OrionArm Space Demo [beware: many large screenshots]

[Burning Bridges]

This is a byproduct of my attempts to learn programming Ogre3d. It is a 3D engine I made to render believeable space, and an attempt to inspire people who like science fiction. Currently it allows you to fly around in space, and it makes space look very nice. But it is not a game.

The demo contains a fictional solar system (I will provide more information later). I would appreciate if you can help with finding good names for the objects, especially the moons.

Feel free to ask if you want to know more, or if you have good ideas.

WEBSITE: FOLLOW LINK
VERSION 2.1: Demo.OrionArm.v21.20091107.zip (77Mb)
VERSION 2.0: Demo.OrionArm.v20.20090818.zip (82Mb)

Instructions:

Unpack the file you downloaded.

The solar system is pretty large which might be taxing your system too much. Therefore I have splitted it up into several parts, usually containing a planet and its moons. The folder \Demo.OrionArm contains several batch files, that you may use to go to a certain planet of the solar system.

For example launch: 20090818_CW_FICTIONAL_DWARF_PLANET_GROUP.bat to run the demo with the dwarf planet group specified.

Usage

The program needs some time until the scene is loaded. This can take between some seconds and a minute. Once the program is loaded you will always look at the sun. Press the left mouse button once to go to the next object. You can then press the mouse button to cycle from planet to planet and use WASD to move around

Available keys:

W,A,S,D = use keys to move/fly in space
Left Mouse Button = goto next planet
Right Mouse Button = goto previous planet
Mouse = look around
F = hide UI
R = Toggle Render Mode
Print = Take Screenshot
Esc = Quit

Troubleshooting

If you get an error message about missing application configuration, you must run the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime: vcredist_x86-sp1.exe

A note on performance: This demo runs at a constant 60 fps on my test system (Core2 3Ghz, 4GB RAM, ATI 4850 w. 1GB VRAM). However this version is optimized for best quality and may run slower on less powerful systems, especially those with little Video RAM (128Mb). If you have problems with fps or jerky behavior, PLEASE contact me with details of your system and the problems encountered. This information will help me to create a version that is optimized for performance, and should not look much worse.

Tips

You may find that the camera moves too slow. You can change this and a number of other parameters in a text file. Open: bin/release/DwgTest.cfg

Some of the parameters that you may change:

MoveConstant=5
Value controls how fast the camera moves.
You can set MoveConstant to much higher values if you want.

MeshLod=1 // meshlod reduction
If you set this to MeshLod=0 the program loads more than twice as fast,
but the quality of shadows is reduced, and you get less fps.

ShadowTechnique=SHADOWTYPE_STENCIL_ADDITIVE
Shadow technique used
Set this to ShadowTechnique=SHADOWTYPE_TEXTURE_MODULATIVE if you want to
see a drastic increase in fps. It will however disable object to object shadows.

DOWNLOAD:

Demo.OrionArm.v20.20090818.zip (82Mb)

Holst_Mars.ogg (fitting music to run in the background)

 

[Castanova]

Looks pretty cool. Can't download it at work, though, so I'll have to check it out later.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Looks good.

 

[Elzair]

Interesting. I have not yet ran this, but I have a few questions. First, does this simulate orbital motion, and what algorithm(s) did you use? Second, does it take general relativity into account (which is necessary if you want to simulate the orbit of bodies very close to the sun)?

 

[GarfunkeL]

By systems I'm guessing you mean planets and that the whole "game" simulates a single star system?

Since it goes from biggest to smallest: universe-galaxy-system-planet (which you probably knew already but the second post doesn't make it clear).

If you want it to be Tau Ceti, then you have a problem - since there are no observations of any planets around it. Though there are 10x dust as there's around our sun. It is quite possible to have planets there, but the lack of metals in the star and the amount of dust points towards much emptier solar system than our own.

There are no officially named planet-like objects outside our system - all the names are derived from the star name. Starting with the letter b, so your planets would be Tau Ceti b, Tau Ceti c, Tau Ceti d, Tau Ceti e and so on.

Here's a size comparin chart from our solar system which also gives some names you could recycle if you want:

Here's an extended list of natural satellites in our solar system:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_satellites

And here's the grand list of extrasolar planets known so far:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extrasolar_planets

If you are really serious about it, then JPL can help you:

http://planetquest1.jpl.nasa.gov/atlas/atlas_index.cfm

 

[GarfunkeL]

Oh, well.

http://exoplanet.eu/

http://obswww.unige.ch/~naef/who_discovered_that_planet.html

http://exoplanets.org/almanacframe.html

http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/index.php

and if all else fails, this is a forum for realy astronomers and astronomy-buffs. They could probably be of better use than me just posting random links from Wikipedia

http://www.bautforum.com/

 

[GarfunkeL]

Yes, the problem is that we currently lack a reliable method for spotting Earth-sized exoplanets. So don't get too stuck on the absolute realism issue - otherwise your star system will be quite boring.

Yes, Universe Today forum strives to be scientific but there are plenty of "regular" folks there so if you present yourself politely, I'm sure they will be more than happy to fix any errors you might have.

 

[Licaon_Kter]

any timeframe for the Linux version ? :D

 

[Burning Bridges]

I worked on my athmospheres and colors. I found that my light model was somewhat off which resulted in much too bland colors, so there is now some real improvement. Examples are the usual clouded Mars and for comparison the same material on Earth.

Earth looks nowhere near where I want it to be. I think I will not make much progress if I don't learn how to make shaders for athmospheric scattering. If anyone should know how to make a cg athmosphere shader, I could use help! That stuff is way over my head.





The new colors should be visible in these screens, and make the planet appear more life like, hopefully.

 

[Phelot]

Downloading now. The planets look beautiful! From the screens they look better then stuff from Celestia. Which, I'm sure you're aware of? I absolutely love it since I love space in general.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Oh man, awesome pics.