Space Simulator

Okay, so I know we're far from space. But I had found a space simulator where you can manipulate the universe with stuff and... just check it out yourselves.

http://universesandbox.com/

EDIT: This piece of Belgium costs money. You can watch it be in use on that video on the website or watch a dude play it here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7j75lThw-M

Basically the same as the simulator i posted on the demo subforum but with a much nicer interface.

When we get to that stage, that kind of simulation is easy to do.

P.D: By much nicer interface, i mean it has one. Mine isen't even interactive.

I even have this simulator on steam. Always funny to play a bit around with. But haven't used him since longer now.

I have a question....

Will there be any space storms (think solar storm) and will gravity be able to change the course of your spaceship (that im so happy will have a interior) (for more check my topic (I have only one ))

NikolaAnicic007 wrote:

I have a question....

Will there be any space storms (think solar storm) and will gravity be able to change the course of your spaceship (that im so happy will have a interior) (for more check my topic (I have only one ))

The first would be classified as a random natural disaster, so it shouldn't be difficult to implement (we just need the effects and a probability of it occurring in a certain period of time).
Gravity might be a bit more difficult: since we can't simulate a whole galaxy of objects, and we are only keeping track of events occurring near the player anyway, we would probably have to find a way to make it appear as if we were simulating the galaxy, while only simulating a couple of nearby objects, which might be tricky (e.g. binary stars + astronomy = fake it?). And that's not even considering gravity's effects on the ship's interior and occupants. On the other hand, if we include realistic gravity from the start, and build the galaxy around the system, we might find a way - I think it's just one of those things that we will have to worry about when we get to it.

Implementing realistic gravity might be not just hard but also extremely system intensive. I think a way to have gravity implemented might be a sphere of influence system (Kerbal Space Program way if I'm not mistaken).

It could be adjusted for the effect of massive bodies on smaller ones. In my head it seems reasonable to thing that bodies of a certain size could be added to a specific group of SOI power, say:
SOI 0 - Asteroids, planetoids other tiny bodies with some gravitational influence. Think Deimos where you can quite literally run and jump into escape velocity.

SOI 1 - bigger moons but objects that are not orbited by anything other than objects from SOI 0. For convenience I'd assume that SOI 1 object can't be orbiting another SOI 1 object (same goes for higher scales)

SOI 2 - Planets having an influence on SOI 1/0.

SOI 3 - Gas giants and Super Jovians influencing SOI 2 and possibly free floating objects of all the other SOI's

SOI 4 - Stars. Having a general influence on SOI 2-3 and free floating objects of other SOI's

Now SOI 5 would be black holes and SOI 6 would be the "super massive object" holding a galaxy together. Issue is I don't know if that would require implementation or if SOI 4 objects would just be automatically placed on rails (since you can't really strap mass drivers to a star).

The issue here is that I think it might be better for object of a higher sphere of influence to only affect objects of a sphere that's -1 lower than itself. This way we could avoid inserting the three body problem into the game mechanics, that would force us to use Lagrange points.

I play Kerbal Space Programm aswell and it works with some kind of semi realistic orbits. (More semi as realistic).

So you only have orbit rings and ellipsis. If the influance area of another planet, moon becomes higher as the one you where, you switch to an orbit around this objekt. Otherwise it only alters your orbit. So flying there is more like orbit jumping.

Because of this, you can't have a real escape or approach spiral. Ok, for KSP its good how it is, otherwise you would have many problems to get a real orbit without autopilot. ^^

Donno how manuel the ship movement would be in Thrive. But until the project is there, it will still take some time.

Finally more KSP players! I sincerely hope that space stage is similar to Kerbal Space Program if and when it comes out.

I like your idea Victuz, but it feels a little one-size-fits-all and I understand that in a procedurally generated universe we can't define every star's and planet's individual mass, but perhaps there could be a way to make an SOI system more tiered, like perhaps each star system could have a multiplier to it:

So if the average SOI 2 planet could have a gravity of 9.8m/s, in a certain star system with a multiplier of .4x, an SOI planet would have a gravity of 13.72m/s.

Great concept though. I'm excited to see how this pans out.

Simulating gravity is not hard. At all. Code-wise, it is about 50 lines of code, once you have the data structure done.

It is not too procesor intensive either, as long as you dont go crazy on the amount of objects to simulate. About 20 objects are fine without any kind of optimization. With optimization, you can go over that by a lot (for example, if two objects barely affect each other, like pluto and the moon, dont calculate their interaction)

So i dont think such clasification is needed.

Good points, Daniferrito. The only problem we have to work out is how many celestial bodies to track at once and if we will even consider figuring out nBody physics when it comes to figuring out orbits

Space stage is still a long way out though.

K.S.P Lovers... Yay

I'm not sure if this has been figured out, but how would spaceships travel? Even traveling at the speed of light (currently impossible) it would take 4.24 years to reach the nearest star other than Sol/Helios/Whatever, our sun. Is time going to be sped up, or will there be a new discovery that will make star travel faster, or both?

Sorry if someone has already answered this somewhere.

Faster than light travel.

So, will it still be sped up or is it instantaneous?

It will be in real-time.

Now, for space combat, will the battle take place in a small enough area where orders to fleets or ships can be instantly done by the ships or will it still be long range?

I have an idea that in space or even on land combat the battle area for your units is dependent on the maximum range of your weapons. So if in space your ships have long range bombardment they would be able to attack much earlier than enemy ships.

Ok, so it would be kind of like Spore, where it would be fast enough that traveling from one star to another would take a few seconds. Got it.

Take into acount that as for most strategy games, speed will be accelerated. Especially on early stages, like unicelular and creature stages, where many millions of years must pass. Early society will also be fastened up, in a somewhat similar way of how civilization makes the years pass slower as the player advances.

That will probably stop at somewhat of the current tecnological level of the earth now, maybe at a few months or years per real life minute (maybe, i dont feel like making much calculus right now). So your 4 years will only be like about half an hour in real time.

However, as Nick told you, there will be futuristic means of transportation, namely FTL and teleportation/infinite improbability drive, which makes travels much much faster.

Edit:

PTFace wrote:

Now, for space combat, will the battle take place in a small enough area where orders to fleets or ships can be instantly done by the ships or will it still be long range?

I have an idea that in space or even on land combat the battle area for your units is dependent on the maximum range of your weapons. So if in space your ships have long range bombardment they would be able to attack much earlier than enemy ships.

When a battle takes place, you wont change scenario, it will be done in the exact same map as you are playing. Think more like age of empire/starcraft battles than total war battles