Science of the Spheres - development

[NovaSilisko]

1. What stage is the development in?

2. When is the release date estimate?

3. Who and how many ppl are making the game?

4. Will Keplarian and Newtonian physics be included?

5. Do you need testers? If so I would be happy to help test the game, my PC can handle anything.

1. Game systems are being assembled independently of one another, relatively soon will come the time of integrating them with one another.

2. Unknown.

3. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/67691-Science-of-the-Spheres-development?p=1054565&viewfull=1#post1054565 and onward.

4. The basic principle of gravitation holds true but given planets are fixed in space, I'm not sure if keplerian orbits are really applicable.

5. Eventually. Not Soonâ„¢

[NovaSilisko]

On the subject of non-keplerian orbits...

Static planets mean the perturbation sources never move. This yields some interesting and highly chaotic orbits. Ignore the green line, that's just the signal line-of-sight debug line.

The whole system in context:

[Deathsoul097]

Just wondering about the construction mechanic for the ships. Will it be like the current "Lego" aspect of KSP, or are you planning to do more of a similar system to the creature editor in spore, or somewhere in between?

[NovaSilisko]

Just wondering about the construction mechanic for the ships. Will it be like the current "Lego" aspect of KSP, or are you planning to do more of a similar system to the creature editor in spore, or somewhere in between?

In between. Originally the idea was closer to KSP, with a number of pre-set frames to pick from, on which you then place engines, fuel tanks, instruments, cameras, computers, etc. Currently though we're working at devising a system to allow you to make frames 100% from scratch, in whatever shape you like (within reason). From there, it proceeds the same as before, with the engines/tanks/instruments/cameras/computers/etc.

[Whirligig Girl]

If gravity sources are immobile, how can moons work? gravity gradient would tear the moon apart, but also if you tried to aproach the moon, you'd be falling and the moon would not be so you get pulled toward the planet and barely at all toward the moon. If you try to get into orbit around the planet, you'd whiz by the moon.

[Whirligig Girl]

speaking of spore, are you going to have some plan for diverse life on life-supporting planets? I'm not thinking of dedicating a whole game mechanic to the creation of creatures, but more like some procedural/random generation based on the niche the creature has to fill?

[Whirligig Girl]

Ok? The pics show that everything is coming along nicely. I saw a planet with an atmosphere in one.

Questions:

1. How many creatures are you planing on adding?

2. Can we pick up creatures with a robotic arm and send them on a sun dive?

3. Will there be intelligent life?

4. Will we be able to move planets through the gateway.?

5. if Q4 is yes, will we be able to buy/sell from them/ Kill their species?

6. What sort of ships will we have? eg probe, lander, rover.

Even if you could find a way to move a Static Gravitational Core (you can't in the microverse), You wouldn't want to bring a black hole to Earth, would you? The Gravity from the SGC is going to tear apart a significant portion of the ground and probably destroy the MEA. Not to mention the fact that because relativity exists in UnivPrime, Paradoxes would happen as the SGC can't just tack on to spacetime, because in our universe spacetime is relative.

[Wahgineer]

Even if you could find a way to move a Static Gravitational Core (you can't in the microverse), You wouldn't want to bring a black hole to Earth, would you? The Gravity from the SGC is going to tear apart a significant portion of the ground and probably destroy the MEA. Not to mention the fact that because relativity exists in UnivPrime, Paradoxes would happen as the SGC can't just tack on to spacetime, because in our universe spacetime is relative.

so.. bringing an SGC to our universe would more or less destroy the planet, if not the solar system?

[Kinglet]

1. Unknown. It has to be a lot though, so you don't run into the same ones too often.

2. Sure. A net gun would work better than a robotic arm, though.

3. Evidence that there used to be intelligent life, but not an appearance by it.

4. No, planets are immobile and even at their small size much too big for that.

5. You might not be able to bring planets home but you can carve into them and load up your ship with whatever bounty they may hold.

6. Anything you like. Spacecraft are built from scratch.

Hopefully, yes. Linux too. The windows version would come first, though.

Please, do not disappoint me. Many developers say the mac version comes later, but most of the time it never comes.

[iDan122]

Please, do not disappoint me. Many developers say the mac version comes later, but most of the time it never comes.

You do know you can install windows on Mac, right?

You can even run both at the same time, and drag files from Mac OS right into the windows desktop

Btw Nova, you are probably a much more advanced programmer than I am, so I am asking:

I wrote a small solar system simulation in Pascal(2D currently), and I have a fixed star and a planet with a moon. The moon is currently influenced only by the planet, but when I apply the formula for the moon, the planet keeps moving on its orbit, basically "dragging" the moon behind it, rubber banding it to an incredible speed and it flies out of the windows, crashing the program. I worked out a solution to it by applying an additional vectors to the moon-the planet's, so it moves with the same speed as the planet around the sun and it rotates around in a proper orbit. Is this cheating? Or I just have to make the moon also affected by the star?

[Kinglet]

You do know you can install windows on Mac, right?

You can even run both at the same time, and drag files from Mac OS right into the windows desktop

Btw Nova, you are probably a much more advanced programmer than I am, so I am asking:

I wrote a small solar system simulation in Pascal(2D currently), and I have a fixed star and a planet with a moon. The moon is currently influenced only by the planet, but when I apply the formula for the moon, the planet keeps moving on its orbit, basically "dragging" the moon behind it, rubber banding it to an incredible speed and it flies out of the windows, crashing the program. I worked out a solution to it by applying an additional vectors to the moon-the planet's, so it moves with the same speed as the planet around the sun and it rotates around in a proper orbit. Is this cheating? Or I just have to make the moon also affected by the star?

No, it is too compilicated. The assistent offered by apple is badly made and has huge conpartablility problems. Oh, and I cannot give my freaking huge conputer to anyone as it is way too heavy.

[Nemrav]

penguin, they are using unity, which from my experience forces a build for mac and windows at the same time !!, not sure how they managed to build for linux go, but the point is, yes mac comes alongside windows, linux comes later typically.

[NovaSilisko]

If gravity sources are immobile, how can moons work? gravity gradient would tear the moon apart, but also if you tried to aproach the moon, you'd be falling and the moon would not be so you get pulled toward the planet and barely at all toward the moon. If you try to get into orbit around the planet, you'd whiz by the moon.

Well, "moon" is a rough approximation. In the context of the game it just means "small body near a larger body". I would like to have the terrain of objects "droop" toward nearby strong gravity sources, like it would if it were simply clinging to a tiny ball in the center of the planet.

Edit: Ah, I see what you're saying. It depends on how nearby the moon is, really. There are (and will be some more) sanity checks to make sure they don't come up too close to one another. Landing might get a bit hairy if the planet's gravity is strong enough, but generally you should be able to sit on the surface, even if it's slightly precarious.

speaking of spore, are you going to have some plan for diverse life on life-supporting planets? I'm not thinking of dedicating a whole game mechanic to the creation of creatures, but more like some procedural/random generation based on the niche the creature has to fill?

There's going to be a good amount of size and color/coat variation for creatures. Perhaps ones marked as camouflaged would automatically pick colors similar to the terrain colors of the planet.

Please, do not disappoint me. Many developers say the mac version comes later, but most of the time it never comes.

Don't worry... we'd never hear the end of it. The main roadblock at the moment is that I don't actually have a mac (or linux for that matter) machine available, so it becomes a bit difficult to test.

Btw Nova, you are probably a much more advanced programmer than I am

I harbor doubts.

I wrote a small solar system simulation in Pascal(2D currently), and I have a fixed star and a planet with a moon. The moon is currently influenced only by the planet, but when I apply the formula for the moon, the planet keeps moving on its orbit, basically "dragging" the moon behind it, rubber banding it to an incredible speed and it flies out of the windows, crashing the program. I worked out a solution to it by applying an additional vectors to the moon-the planet's, so it moves with the same speed as the planet around the sun and it rotates around in a proper orbit. Is this cheating? Or I just have to make the moon also affected by the star?

You should have the moon affected by the star as well. Your solution also works acceptably, but it's probably best to have it affected by everything. You just have to give it a proper kick to inherit the velocity of the planet, THEN give it another kick to put it into orbit around the planet.

penguin, they are using unity, which from my experience forces a build for mac and windows at the same time !!, not sure how they managed to build for linux go, but the point is, yes mac comes alongside windows, linux comes later typically.

Windows and Mac aren't forced to be done at the same time. Windows, Mac, and Linux all occupy the same section in the build setup, but have to be done individually.

Edited April 7, 2014 by NovaSilisko

[hotmailcompany52]

Don't worry... we'd never hear the end of it. The main roadblock at the moment is that I don't actually have a mac (or linux for that matter) machine available, so it becomes a bit difficult to test.

I could help you get past that particular roadblock.

[Whirligig Girl]

so.. bringing an SGC to our universe would more or less destroy the planet, if not the solar system?

Pretty Much. But again, you can't move an SGC, they're static!

[NovaSilisko]

I am going to attempt to write up a document detailing more or less the whole of the cosmology that surrounds the microverse... I would like to make the game follow this document as closely as possible, with all scientific information in the game being based off of it. From there, you will be presented with theories and speculations from your science team as to how the unusual physics there function. More observations and experiments means more information, and piece by piece a full picture of the workings of the microverse can be constructed...

I certainly don't want to spoil any details, however! I want there to be a real, deep, learning experience from the observations and studies you make in the game. As part of that experience, there may be dead end theories as well. And most definitely some unanswered questions for people to debate til the end of time

[hotmailcompany52]

That sounds pretty good Nova. I like the bit about the unanswered questions.

[Whirligig Girl]

That's how science in a game should work (I'm looking at you, HarvestR)

[Nemrav]

I'm wondering what non-ship mechanics will be in this, will we get multi-body simulation, maybe lagrange points ?

[NovaSilisko]

I'm wondering what non-ship mechanics will be in this, will we get multi-body simulation, maybe lagrange points ?

All planets in a system will affect your ship, if that's what you mean. There are likely points of balance in them, although they would be quite difficult to find, and certainly not very stable.

[hotmailcompany52]

Wouldn't being in an orbit around the main holding object in the centre of the system be sorta stable if your far enough out.

[NovaSilisko]

Last night and today I made a galaxy generator. Currently only spits out elliptical galaxies of various proportions, but I'd like to add more complex shapes sooner or later.

At present, it generates the general scaling of the galaxy's elliptical shape, the galaxy's age, and from there, star positions, temperatures, and radii. Star colors are calculated based off of a graph texture. The X axis of the texture represents temperature, and the Y axis represents radius. In general, the smaller a star is, the more saturated its color, and vice versa for large stars. The age of the galaxy then shifts the colors of the stars a bit, more blue stars for young galaxies, and more red stars for old galaxies. It also checks to make sure no stars are too close to one another (current buffer distance is 150 kilometers).

Right now it just spawns some low poly spheres to represent stars, but that's a considerably inefficient method and is only temporary, especially as it has to make a new material instance for each individual star's color. Later, a specific apparatus will be made to handle all stars and star colors at once. Also to be added are nebulae scattered throughout - more for younger galaxies, less for older galaxies.

Edited April 12, 2014 by NovaSilisko

[NovaSilisko]

Just made a general purpose resizeable capsule-shaped fuel tank, can change in any dimension.

Next up: calculation of its inner volume for fuel amounts.

Edit: and done!

Edit2: I have sinned... I spent a couple hours making and tweaking a partially realtime reflection system, this is the end result:

Still has issues with seams on it though, but I'm enacting a self-imposed moratorium on superfluous visual stuff for the time being... On the bright side, it currently can handle an arbitrary number of objects that share the same material, without actually making a new material for each of them (it makes one material per set, then all chosen reflective parts have that material assigned to them)

Edited April 15, 2014 by NovaSilisko

[hotmailcompany52]

Wow amazing work Nova!

[DarkStar64]

Is there a limit to the size of the fuel tank?