Online spacecraft editor
Posted: 23 Jan 2017 11:50
Created and originally posted by SHW on the Russian forum here. This is a repost of the HarbingerDawn's repost on this forum. This is a slightly updated version (with some new modules) running on the SE website hosting. A WebGL-capable browser is needed.
Run online spacecraft editor
Download offline version
This is a prototype spacecraft editor for Space Engine. You can use it to create a spacecraft model from pre-made modules.
Modelling video tutorial
It is in Russian, made in old editor and with SE 0.962, but good anyway.
Interface
The whole interface consists of a single window with a workspace for constructing the ship, and several toolbars.
- In the upper left panel are the file options:
- In the top right are buttons to toggle showing/hiding of:
Controls:
The components can be divided into four classes with different ways to add them:
Exporting ships to SpaceEngine
To transfer your ship into SE, select "Export spacecraft SpaceEngine *.sss" (4th button from left on top) and save into <SpaceEngine directory>/addons/models/spacecrafts/ (create the folder if it does not exist). Then you must slightly edit the .sss file, because editor is a bit outdated. Open it with a notepad, and you will see a code like this:
You will need to change (see details about *.sss scripts here):
Name "Ship" - to the name you want to give to the ship;
Class "Starship" - to the class you want to give to the ship ("Starship", "Planetship", "Shuttle", "Drone", "Station", "Astronaut");
Hyperdrive true - change to false if you ship has no hyperdrive.
Then you need to add this:
Pack "SpaceEngine" - the pack which you want to assign to this ship;
Faction "SHW Corp" - the faction which you want to assign to this ship;
WarpBoostLog 12 - if your ship has a hyperdrive, this is the maximum boost exponent of the drive (i.e. multiplier to the physical velocity of the ship is 10[sup]12[/sup]).
All other parameters in the code are okay. Example of the updated code:
Save the updated file and try out your ship in SE. You may change global orientation and offset of the model using a ship editor which is built-in in SE. Read more about this here.
Examples
Updated Y-ship
Interstellar cargo ship
Torpedo warship
Small cargo ship
Run online spacecraft editor
Download offline version
This is a prototype spacecraft editor for Space Engine. You can use it to create a spacecraft model from pre-made modules.
Modelling video tutorial
It is in Russian, made in old editor and with SE 0.962, but good anyway.
Interface
The whole interface consists of a single window with a workspace for constructing the ship, and several toolbars.
- In the upper left panel are the file options:
- Create new spacecraft - clears the workspace of all modules
- Open spacecraft from file - loads a previously saved ship from .json file
- Save spacecraft to file - saves the ship to a .json file to share with other players, or to edit in the future
- Export spacecraft to SpaceEngine - exports a .sss script of the ship
- In the top right are buttons to toggle showing/hiding of:
- the main axis of the ship;
- the reference grid;
- shadows
- Performance info
- the upper slider moves the reference grid along the ship in 10-meter steps;
- the Circular shield button changes the shield geometry from hexagonal to circular;
- the Flip shield button flips the shield (used to make a backward shields);
- the lower-left slider changes the angle of the conical-shaped shield (adjusted separately for each shield layer);
- the central slider changes the curvature of the paraboloid-shaped shield (adjusted separately for each shield layer);
- the lower-right slider changes the radius with respect to which the shield is curved (15-meter steps).
- Longitudinal truss girder (x1, x3, x9) - the basis of the design.
- Crossbeam - structural reinforcement.
- Meteoroid shield (various materials).
- Hyperdrive - old concept of the FTL engine (local time accelerator).
- NEW! Ring hyperdrive (6 different sizes) - new concept of the FTL engine (Alcubierre warp drive).
- NEW! Thick ring hyperdrive (6 different sizes) - new concept of the FTL engine (more physically realistic design).
- Fusion engine (single- and double-sided) - main propulsion and energy source.
- Shunting engine - small engine used rotation and fine movements of the ship.
- NEW! 5-directional thruster (use it instead of the old 'Shunting engine' module, because it has front- and backward-directed thrusters).
- Heat radiator (double-sided and one-sided - twice as heavy at the same performance).
- Propellant tank (Metallic hydrogen) - main reaction mass.
- Fuel tanks (De + [sup]3[/sup]He) - thermonuclear fuel (used for fusion reaction in main engines).
- Toroidal habitat - can be joined like train cars.
- Cargo module.
- Shuttle docking ring (two directions) - attaches to habitat unit.
- Navigation and communication module.
- Photon torpedo.
Controls:
- add modules - left mouse button;
- remove modules - Ctrl + left mouse button;
- moving the mouse while holding the right button - rotate camera;
- moving the mouse while holding the middle button - move (pan) camera;
- mouse wheel - zoom.
The components can be divided into four classes with different ways to add them:
- longitudinal beams - these are inserted into the reference grid or into the end of existing longitudinal beams
- crossbeams - these are attached to the ends of two longitudinal beams (click the left mouse button on one beam, drag to another, and release to add)
- functional modules - these are inserted into the reference grid or attached to one of the side faces of the longitudinal beams. At all mounting points are pieces of longitudinal beam structure for further growth; If they are not needed they can be removed (Ctrl + left mouse click).
- meteoroid shield - added to the reference grid only, can be bent using the sliders.
Exporting ships to SpaceEngine
To transfer your ship into SE, select "Export spacecraft SpaceEngine *.sss" (4th button from left on top) and save into <SpaceEngine directory>/addons/models/spacecrafts/ (create the folder if it does not exist). Then you must slightly edit the .sss file, because editor is a bit outdated. Open it with a notepad, and you will see a code like this:
Code: Select all
Name "Ship"
Class "Starship"
Mass 17876000
MainEngines 328.9326471246364
RetroEngines 0
CorrEngines 21.928843141642428
HoverEngines 0.0
Hyperdrive true
Aerodynamics false
Length 0
Offset (0 0 0)
Albedo 0.3
Exposure 2
Color (1 1 1)
Module "cargo1" { "Modules/cargo.cfg" ( -1,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,-1,0,0,0,-110,1 ) }
Module "antenna1" { "Modules/antenna.cfg" ( -1,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,-1,0,0,15,-80,1 ) }
Module "antenna2" { "Modules/antenna.cfg" ( 1,0,0,0,0,-1,0,0,0,0,-1,0,0,-15,-80,1 ) }
<...many modules here...>
Name "Ship" - to the name you want to give to the ship;
Class "Starship" - to the class you want to give to the ship ("Starship", "Planetship", "Shuttle", "Drone", "Station", "Astronaut");
Hyperdrive true - change to false if you ship has no hyperdrive.
Then you need to add this:
Pack "SpaceEngine" - the pack which you want to assign to this ship;
Faction "SHW Corp" - the faction which you want to assign to this ship;
WarpBoostLog 12 - if your ship has a hyperdrive, this is the maximum boost exponent of the drive (i.e. multiplier to the physical velocity of the ship is 10[sup]12[/sup]).
All other parameters in the code are okay. Example of the updated code:
Code: Select all
Name "Probe"
Class "Probe"
Pack "SpaceEngine"
Faction "SHW Corp"
Length 294.9072
Offset (0 0 0)
Quat (1 0 0 0)
Mass 18402000
Albedo 0.3
Exposure 2
Color (1 1 1)
MainEngines 326.052
RetroEngines 0
HoverEngines 0
CorrEngines 17.3894
TurnEngines 0.002
WarpBoostLog 12
Warpdrive false
Aerodynamics false
Module "cargo1" { "Modules/cargo.cfg" (-1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 -110 1) }
Module "antenna1" { "Modules/antenna.cfg" (-1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 15 -80 1) }
Module "antenna2" { "Modules/antenna.cfg" (1 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 -15 -80 1) }
<...many modules here...>
Examples
Updated Y-ship
Interstellar cargo ship
Torpedo warship
Small cargo ship