Celistial Bodies

[drakesdoom]

I want to examine the code that defines the motions of celestial bodies and the SOIs, but I don't know where to find it. Does anyone know where this information is?

[Fyrem]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/OrbitsHistory/page2.php

ok, yeah, I know that isn't what you meant, ... but the Kraken made me do it.

[EndlessWaves]

I want to examine the code that defines the motions of celestial bodies and the SOIs

Looking at the particular code used in KSP is against the rules but someone may be able to link you to an alternate implementation or a page on the theory.

I would have thought it's fairly simple, an eliipse for the orbit (or conic section for parabolic/hyperbolic orbits) and a simple circle for the SOI.

[drakesdoom]

That is a shame, I was thinking you could better simulate N body gravitation by adding very small SOIs at L points and making the SOIs into curved diamond shapes to match a gravitational potential map of the system that was precalculated thus avoiding any running computations with the only additional overhead being more SOIs in system.

[Mekan1k]

Actually, there is a problem. I remember that in a discussion before the crash, there was one guy who wanted to make a planet, and add it to the game, but he could not because the game revolves the planets and such around the player. There is no real 'gravity', merely a reference frame that lets the player know what they are 'in orbit' around.

Of course, I could be completely wrong...

[EndlessWaves]

Of course, I could be completely wrong...

I would think so, it's seems unlikely there's any fixed list in the code the devs need to update and recompile every time they add a new planet. You can certainly duplicate a planet and have it show up on the map screen with it's orbit rendered, I haven't checked if it's gravity works as well.