Objects are lit by up to the four brightest light sources within the same system hierarchy, be they stars, planets, or moons. Bright nearby stars, nebulae, clusters, etc. do not currently contribute to object lighting. Such things are planned though.

I thought I read somewhere that it was eight light sources. Are you sure it's only four?

I am curious to see what the surfaces of planets inside globular star clusters will look like!

A planet between an orange and a blue star?  Can you show me an example of this (sounds like a binary system), I haven't found a planet in a system of that nature.

There are ways to expand dynamic range and color palette by tweaking driver settings.  The human eye limitations are partially due to how far nebulae are from us- if we were in space and near them we should detect color in them just like with any object on earth.


Those of us who do astrophotography sometimes remove the IR block filter in our cameras to get a better H-alpha (red) response.

A planet between an orange and a blue star?  Can you show me an example of this (sounds like a binary system), I haven't found a planet in a system of that nature.

RS 8474-3177-3-79-649 A9, an oceania planet. Move time until it comes between the stars. You can see two differently colored days right next to each other, and two different terrains on the moons (before seeing this I never realized how much planetary color is determined by outside light sources!).

I thought I read somewhere that it was eight light sources. Are you sure it's only four?

I'm not 100% sure, it could possibly be eight.

There are ways to expand dynamic range and color palette by tweaking driver settings.

The problem is not a software issue, it's a hardware issue. Most LCD panels are limited to a contrast ratio of 1000:1, which is extremely small, not nearly enough to represent a large dynamic range accurately. Limitations in the color gamut an LCD panel can represent also cannot be overcome with simple software tweaks. Maybe you could get an 8-bit display to act like a 10-bit display using dithering, but that's it. You would need a true high-end HDR display, with wide color gamut support and local backlight dimming, to even approach properly displaying something that could look truly natural to human eyes.

The human eye limitations are partially due to how far nebulae are from us- if we were in space and near them we should detect color in them just like with any object on earth.

Distance is irrelevant, only brightness matters (specifically, surface brightness if the object is resolvable). If you cannot see color in the nebula through binoculars or a telescope (which already amplify the brightness of the object in addition to magnifying it), then you certainly would not see any color in it up close, as the brightness of any given angular area of the object will be the same whether you are 10 light-years away or 10,000.

I thought I read somewhere that it was eight light sources. Are you sure it's only four?

I'm not 100% sure, it could possibly be eight.

There are ways to expand dynamic range and color palette by tweaking driver settings.

The problem is not a software issue, it's a hardware issue. Most LCD panels are limited to a contrast ratio of 1000:1, which is extremely small, not nearly enough to represent a large dynamic range accurately. Limitations in the color gamut an LCD panel can represent also cannot be overcome with simple software tweaks. Maybe you could get an 8-bit display to act like a 10-bit display using dithering, but that's it. You would need a true high-end HDR display, with wide color gamut support and local backlight dimming, to even approach properly displaying something that could look truly natural to human eyes.

The human eye limitations are partially due to how far nebulae are from us- if we were in space and near them we should detect color in them just like with any object on earth.

Distance is irrelevant, only brightness matters (specifically, surface brightness if the object is resolvable). If you cannot see color in the nebula through binoculars or a telescope (which already amplify the brightness of the object in addition to magnifying it), then you certainly would not see any color in it up close, as the brightness of any given angular area of the object will be the same whether you are 10 light-years away or 10,000.

Interesting!  So hypothetically if we were floating in space half a mile from the Orion Nebula we wouldn't see color in it like we can see in photos?  Even if it covered half the visible sky?  I figured you could see colors more readily up close because the object would appear much larger.
About the monitor thing, there's a site called lagon.nl (I hope that's the right name) that let's you tweak your monitor settings.  I found I had to do that to see all the different bands, because out of the box, most monitors are too bright.  Dithering would help more but the way I have it set up now I can see all the colored and greyscaled bands on lagon.nl  I had to play around with brightness, contrast and gamma.

RS 8474-3177-3-79-649 A9, an oceania planet. Move time until it comes between the stars. You can see two differently colored days right next to each other, and two different terrains on the moons (before seeing this I never realized how much planetary color is determined by outside light sources!).

Ohh I was waiting for someone to make a planet add on for Antares (an orange star with a blue companion) to see something like this- THANKS!

Ohh I was waiting for someone to make a planet add on for Antares (an orange star with a blue companion) to see something like this- THANKS!

Heh, the irony is, I was actually searching for (and failing to find) a system like that, and somehow accidentally clicked on a random star and then the 'go to' button - and there it was. Some higher power must have wanted me to find it, perhaps.

Interesting!  So hypothetically if we were floating in space half a mile from the Orion Nebula we wouldn't see color in it like we can see in photos?  Even if it covered half the visible sky?  I figured you could see colors more readily up close because the object would appear much larger.

It would be larger on the sky, but still have the same surface brightness (amount of light received from each bit of area on the sky), so this wouldn't help you see the colors better.  Seeing a nebula with the naked eye up close would be remarkably unimpressive.

[quote="HarbingerDawn"][quote="aRes25"][post]28719[/post] which VR headset will be compatible on SE Steam Edition: HTC Vive, Rift, Rift S, WMR ?[/quote]
Vive and Rift are supported, which means Rift S should also be since Oculus claims that games that are compatible with Rift will also be compatible with Rift S.

[quote="aRes25"][post]28719[/post] will VR controllers be tracked ?[/quote]
Yes

[quote="aRes25"][post]28719[/post] VR compatibility will be ready for SE day one Steam release ?[/quote]
Yes[/quote]

Thank you for the answers. I informed the french spacefan community for these good news. Pre-ordering an Oculus Rift S and refreshing Steam ^^

Interesting!  So hypothetically if we were floating in space half a mile from the Orion Nebula we wouldn't see color in it like we can see in photos?  Even if it covered half the visible sky?  I figured you could see colors more readily up close because the object would appear much larger.

It would be larger on the sky, but still have the same surface brightness (amount of light received from each bit of area on the sky), so this wouldn't help you see the colors better.  Seeing a nebula with the naked eye up close would be remarkably unimpressive.

That reminds me of what happens when you turn up the magnification on something with your telescope and end up with a blurry mess because the aperture on the scope isn't enough to support that high of a magnification!
and MW, perhaps- I've been looking for a multicolored system for awhile!  They're rare in SE, perhaps because such systems with planets are rare in the universe?

Question about future availability of SE. Will it be available through other methods than Steam? For example installing it on an air-gapped system or without an internet connection, via USB key..?

Keatah, SpaceEngineer said no, the game will no longer be available without Steam.
See his post: http://forum.spaceengine.org/viewtopic. ... 050#p25282

Sorry if this has already been asked/discussed.

I want to put space engine on a TV screen and have it autonomously explore the cosmos in an aesthetically pleasing way with the interface turned off. I'm talking something along the lines of this in terms of camera movement and behavior: but not jumping around the entire galaxy/universe for each shot. Something that is more of a cohesive voyage where the camera will travel to a star system, do some pans and timelapse shots of some of what it has to offer and then randomly select a new destination within a certain min-max range and travel to it. I imagine there would need to be some fade-to-black to hide any awkward transitions between camera shots and to and expedite longer voyages. I've done some quick digging through various scripts and there doesn't seem to be anything like this that i have found, so I am wondering if there is already something like this and if not, would it ever be a feature you would want to add to a future version of SE?

Keatah, SpaceEngineer said no, the game will no longer be available without Steam.

That's not entirely true. 0.990 will initially be released on Steam, but it's entirely possible, even likely, that it will be released on other platforms in the future. And of course, the old versions will always be available for free from the website.

I hope that addresses your question Keatah.

I am wondering if there is already something like this and if not, would it ever be a feature you would want to add to a future version of SE?

That is not currently possible in SE, but maybe it could be in the future. It would be a fairly complex thing to implement though.

Hello,
When I land on moons orbiting planets and put the planet within my view and increase the time lapse, the planets never rise or set. They stay in the same place in the sky while everything else rotates. Is every moon in Space Engine in a synchronous orbit with it's planet, like the Earth's moon? Shouldn't some moons have a rotation that is a different speed than their orbit around their planet which makes the planet rise and set?

Thanks for any input.

[quote="Trajk Logik"]Hello,
Is every moon in Space Engine in a synchronous orbit with it's planet, like the Earth's moon? [/quote]
Not every moon, just the closest and lightest ones. Usually.