitational influence the parent object of it? Even if we needed to use N-body calculations, there's still Principia.

Although both games are on the Unity engine, the underlying code is probably so wildly different that it's like talking two different languages.

Could you possibly painstakingly go in to the Unity files and get the planet models/textures? Then use those in KSP? Possibly.

A program that automatically converts one game to the other? It's not ..impossible, but don't hold your breath. Your talking some serious programming.

[Bej Kerman]

2 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Although both games are on the Unity engine, the underlying code is probably so wildly different that it's like talking two different languages.

Maybe possible, if pro on the level of being on the Microsoft team enough, with code that converts between US2's sim encryption (or whatever the garbled mess of characters is when you open a sim in notepad) / Kopernicus's simple configs, then simplifies all the gravitational interactions to planet --> biggest gravitational factor on planet, then just take the motion properties of the planet and apply it then? Maybe someone could reverse engineer US2 and KSP if legal.

10 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Could you possibly painstakingly go in to the Unity files and get the planet models/textures? Then use those in KSP? Possibly.

Maybe, if someone with enough patience and obsession, could pull the appearance properties from US2 and apply that to a heightmap.

1 minute ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

A program that automatically converts one game to the other? It's not ..impossible, but don't hold your breath. Your talking some serious programming.

As I said, if I could, I would, and as far as I'm aware, no-one's pulled off any game to game code stuff. Were you on the forums for long enough to know how people reacted to Kopernicus when it first got released?

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Your talking a lot of work for... not really a lot of gain?

Custom planets and galaxies are already possible.

I don't think using US2 as some kind of "3rd party toolkit" to help with that offers enough practical gain to custom write an entire program from the ground up to do that. I seriously doubt anyone is going to take all that work upon themselves either. Whether it's actually doable or not is kind of moot, the real question is why would it be worth it? It's not that it's a bad idea, I'm just not sure it's a realistic one. No shame in dreaming big though!

Edited November 17, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Bej Kerman]

1 hour ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Your talking a lot of work for... not really a lot of gain?

Custom planets and galaxies are already possible.

I don't think using US2 as some kind of "3rd party toolkit" to help with that offers enough practical gain to custom write an entire program from the ground up to do that. I seriously doubt anyone is going to take all that work upon themselves either. Whether it's actually doable or not is kind of moot, the real question is why would it be worth it?

probably not very worth, but seriously, there should be some sort of Kopernicus planet maker for noobs like me.

[Shadowmage]

Is US2 Moddable?  (never played, only seen the page in the steam store/etc)  That is the real question.  If you can't get into the guts of US2, then this is all a non-starter.

 

If it -is- moddable, at a 'can add new plugins / scripts' level, then it might be possible to do the following.

1. Write a mod for US2 that looked at  the current galaxy/universe/whatever
2. Extract the relevant parameters for those bodies as they would be used in a patched conics simulation
3. Extract / dump any needed textures or mesh information
4. Convert the data from step 2 into Kopernicus configs or whatever is needed by KSP.
5. Convert the textures from step 3 into whatever is needed by Kp
6. Profit??

Now, that would require someone who is an expert at US2 modding (if its even possible), KSP modding, and Kopernicus config wizardy (or small team with good comm.).  No, that person would not be me.

1 hour ago, Bej Kerman said:

probably not very worth, but seriously, there should be some sort of Kopernicus planet maker for noobs like me.

I thought there was something at some point -- Kittopia Tech or something like that?

IDK, I've never really gotten into the whole Kopernicus thing (it was terribly unstable the one time I tried it, but that was many moons ago, in a KSP version that is only a fading memory).

[Bej Kerman]

17 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

• Write a mod for US2 that looked at  the current galaxy/universe/whatever
• Extract the relevant parameters for those bodies as they would be used in a patched conics simulation
• Extract / dump any needed textures or mesh information
• Convert the data from step 2 into Kopernicus configs or whatever is needed by KSP.
• Convert the textures from step 3 into whatever is needed by Kp
• Profit??

What I was getting at. Someone managed to retexture Venus' clouds in US2 (https://youtu.be/HYd4BFsGrEI)

 

17 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

I thought there was something at some point -- Kittopia Tech or something like that?

Yeah, heard of that, but what about a 3rd part program (Like To Boldly Go) that let you set textures and parameters without needing to write configs, and possibly a graphical display of the system.

17 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

(it was terribly unstable the one time I tried it, but that was many moons ago, in a KSP version that is only a fading memory).

0.18? or 0.19? I cannot forget those days, all with the bouncy Kerbal helmets and stuff.

[pincushionman]

On 11/17/2018 at 12:47 PM, Bej Kerman said:

probably not very worth, but seriously, there should be some sort of Kopernicus planet maker for noobs like me.

I was going to add a Kopernicus-file reader into KOMET once I get the patched-conics thing working (so not until next year sometime), but an editor/writer wouldn't be too much of a stretch once I get that far. I've already got it plotting an arbitrary number of bodies as long as you have the spreadsheet columns filled out correctly.

featurecreepfeaturecreepfeaturecreep

[Bej Kerman]

1 hour ago, pincushionman said:

I was going to add a Kopernicus-file reader into KOMET once I get the patched-conics thing working (so not until next year sometime), but an editor/writer wouldn't be too much of a stretch once I get that far. I've already got it plotting an arbitrary number of bodies as long as you have the spreadsheet columns filled out correctly.

Cool. Yeah, I think I half understand.

59 minutes ago, pincushionman said:

featurecreepfeaturecreepfeaturecreep

Whaaaaa....?

[Adstri]

This is a long way from being possible. The closest thing you would be able to do is import orbital elements and basic planetary characteristics (such as mass, radius, gravity, rotational period ect.) Which can be done by hand.

Edited November 29, 2018 by Adstriduum

[Tyko]

Does US2 model correct atmospheres, planetary temperatures and other planetary characteristics? It would be interesting to use US2 to model "realistic" systems and then port the results over to KSP. Not everyone who wants to design a new solar system has @OhioBob's knowledge level on such matters.