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Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 06 Apr 2019 12:04
by xingqiu1
Honestly, I would love a program where you can specify some parameters yourself. Similar to my 'Asteroid Belt Creator'.
I had already thought of writing such a program (Phython script), but I have not found the time yet. (Better said, I've been too lazy for that.)
Actually your Asteroid Belt Creator was a big influence when I decided to sit down and start this project. It is one of the only tools (I have found) that makes filling in empty systems very easy, so thank you for making it! I have used it a lot! 
But I wanted a few more tools for SE and just didn't see any being made, probably because SE already generates things so well. So between this project and another I've got sitting on the shelf, I'll be busy for a while. 
There are a few parameters you can modify right now, such as the number of planets, inclination, and eccentricity, and I want to add more control in the future, but it will probably have to wait until after SE .99 is released. 
If possible, can you create a Dyson Ball Generation applet for SE? It is based on the input orbital values, and then generates a script for the Dyson ball system. Dyson balls can be made up of very small satellites.

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 06 Apr 2019 23:59
by PlutonianEmpire
Took me far too long to get to trying this. This is pretty cool! Regarding the naming poll, maybe add all of them and let the end user configure how they want Dwarf Moons to be named? :)

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 07 Apr 2019 14:17
by SFGameZ64
If possible, can you create a Dyson Ball Generation applet for SE? It is based on the input orbital values, and then generates a script for the Dyson ball system. Dyson balls can be made up of very small satellites.
If I understand what you're asking correctly, that's not a bad idea. Use 50 - 100, or even more, small satellites orbiting regularly around their parent star. That sounds pretty cool and probably wouldn't be too hard to implement. Unfortunately, that will have to wait until SE .99 comes out. The new version will allow users to specify orbits for ships in a script the same way we create planets and moons right now, but SE .98 doesn't support this, at least as far as I know. 
Took me far too long to get to trying this. This is pretty cool! Regarding the naming poll, maybe add all of them and let the end user configure how they want Dwarf Moons to be named? :)
Thank you! And I have been thinking about that a lot because I like special names for every moon, but it slows the program down and can be overbearing. I probably will add some configuration option in the future to let the user decide. 

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 07 Apr 2019 22:21
by xingqiu1
If possible, can you create a Dyson Ball Generation applet for SE? It is based on the input orbital values, and then generates a script for the Dyson ball system. Dyson balls can be made up of very small satellites.
If I understand what you're asking correctly, that's not a bad idea. Use 50 - 100, or even more, small satellites orbiting regularly around their parent star. That sounds pretty cool and probably wouldn't be too hard to implement. Unfortunately, that will have to wait until SE .99 comes out. The new version will allow users to specify orbits for ships in a script the same way we create planets and moons right now, but SE .98 doesn't support this, at least as far as I know. 
Took me far too long to get to trying this. This is pretty cool! Regarding the naming poll, maybe add all of them and let the end user configure how they want Dwarf Moons to be named? :)
Thank you! And I have been thinking about that a lot because I like special names for every moon, but it slows the program down and can be overbearing. I probably will add some configuration option in the future to let the user decide. 
OK

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 24 Apr 2019 17:33
by Arturo100
For the dyson ball, it could be simple 300 mile wide asteroids until 0.990 comes out, And for the texture assignment comment I made a while ago, here is a another way to make textures on planets, use this 
    Surface
    {
        DiffMap         "folder/image.*"
        BumpMap         "folder/imagebump.*"
        BumpHeight      50
        BumpOffset      25
 GlowMap        "folder/glow.*"
        GlowMode       "Your Glow mode"
        GlowColor      (1.00 0.90 0.66)
        GlowBright      1.0
        DiffMapAlpha    "Transp"
    }


Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 24 Apr 2019 21:13
by SFGameZ64
For the dyson ball, it could be simple 300 mile wide asteroids until 0.990 comes out, And for the texture assignment comment I made a while ago, here is a another way to make textures on planets, use this 
Yes I know how to attach textures to planets, I just don't really understand why you want this feature? Space Engine has the ability to create stunning textures on its own where every planet is not only unique but also beautiful, but you would rather have me replace every texture with a pre-made one?
If I wanted to do that, I would need a separate folder containing the textures, and if I wanted to keep the file size small (because you can only post small files here and for quick download times), then there could only be a few, low-quality images packaged with the generator. So every planet generated would pull from the same few pictures and they would look low quality. In my opinion, that takes away the fun of generating interesting and unique places. 

So to get around that, I would need hundreds of high-quality planet textures, or I would need to generate my own textures (which I can't do and Space Engine does anyway). I maybe could get that many textures, but the file size would be huge at that point, and I can't post it here and it would take an hour to download with normal internet speeds. 

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I haven't thought about your suggestion, but it isn't practical for me to do this, and I don't think it really fits the "generator" concept. It is too structured to be interesting. The easiest solution is that if someone finds a system that they like and they want to save it and add their own textures, they don't need my program to help them with that.

As for the Dyson Ball, that is still planned but will most definitely wait until SE .99 (I feel like the release is close anyway, fingers crossed). Right now I am working on overhauling name generation as that is the only system that will not be affected by SE .99's new class system (meaning I don't have to re-write it when .99 comes out). I hope to get that up this weekend, but college finals are coming up and I've been busy. After that, I want to get some system in place that supports life, even if it is temporary.

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 24 Apr 2019 21:21
by Arturo100
Now that you say it, it isn't at all necessary for the textures.

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 25 Apr 2019 03:49
by JackDole
As for the Dyson Ball, that is still planned but will most definitely wait until SE .99 (I feel like the release is close anyway, fingers crossed).
I would not bet on it!

I have a script here that I use to make Dyson spheres.
It's in MS-Dos because I originally intended to publish it sometime, and everyone has MS-Dos. But then I realized I need something to generate floating point numbers. So I did a little Lua script for it. But not everyone has Lua.
And the MS-Dos script has become a bit confusing, so I never published it.
If you can figure it out, you can use it.
If not, throw it away.
DyBub.zip
(7.01 KiB) Downloaded 479 times
(The Lua script is included.)

In the current setting, it creates a Dyson sphere around Proxima Centauri. Of course you need matching textures for it.
scr00005 (2).jpg
(In the current version of SE 0.990, these textures no longer work. You need cube map textures.)

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 25 Apr 2019 09:36
by SFGameZ64
I would not bet on it!
Don't say that! I can have hope, can't I? 

JackDole:
If you can figure it out, you can use it.
This is super interesting. Thank you! I've got an idea or two about how to implement it and I think your script will be a useful resource. 

Either way, if SE. 99 won't be coming out soon, I'll start working on the more advanced features as soon as I can. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I had more free time during this school year than I will have over the summer (because I have to pay for college somehow), so it will be an on/off process for a few months. And for the textures @Arturo100 in the future I may add an empty folder for users to put in their own textures and then a configuration option to pull textures from the folder. I think that would be a good feature if a user wanted to see their own planet textures and it could be turned off for users that don't need it. 

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1 SE 0.98e

Posted: 25 Apr 2019 11:59
by SFGameZ64
Update 1.1.5
Download: 
Sci Fi System Generator V1.1.5 SE 0.98.zip
(481.29 KiB) Downloaded 498 times
[/b]

I've been unhappy with name generation and decided to overhaul it. It may not have been the most pressing matter, but it is one of the only systems that exists separately from the rest of the program, which means it won't be affected by SE .99's new class system (which means I won't have to rewrite it when the new version comes out).

The biggest change is that I've added an option to use a Markov Chain generator to create names, which is a fancy way of saying names based on other words, but still random. In the names.txt file, at the bottom of the file is a dataset (that can be edited) that the program will pull from. It uses the words in this list to generate new words. The result is, mostly, much better names that sound very "sci-fi" (because I'm using a dataset of real star names and Roman gods, but you could change this to be anything). The downside is that the larger the dataset, the slower the program. My testing averaged about 3 seconds per run if you only generate one system. If you are generating a large number of systems, the time isn't really affected at all. And of course, you can turn this feature off completely and still use the old name generator. 

Some other smaller changes as well. The pre/post name modifiers are now fully customizable for each type of body (star, planet, moon, dwarf moon). They all pull from their own lists now, all of which can be edited. I also let the user decide how often they should appear, and you now have the option to turn them off altogether. 

I ran a poll asking if dwarf moons should have names and the results were split evenly. So you now have the option to turn name generation off for dwarf moon and moons around small planets and gas/ice giants individually. Generating 50 systems with dwarf moon names turned off completely, the program ran about 20 seconds faster than if dwarf moon names were turned on. 
For the new poll, I would like to know if the config variables should be ranges or should I keep them as standard deviations? More details on the first page. 

As always, tell me if you find any bugs. This may be the last feature update for a while with finals coming up and then work over the summer, so I hope you like it. Obviously, I am still working on it and there are many more features planned for SE .99. 

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.1.5 SE 0.98e

Posted: 11 Jun 2019 19:37
by SFGameZ64
Just wanted to let everyone know that I've done a little bit of testing and it looks like the generator does still work with the new version of Space Engine 0.99. It just isn't built for it, so it won't always be pretty. The new planet class system fundamentally changes the way that classes work and it is a bit more complex than what we used in the past. I'll have to re-write large parts of the generator to implement and optimize for the new classes. 

 Unfortunately, this is an extremely busy month for me and I won't really be able to sit down and update the generator until the 1st of next month. But once I can, I have some exciting things to share with everyone in the near future!

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.2 SE 0.99

Posted: 14 Sep 2019 13:28
by SFGameZ64
New update! Download link on the front page.

Months after the release of SE .99, I've finally gotten around to updating the generator. Work and college had me busy and it took me long enough, I know, but here is a quick summary of the exciting new features!
  • New planet classes are now fully supported and quite a few tweaks have been made to their specific details and placement.
  • Ships are now supported! This is exciting not only because you can find stations and satellites around planets, but also because you can add your own ships to the folder, which the generator will pull from to place around the system. It is still a bit basic right now, but it is already a pretty powerful tool! Instructions can be found in the readme file. 
  • Ships have their own name generator. 
  • Debris rings can now be found around planets. 
  • The Config and Name files are easier to look through and have been expanded. 
  • Other tweaks and bug fixes. Details in the readme. 
There is more I wanted to do for this update, but I felt like it had been long enough without any updates so I wanted to push this one out. Next on the to-do list is generating planets with life, Dyson Spheres, and expanding on ships. I'll also be looking into supporting more star classes and binary star systems, but that may still be a bit away. 

As always, there are probably bugs I overlooked, so if the program crashes or does something weird, please let me know and I will get it fixed. Hope you like it!

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.2 SE 0.99

Posted: 02 Jul 2021 19:38
by Q_5EB
As for the Dyson Ball, that is still planned but will most definitely wait until SE .99 (I feel like the release is close anyway, fingers crossed).
I would not bet on it!

I have a script here that I use to make Dyson spheres.
It's in MS-Dos because I originally intended to publish it sometime, and everyone has MS-Dos. But then I realized I need something to generate floating point numbers. So I did a little Lua script for it. But not everyone has Lua.
And the MS-Dos script has become a bit confusing, so I never published it.
If you can figure it out, you can use it.
If not, throw it away.
DyBub.zip (The Lua script is included.)

In the current setting, it creates a Dyson sphere around Proxima Centauri. Of course you need matching textures for it.
scr00005 (2).jpg
(In the current version of SE 0.990, these textures no longer work. You need cube map textures.)
Can you make the 0.99 version?

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.2 SE 0.99

Posted: 14 Jul 2021 16:45
by some_dum_user4334
very cool thanks for making this!

Sci-Fi System Generator V1.2 SE 0.99

Posted: 23 Jul 2021 05:36
by Q_5EB
Nice, i like it. i don't have to spend time creating custom systems and stars. Thank you for this!!!!!!!!  :)   8-)