General suggestions for SpaceEngine

A-L-E-X · 04 Apr 2017 22:48

Hey I like those. I would love to see birds flying around in there. If you could find a prehistoric version with fern forests than we could even see pterodactyls and dinosaurs

Planets that orbit stars of different colors may even have plants of different colors- purple, pink or blue photosynthesis would be awesome to see too

By the way, this is interesting news:

http://www.sciencealert.com/confirmed-mysterious-radio-bursts-detected-by-astronomers-really-are-coming-from-outer-space

Confirmed: Those Mysterious Radio Bursts Really Are Coming From Outer Space

Xoran · 05 Apr 2017 07:42

Planets that orbit stars of different colors may even have plants of different colors- purple, pink or blue photosynthesis would be awesome to see too

Different-colored plants are already in SE

ephu · 05 Apr 2017 10:43

Models on planets -
Is it possible at the moment to put 3d model on surface? If not, that would be my suggestion.
Only thing I can think of (sounds weird) is probably a 0 height orbit of some sorts.
Just want to land my ship on a neat "base" I'm planning to model, nothing more than that.
Space Engine is great and beautiful but this thing will make me role play even more haha. That and maybe multiplayer (just being able to see my friend's ship).
On a side note, there was a guide , a pdf, which was like a role playing tutorial for SpaceEngine. I think it was in old forums. Any one know where it is?

SpaaaaaaceMouse · 05 Apr 2017 10:56

Teensy, tiny request that I may have read is already in the works: A Orbit button for spaceships! Manually doing isn't terribly hard, It just seems like a thing people would do commonly enough to deserve its own button.

05 Apr 2017 11:39

there was a guide , a pdf, which was like a role playing tutorial for SpaceEngine

The original post is linked in a webpage: http://spaceengine.org/manual/space-flight-school/
You'll find the link for PDF version at the bottom.
The link for EPUB version is changed: https://yadi.sk/i/aulkn3jyumxTL

DoctorOfSpace · 05 Apr 2017 18:46

On a side note, there was a guide , a pdf, which was like a role playing tutorial for SpaceEngine. I think it was in old forums. Any one know where it is?

It is on the main page of the site under the Manual section
http://spaceengine.org/manual/space-flight-school/

SCtester · 05 Apr 2017 20:51

My suggestion is very minor change, to do with black holes, specifically their accretion disks. They look pretty good as they are, however I messed around with them in the editor, and I got it to looks even better, and more like the hollywood-style black holes.

So the changes I made to the parameters of this specific black hole in the editor is:

Bringing down the density to 0 (This removes the black background, which isn't that visible, but it does look better without it in my opinion)
Bringing down the brightness to 0 (This makes it look more realistic, and gives it a softer look)
Bringing down the luminosity to a bit above the minimum (Lens flares often look great, but for black holes I think they look better without intense flares)

I attached some files to demonstrate what I'm talking about. The first file is how it looked originally, and the second two are with my changes.

DoctorOfSpace · 05 Apr 2017 21:22

and more like the hollywood-style black holes.

and I got it to looks even better

The goal of SE is to be realistic, not conform to Hollywood. Hollywood black holes, even the one in Interstellar, are not realistic.
I have however modified the black hole shader to be similar to what you suggested, there is an older version in my mod thread which I will be replacing with an updated one soon.

05 Apr 2017 21:31

Bringing down the brightness to 0 (This makes it look more realistic, and gives it a softer look)

Lol, to be more realistic you should change it in the other direction. The accretion disk is millions of times brighter than the surface of the Sun.

DoctorOfSpace · 05 Apr 2017 21:44

SCtester, give this a try and let me know if you like it

► Show Spoiler

blackhole.glsl: (11.36 KiB) Downloaded 264 times

blachole.glsl should go in addons/shaders or data/shaders and shader binary should be turned off in the config or you will need to delete the cache.

SCtester · 06 Apr 2017 12:43

The goal of SE is to be realistic, not conform to Hollywood. Hollywood black holes, even the one in Interstellar, are not realistic.
I have however modified the black hole shader to be similar to what you suggested, there is an older version in my mod thread which I will be replacing with an updated one soon.

True. I suppose this would be better as a mod, rather than being implemented in vanilla. When I said realistic, I didn't so much mean what black holes actually look like, I meant the graphics themselves looking more realistic - as I don't think SE's current method of displaying glow is that realistic looking. And lens flares, at least when closer to the black hole, just don't feel right either.

Lol, to be more realistic you should change it in the other direction. The accretion disk is millions of times brighter than the surface of the Sun.

Fair point, however if it were completely realistic, it would just be a blank white screen when you zoomed in close.

SCtester, give this a try and let me know if you like it

Wow, this looks fantastic! I'll certainly be giving it a try. Thanks!

DoctorOfSpace · 06 Apr 2017 16:52

Wow, this looks fantastic! I'll certainly be giving it a try. Thanks!

I have figured out the shader for the most part so if there are any changes you want made, besides a 3D disk as that is outside of what I can do, let me know and I will look into it.

spaceguy · 06 Apr 2017 21:08

tbh, wouldn't a black hole's accretion disk appear to be gaseous with little to no streaks because plasma is the dominant form of matter in the universe? Like

06 Apr 2017 21:53

Not necessarily. It depends a lot on the magnetic fields in the disk, and the accretion rate. GRMHD simulations suggest that there can be quite a lot of structure very close to the event horizon:

[youtube]dlAEbvAUXYg[/youtube]

Ultimately we'll need to wait for the results from EHT to know what's really going on, but the way the disks are currently portrayed in SE is pretty accurate to what we understand so far.

DoctorOfSpace · 06 Apr 2017 22:16

spaceguy, here you go, same as the above instructions for installation

I had to reduce doppler shifting to fix an artifacting bug but otherwise this is close to what you requested.

► Show Spoiler

blackhole.glsl: (11.37 KiB) Downloaded 271 times

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