Science of the Spheres - development

[Accelerando]

I'm really glad to see that this is going strong. That render is gorgeous! I'm really curious to see how the science aspect of SotS will play out. Will we be encouraged to uncover, say, the physical constants of this new universe? One thing that's always interested me about your game, Nova, for instance, and about small-planets games in general is how the worlds retain an atmosphere. As far as I'm aware, Mars IRL lost its air largely because its escape velocity was too low compared to the average velocity of hot gas particles at the exobase; might this be taken accounted for in the Microverse by some new physics?

I'm aware that this isn't meant to be anywhere near a "100% realistic" simulation of "what if there were tiny planets", but I'm not looking for something that perfectly replicates our universe - I understand that the Microverse is meant to be its own unique thing, so might there be some experiments we could perform that would start to shed light on the different physical equations we might use to describe the Microverse? Or it could end up having something more directly to do with the little spheres of hyperdense stuff in the center of each dirtball, of course; perhaps they're holding onto the atmospheres somehow, and that figures into the lore of the game. Either way, I think it'd be endlessly fun to explore for and uncover information like this; and perhaps investigations into the workings of the Microverse could help shed some light for players on how our own universe works by helping to understand the differences between the two physics.

On the other hand, if the physical approach would take too much development time, that's also cool. I'm really hankering for a fun science game to teach me science beyond what I've learned about delta-V and orbits from KSP, but just being able to fly through and experience interesting content and/or the multitude of worlds and their backstories will surely be great.

Edited January 15, 2015 by Accelerando

[Bill Phil]

If human colonization becomes a thing, perhaps some interesting little facts can be presented. Something like "All colonist of ( insert colony name here) are now made of Microverse matter".

[Whirligig Girl]

If human colonization becomes a thing, perhaps some interesting little facts can be presented. Something like "All colonist of ( insert colony name here) are now made of Microverse matter".

I wonder what would happen if someone on a holodeck ate nothing but holodeck food for a few years, and stayed in the holodeck the whole time? Would they become a hologram? Just a thought.

Anyway, that's a neat idea there. But there might just not be any difference between normal and microverse matter, especially since we're supposed to be able to mine huge amounts of things like gold and platinum.

[NovaSilisko]

I'm really glad to see that this is going strong. That render is gorgeous! I'm really curious to see how the science aspect of SotS will play out. Will we be encouraged to uncover, say, the physical constants of this new universe? One thing that's always interested me about your game, Nova, for instance, and about small-planets games in general is how the worlds retain an atmosphere. As far as I'm aware, Mars IRL lost its air largely because its escape velocity was too low compared to the average velocity of hot gas particles at the exobase; might this be taken accounted for in the Microverse by some new physics?

I'm aware that this isn't meant to be anywhere near a "100% realistic" simulation of "what if there were tiny planets", but I'm not looking for something that perfectly replicates our universe - I understand that the Microverse is meant to be its own unique thing, so might there be some experiments we could perform that would start to shed light on the different physical equations we might use to describe the Microverse? Or it could end up having something more directly to do with the little spheres of hyperdense stuff in the center of each dirtball, of course; perhaps they're holding onto the atmospheres somehow, and that figures into the lore of the game. Either way, I think it'd be endlessly fun to explore for and uncover information like this; and perhaps investigations into the workings of the Microverse could help shed some light for players on how our own universe works by helping to understand the differences between the two physics.

On the other hand, if the physical approach would take too much development time, that's also cool. I'm really hankering for a fun science game to teach me science beyond what I've learned about delta-V and orbits from KSP, but just being able to fly through and experience interesting content and/or the multitude of worlds and their backstories will surely be great.

Yeah, it's a bit of a conundrum honestly. I'm trying to think of a decent explanation for atmospheres, but it's gonna require some hard thinking to come up with an acceptable explanation. New physics might have to be the solution. I'd welcome some ideas on that front... Since you mention it, it would definitely be cool to come up with some equations for things. For example, a specific curve relating core radius to apparent mass, housed in a simple equation that, with enough data, you can uncover.

The whole goal of the game will be doing that - exploring, learning, coming up with theories as to how things work in this weird crazy universe. I'm still thinking of a way it could be presented to the player in an easy-to-digest format that doesn't skip on the facts. I'd hope it can teach some people something, in particular about how scientific theories are developed.

edit: That's not a render by the way, it's a screenshot.

- - - Updated - - -

Speaking of screenshots, my habit of posting random ones is returning

Edited January 16, 2015 by NovaSilisko

[carlpilot]

Wow. This game looks great. I downloaded the Prototype Zero, and crashed into everything, then landed on everything (except the gas planet, I tried ).

Question 1: Is there going to be a science system like KSP where we need to collect data from other planets in the microverse to unlock new technologies?

Question 2: How big is the microverse? Is it finite, or procedurally generated infinitely?

-Carlpilot

[Whirligig Girl]

Wow. This game looks great. I downloaded the Prototype Zero, and crashed into everything, then landed on everything (except the gas planet, I tried ).

Question 1: Is there going to be a science system like KSP where we need to collect data from other planets in the microverse to unlock new technologies?

Question 2: How big is the microverse? Is it finite, or procedurally generated infinitely?

-Carlpilot

1: It will be a real science system. If KSP teaches orbital mechanics, Science of the Spheres teaches science. At least, that's what it looks like so far to me.

2: It's a secret. (There are a finite amount of seeds that you could possibly put in your computer, so that's probably the limit.) I know that Galaxies are isolated objects due to the large distances between them. Read all of the devblog. It answers much of this.

[billbobjebkirk]

any new news on the dev front?

[hotmailcompany52]

Nova, you got anybody to make music for SOtS yet?

[Mach_XXII]

Nova, you got anybody to make music for SOtS yet?

nova makes music, he'll probably make his own

[NovaSilisko]

any new news on the dev front?

Worrying about other things lately. Sorry.

Here's a compensatory doodle:

[Whirligig Girl]

This has fallen to the second page of the Space Lounge! UNACCEPTABLE.

[gmpd2000]

This has fallen to the second page of the Space Lounge! UNACCEPTABLE.

To stop that being a bump-only post, here's a question:

How's the game going, Nova?

[NovaSilisko]

Been very slow. Working on other stuff recently and just generally trying to replenish my creativity gland. Though soon am going to be working with r4m0n as he implements Bullet into Unreal 4, as Unreal's version of PhysX won't work very well for us.

[Whirligig Girl]

Been very slow. Working on other stuff recently and just generally trying to replenish my creativity gland. Though soon am going to be working with r4m0n as he implements Bullet into Unreal 4, as Unreal's version of PhysX won't work very well for us.

Explain what those words mean in context? Bullets? Unreal? The Engine? Wot?

[NovaSilisko]

Explain what those words mean in context? Bullets? Unreal? The Engine? Wot?

Bullet = the physics engine we implemented into Unity that worked much better than its stock physics

Unreal = the game engine the game is on right now, which will soon also have Bullet implemented into it.

[Nemrav]

When did the engine switch happen ? how much did it take to convert everything....

[Whirligig Girl]

Bullet = the physics engine we implemented into Unity that worked much better than its stock physics

Unreal = the game engine the game is on right now, which will soon also have Bullet implemented into it.

I thought Unreal was a totally separate thing from Unity. :|

[z26]

I thought Unreal was a totally separate thing from Unity. :|

These two engines are indeed completely separate. I'm not sure what happened, but I guess they first started working on the game using unity, then at some point ditched unity and started from scratch with unreal?

Anyway, reading about the making of this game is inspiring but I wonder, is your insistance on using bullet simply motivated by it being moddable to use double precision numbers, or there are other major reasons behind that choice as well?

(I'm wondering because me giving a go at making a physics game is a tiny but existing possibility)

Edited February 6, 2015 by z26

[Whirligig Girl]

So it's not on Unity anymore? What? What even is life?

[NovaSilisko]

So it's not on Unity anymore? What? What even is life?

Nope. Made the switch a while back, I uh... sort of assumed the massive differences in what the pictures looked like would give it away. It was time to move to the modern era. Source code access to the entire unreal engine is a nice bonus too. Originally the plan for P1 was to use Unreal's newer version of PhysX, but that has its own bothersome issues involved, so implementation of bullet into unreal has been pushed up a bit.

These two engines are indeed completely separate. I'm not sure what happened, but I guess they first started working on the game using unity, then at some point ditched unity and started from scratch with unreal?

Anyway, reading about the making of this game is inspiring but I wonder, is your insistance on using bullet simply motivated by it being moddable to use double precision numbers, or there are other major reasons behind that choice as well?

(I'm wondering because me giving a go at making a physics game is a tiny but existing possibility)

Mostly the ease of converting it to double precision, but also just because it works quite nicely. It handles stuff hitting other stuff at high speeds fairly well, for instance. And small bits and pieces flying around. My favorite comparison, between bullet on the left and Unity's physx on the right:

Edit: Updated the first post a bit

Edited February 9, 2015 by NovaSilisko

[Whirligig Girl]

Nope. Made the switch a while back, I uh... sort of assumed the massive differences in what the pictures looked like would give it away. It was time to move to the modern era. Source code access to the entire unreal engine is a nice bonus too. Originally the plan for P1 was to use Unreal's newer version of PhysX, but that has its own bothersome issues involved, so implementation of bullet into unreal has been pushed up a bit.

Mostly the ease of converting it to double precision, but also just because it works quite nicely. It handles stuff hitting other stuff at high speeds fairly well, for instance. And small bits and pieces flying around. My favorite comparison, between bullet on the left and Unity's physx on the right:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/575558/SotS/tinylander_bullet.gif https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/575558/SotS/tinylander_physx.gif

Edit: Updated the first post a bit

You mean Unity's stock physics won't even with the collisions? Wow.

[NovaSilisko]

You mean Unity's stock physics won't even with the collisions? Wow.

It reaaallllyyy hates small colliders. As well as small things being encroached upon by big things, even with a relatively minor mass difference. Its method for dealing with interpenetrating bodies seems to most of the time be "don't".

[daniel l.]

You know the ksp devs havent done anything with the solar system other than biomes since you left

I wish you would make a kopernicus planet pack that add all the things you were gonna add to the game like GP2 and fonso for example.

I know your busy, And i cant wait to play your new game but at least send us the textures you were gonna use

[NovaSilisko]

Working out the lighting for the headquarters. Need to populate it with lots of props...

Textures aren't done either.

You know the ksp devs havent done anything with the solar system other than biomes since you left

I wish you would make a kopernicus planet pack that add all the things you were gonna add to the game like GP2 and fonso for example.

I know your busy, And i cant wait to play your new game but at least send us the textures you were gonna use

Sorry. Not much I can do.

[Whirligig Girl]

Working out the lighting for the headquarters. Need to populate it with lots of props...

Textures aren't done either.

http://i.imgur.com/skEJcvX.jpg

Epic win! It must have a vending machine! EDIT: OOOH! Or, how about this? Pictures taken by spacecrafts can be printed as posters and hung on the wall!