13 Jun 2019 05:37
The Steam release has an incredible amount of improvements from the beta version.
SpaceEngine is truly amazing software. I do have a few questions, though.
Randomize X, Y, Z
When I added the files for my custom planetary system, all of the terrain maps look very different from the beta version. Did the algorithm for creating maps using the Randomize X, Y, Z change? If so, is there a way for me to alter the numbers to get my previous terrain map back? Will the terrain maps change with each new update?
Biome and Palette Terrain Weight vs Surface SurfStyle
Also, is there a relationship between the biome and palette terrain Weight value and a planet's Surface SurfStyle? I was having trouble assigning custom planets to the CFG files (e.g. custom_terra_wet_green.cfg). I created a unique decimal for the Weight to differentiate it from the base CFG files. However, the CFG's files Weight value is not the same value as the planet's Surface SurfStyle. I had to use the Planet Editor's SurfStyle slider to view where each CFG starts and stops for each CFG file. This number seems to change as I create new custom CFG files, however. Is there a simpler way to directly match a custom planet to a CFG file?
Exporting Heightmaps From Selected Areas
Is there a way to select a specific area on a planet or moon to export the heightmap? I would like to use the heightmap of specific local areas in another software to create scenes for illustrations, such as cities or a much smaller space. If not, are there future plans to add this feature?
SpaceEngine 3rd Party Plugins API
Are there future plans to create an API to allow developers to create plugins that can run directly on SpaceEngine? For example, if someone had an idea of creating a custom planetary system generator.