Planets and ScaledSpace.

[MGUARN]

Oh this will be amazing when he release it.

[Itsdavyjones]

Excuse me as I pick up my jaw from the floor... Somewhere on the other side of the planet....

[AHO]

when you guys are done, could you make a universal plugin that allows any mod dev to use that plugin, to make more planets, like Romfarers lazor plugin for robotic arms, or Mechjebs module.

Yes, please do.

[Whirligig Girl]

I wonder, when all the code is done and the new Bogy's floating around everyone's Mun's... how many crappy retextures are going to be on Spaceport?

But no, this sounds very exciting. Not as exciting as new official planets, but interesting nonetheless. I think there's something dark and ominous orbiting between Tylo and Laythe...

I think this is far more exiting than new official planets, because no modder has ever managed to get planets to work yet.

[Scotius]

Oh, i have no doubts there will be a lot of crappy re-textures of all imaginable kinds. But, knowing this community there will be also a lot more of high quality ones. Personally i can't wait to see awesome celestial bodies cranked out by our amazing modders

[nyrath]

I'm sure there are all sorts of wild planets that can be made with mods like this.

In The Flight of the Magic Dragonfly aka Rocheworld, there was a double planet where the two planets almost touched. Gravity distorted the planets into egg shapes. They share the same atmosphere, you can fly from one to the other with an airplane. One is arid, the other is mostly ocean. Periodically they draw so close that water falls from one planet to the next.

http://library.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b4183/Rocheworld-/Robert-L-Forward-PhD/?li=4 (scroll down to diagrams)

In Larry Niven's Known Space novels, the planet Jinx is a moon of the gas giant Binary, third planet of Sirius A. The gravity makes Jinx a prolate spheroid. The ends of the planet rise out of the atmosphere, the poles are in vacuum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinx_(Known_Space)

We won't talk about outrageous things like Ringworlds and Dyson spheres

[Scotius]

Sure, no rings and spheres I've always wondered if it would be possible to have a planetary system with three terrestial planets sharing one orbit? For example - would it be possible to change orbits of Venus and Mars, and place them in Earth-Sol Lagrange points? Would it be (reasonably) stable? Probably not, due to mass differences (i'm looking at you Mars) - but three almost identical mass-wise obiects? Or one bigger and two smaller?

[AHO]

Sure, no rings and spheres I've always wondered if it would be possible to have a planetary system with three terrestial planets sharing one orbit? For example - would it be possible to change orbits of Venus and Mars, and place them in Earth-Sol Lagrange points? Would it be (reasonably) stable? Probably not, due to mass differences (i'm looking at you Mars) - but three almost identical mass-wise obiects? Or one bigger and two smaller?

I don't think so, the gravity attraction between the planets would be enough to pull them out of the Lagrange points I think.

[Bekiekutmoar]

Brilliant work ... ! What programs does one need to fabricate celestial bodies? Several years ago I made custom Half-Life 2 levels with a SDK, and I'd like to test my modding skills again ...

[Lurven]

Would be cool if someone would be able to make the solar system in KSP, with the planets in the 1:1 scale, but the distances reduced (for gameplays' sake)

[Holo]

How difficult would it be for me to copy and paste your code and change the names so I have my own planets and moons

[aftokinito]

How difficult would it be for me to copy and paste your code and change the names so I have my own planets and moons

That's exactly why he won't release the source code for now.

[7499275]

Wow... Never thought this was possible to do, hows it coming? I've been reading the posts and stuff and I have to admit I'm really excited and really looking forward to this mod/new planet!

[ahappydude]

Would an small asteroid field be possible? Anyways, thanks for working on this The modders here is on fire, dont hire them squad let them stay here

[Lurven]

Would an small asteroid field be possible? Anyways, thanks for working on this The modders here is on fire, dont hire them squad let them stay here

As far as I know, astroid fields contain millins of asteroids, even a small one would be arround 1000 asteroids, having so many objects would fry low-end computers

[AHO]

As far as I know, astroid fields contain millins of asteroids, even a small one would be arround 1000 asteroids, having so many objects would fry low-end computers

Which is why when the devs implement an asteroid field it will most likely be proceduraly generated.

[Fel]

Which is why when the devs implement an asteroid field it will most likely be proceduraly generated.

Which is why we have a "ProceduralAstroid" class.

Effectively, this is reverse engineering. Probably 'clean reverse engineering' in that he's just analyzing the changes that occurs rather than decompiling the program, but it takes a fair amount of know-how to start by reflecting across ksp, and then finding "interesting interfaces", getting a hook into said interfaces so you can observe data changes, then going step by step. If he managed to intercept when the planets are built he could have a large amount of data to analyze which helps in reconstructing what the code actually does.

Technically, SQUAD might have some issues here (Reverse Engineering of the code is against the EULA), Nova probably had to ask Harv before he gave any additional information... so whether he can release the source might be in their hands (I'm just saying, clean or dirty, there is a fine line being walked).

Also, given how much credit I can give him, I'd say he knows that the instant he releases the code, bugs or not, that code is going to be what people copy in their own mods. Use of WWW to load PNG's rather than KSP.IO, using 'weak references' when we have GUIDs for vessels and parts; the state he releases in will be the state that others perceive to be "how it should be done."

Edited June 23, 2013 by Fel

[zekew11]

I'm curious; I know (well, I think I know) that the "stock" bodies are not saved as conventional 3d files. Are you're bodies saved in the "stock" way, and regardless, what is the format: I'd be very interested in getting a head start building planets...

[aftokinito]

Which is why we have a "ProceduralAstroid" class.

Effectively, this is reverse engineering. Probably 'clean reverse engineering' in that he's just analyzing the changes that occurs rather than decompiling the program, but it takes a fair amount of know-how to start by reflecting across ksp, and then finding "interesting interfaces", getting a hook into said interfaces so you can observe data changes, then going step by step. If he managed to intercept when the planets are built he could have a large amount of data to analyze which helps in reconstructing what the code actually does.

Technically, SQUAD might have some issues here (Reverse Engineering of the code is against the EULA), Nova probably had to ask Harv before he gave any additional information... so whether he can release the source might be in their hands (I'm just saying, clean or dirty, there is a fine line being walked).

Also, given how much credit I can give him, I'd say he knows that the instant he releases the code, bugs or not, that code is going to be what people copy in their own mods. Use of WWW to load PNG's rather than KSP.IO, using 'weak references' when we have GUIDs for vessels and parts; the state he releases in will be the state that others perceive to be "how it should be done."

He probably took a look at the PQS class found at Assembly-CSharp.dll and he was really smart to understand how does that stuff work in order to use it from his plugin.

[asmi]

Technically, SQUAD might have some issues here (Reverse Engineering of the code is against the EULA), Nova probably had to ask Harv before he gave any additional information... so whether he can release the source might be in their hands (I'm just saying, clean or dirty, there is a fine line being walked).

It depends. In certain countries it's completely legal to disassemble and modify program in order to adapt it for his(her) own use (without distributing modifications), and, moreover, it's illegal to forbid such an act.

[asmi]

On topic - I can't wait to see this in action. And especially playing in real Solar system!

[Lazurkri]

Yay, potential new planets yay! I give you a thumbs up dude and best wishes!

[tygoo7]

This is great! I will download this in a heartbeat when its done! Don't rush on this just take as much time as you need.

[astronutkhillips]

So there are some good points raised here. Is it good that you can make new planets? Does Squad care if users make new planets? How easy should it be?

I think its good, assuming Squad doesn't mind. I have yet to hear anything. But if they said "hold off" I would without hesitation.

As to how easy it should be... Well, who cares what you do inside your own game. And nobody can make you install a crap plugin. But from my poking around I have realized that it is much harder to make a good planet than you would think. And to make something that isnt a complete mess you need need to get the orbit right and the mass and the SOI all the other little things that seem minor until thing go boom.

Assuming I get it working I would probably release a simple proof of concept planet and the code. If you want to make a new planet you could look at the code and figure it out. If you wanted to write a fancy gui planet editor you would look at the code and figure it out. Let the market decide.

And I hope I didn't violate my EULA somehow. Didn't actually read it. Who does?

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

So there are some good points raised here. Is it good that you can make new planets? Does Squad care if users make new planets? How easy should it be?

I think its good, assuming Squad doesn't mind. I have yet to hear anything. But if they said "hold off" I would without hesitation.

As to how easy it should be... Well, who cares what you do inside your own game. And nobody can make you install a crap plugin. But from my poking around I have realized that it is much harder to make a good planet than you would think. And to make something that isnt a complete mess you need need to get the orbit right and the mass and the SOI all the other little things that seem minor until thing go boom.

Assuming I get it working I would probably release a simple proof of concept planet and the code. If you want to make a new planet you could look at the code and figure it out. If you wanted to write a fancy gui planet editor you would look at the code and figure it out. Let the market decide.

And I hope I didn't violate my EULA somehow. Didn't actually read it. Who does?

Well, only problem now is if they want to do some Downloadable Content with planets, they can't without copies!