Thanks, what is Vulkan....programming language?
Anyway no rush, having shadows by the end of the year would be a nice New Year 2024 present ahead of the big total solar eclipse coming next year!
I hope it will include accurate penumbral shadows too, something Wat and I and Mid have been discussing in the other thread!

Thanks, what is Vulkan....programming language?

Vulkan is a graphics and compute API - what SE is currently using is OpenGL, which had its last stable release in 2017.
It should also enable better performance related to graphics, and also supports compute shaders.

We're also using this opportunity where the code is being heavily modified to refactor, add comments, remove redundant code, and bring everything to "industry standard". That's both good for the end-user in terms of resolving issues (which may not even be known!), and also helpful for us since it makes it easier for both current and future members of the team to work on the project.

So, we're moving to a more advanced (and current) graphics API, and also cleaning things up behind the scenes in preparation for future hires, and for adding and fixing a ton of things - many of which have been on the to-do list for a while.

I think that about sums it up!

Shadows has been in need of a re-work for quite some time now. I'm glad it's being worked on.

I was wondering: Will you take into account different sizes of light sources? For example, from a planet orbiting a large star at a very small distance, the star will illuminate more than 50% of the planet's surface. Will this be given care in the shadow refinements?

Yes - We actually discussed this in a meeting yesterday!

It will be tied to several other things. Shadows is coming later in the year, after we finish the transition to Vulkan, by necessity; and the plan is for it to be tied in to temperatures, which in turn will be affected by multi-star systems and very-large stars at small distances (the >50% issue).

Very good news! Shadows is what I look forward to most.

Thanks, what is Vulkan....programming language?

Vulkan is a graphics and compute API - what SE is currently using is OpenGL, which had its last stable release in 2017.
It should also enable better performance related to graphics, and also supports compute shaders.

We're also using this opportunity where the code is being heavily modified to refactor, add comments, remove redundant code, and bring everything to "industry standard". That's both good for the end-user in terms of resolving issues (which may not even be known!), and also helpful for us since it makes it easier for both current and future members of the team to work on the project.

So, we're moving to a more advanced (and current) graphics API, and also cleaning things up behind the scenes in preparation for future hires, and for adding and fixing a ton of things - many of which have been on the to-do list for a while.

I think that about sums it up!

Thanks, will I need to upgrade my graphics card to use it, or should GT 1060 and up be just fine for it?

I was looking into my user settings and I see I have graphics memory set to 4 GB although I have a 6 GB graphics card and a 1080P screen (actually two of them).  Should I increase the user setting to 6 GB?  Sometimes I run multiple graphics programs at the same time, which is why I had it set to 4 GB, I assumed I shouldn't let SE use all my graphics memory!  But I have an issue-- in flight simulator mode, I need to keep my settings to Medium otherwise the program crashes.  I wonder if I increased my user settings to 6 GB graphics memory, would that fix the problem?  I run Afterburner and it says I am using using close to the full 6 GB of video memory anyway, so I don't think it would?

Thanks, will I need to upgrade my graphics card to use it, or should GT 1060 and up be just fine for it?

I was looking into my user settings and I see I have graphics memory set to 4 GB although I have a 6 GB graphics card and a 1080P screen (actually two of them).  Should I increase the user setting to 6 GB?  Sometimes I run multiple graphics programs at the same time, which is why I had it set to 4 GB, I assumed I shouldn't let SE use all my graphics memory!  But I have an issue-- in flight simulator mode, I need to keep my settings to Medium otherwise the program crashes.  I wonder if I increased my user settings to 6 GB graphics memory, would that fix the problem?  I run Afterburner and it says I am using using close to the full 6 GB of video memory anyway, so I don't think it would?

Not really known, but with Vulkan given how it utilizes hardware it may run better, however in practice for SE you should definitely use whatever VRAM you can spare. 

You can look into many games using the Vulkan API and compare their DirectX/OpenGL branches and see how significant Vulkan is for performance and capability.  Plenty of benchmarking videos on youtube around that subject.

Thanks Doc!  Do you think I should go into my main-user.cfg and set the VRAM to the maximum of the graphics card?  I'm not sure how well that setting works because according to Afterburner OSD I am using close to the full 6 GB even when setting it to 4 GB in the cfg file.  In practice, are you supposed to set it to the maximum the graphics card has, or is leaving a little bit of headroom a good idea?

When I had image quality set to High or Very High, I noticed that when I was traveling over the surface of a planet, sometimes Afterburner said I was using even more than 6 GB by a slight amount, up to around 6050 GB, even though my graphics card has 6 GB memory.  I also noticed a light blue swirly icon in the upper right (indicating that more textures were loading?)  That makes me wonder if I should go back into the cfg file and set the amount of memory to be used to the full memory of the graphics card or would that cause the program to crash or slow it down further?

I made the following changes:

changed max video memory for SE to use to 8 GB

changed max RAM for SE to use to 32 GB

changed max percentage of RAM for SE to use to 100%

changed various other minor settings like setting jpg screenshots to 100%

I noticed that vram usage is set to 1 (maximum physical memory available.)

I noticed that although I have graphics settings set to Medium in the GUI, but in the cfg file they are set to High.

I changed VRAM Max to 8 GB in both Main-User and Main-Update cfg files.

I haven't noticed any differences in my memory or vram usage or any lag or anything like that, but I am wondering if the High setting in the cfg file overrides the Medium setting in the GUI?  I considered setting the cfg file to Ultra to see what that would do but left it as is.  I don't want to crash the sim!  And the GUI setting of Medium must be overriding the High setting in the cfg file as I noticed less memory (4 GB) being used when I set the GUI to Medium.

I need to report that changing max percentage of RAM for SE to use to 100% was a bad idea, I crashed my computer as soon as I went to a black hole and tried to use my browser (Firefox) at the same time lol.  So I put that back down to 85% (default) and it's working fine again.

I also had to shave 15% off the VRAM for "OS usage" because it was crashing whenever I ran the flight sim over the surface of a planet.  So I have allocated 1.28 GB for VRAM as overhead (for the OS, browsers, etc.)  So far so good with these new settings!  Afterburner still says I am using most or all of my VRAM though lol.

I have a question about the settings though.  In the GUI settings menu I have graphics quality set to "Medium" but in the cfg file it's set to "High" (as are black hole and ship warp quality).  So is the cfg file overriding the GUI settings menu or vice versa?  I was actually thinking of setting the cfg file to Ultra on everything but I don't want to crash my system again lol (although maybe the 85% default limit on RAM will keep that from happening-- but when I had the GUI settings menu set to either Ultra or even High, it would crash the sim.)

Money, Gold, relax moments, le velineeeee

Hi, which it will be the changes on a 0.991 update? Let me know

Which it will be the changes on a future 0.991 update? A complete procedural generated terrestrial planet with seas, rivers, waterfalls and caves? An Earth texture as that of Google Earth? All black Hole mergers detected from the LIGO collaboration? Galaxies represented on the way in which they would appear on the reality? Complex chemistry with organic elements like polimers? Artifacts of possibile alien creatures, also multicellular and developed? Let me know

Congratulazioni for the update just come out 0.991. Relax

Good afternoon. I only have one question, but it's a big one.
I read another blog post (about temperatures) and I want to ask, as they once asked Blizzard: “Is this a out of date April Fool’s joke?” Months, if not years, have passed since the last visible changes. And so I read a post that seemed intriguing at the beginning, but in the end it says that was done... nothing visible. Again. Yes, somehow the temperatures on the planets change - and how should I see this? Do I need to land on the planet and just stand there, scrolling through the time and looking at the thermometer? And then do the same in another location? What kind of experience will I get from this as a player? There is not a single visual or sound effect in the game that would indicate any change in the environment. All I get is a change of 2-3 digits on the screen. Are you serious?

This repeated disclaimer looks especially ridiculous and cynical:
This plot is not displayed in-game. This is simply a look “under the hood” of the SpaceEngine climate model and for reference in selecting a suitable temperature profile for custom planets.

That is, it says: “You won’t get anything again.” Why the update then??? And it also says “We have not accounted” and lists 8 points where the new rule still doesn’t work. So you let him fly around the planet with a thermometer, but in half the cases even this does not work. Are you kidding or what?

If you're even serious about your project, this whole temperature update should at least include a visual display. It seems to me like this: next to the button for displaying atmospheres, a button for displaying temperatures appears and when it is turned on, the planet gets a translucent thermal aura, which sways and changes when time is rewinded. This is the only way this system will make any sense. Otherwise it's just ridiculous.

Good afternoon. I only have one question, but it's a big one.
I read another blog post (about temperatures) and I want to ask, as they once asked Blizzard: “Is this a out of date April Fool’s joke?” Months, if not years, have passed since the last visible changes. And so I read a post that seemed intriguing at the beginning, but in the end it says that was done... nothing visible. Again. Yes, somehow the temperatures on the planets change - and how should I see this? Do I need to land on the planet and just stand there, scrolling through the time and looking at the thermometer? And then do the same in another location? What kind of experience will I get from this as a player? There is not a single visual or sound effect in the game that would indicate any change in the environment. All I get is a change of 2-3 digits on the screen. Are you serious?

This repeated disclaimer looks especially ridiculous and cynical:
This plot is not displayed in-game. This is simply a look “under the hood” of the SpaceEngine climate model and for reference in selecting a suitable temperature profile for custom planets.

That is, it says: “You won’t get anything again.” Why the update then??? And it also says “We have not accounted” and lists 8 points where the new rule still doesn’t work. So you let him fly around the planet with a thermometer, but in half the cases even this does not work. Are you kidding or what?

If you're even serious about your project, this whole temperature update should at least include a visual display. It seems to me like this: next to the button for displaying atmospheres, a button for displaying temperatures appears and when it is turned on, the planet gets a translucent thermal aura, which sways and changes when time is rewinded. This is the only way this system will make any sense. Otherwise it's just ridiculous.

I know right. I feel this program is dying out.