What to Expect in Alpha 12

[Dan Dixon]

While we just released a small bug fix last night... we're saving all the work we've done over the last 2 weeks for the next update: Alpha 12.

Physics and Collisions
We're in the middle of a major refactoring of physics code and changes in how we handle the body and particle counts during collisions. This new tech will allow entire bodies to fragment and break apart and explode...

Visuals
We're also working on some visual changes to particles and bodies... looking to solve some inconsistencies in how fragments of hydrogen gas look like big bodies of rock (as one example).

Supernovas
We're also improving the math and timing behind supernovas... so that they'll more accurately destroy the nearby planets and moons.

Choreographies
We've also be given the starting conditions for 200 gravitational choreographies from Greg Minton. We may not get them all added in time for Alpha 12, but have already added a few of the interesting ones.
Check out his website... his work is awesome: http://gminton.org/choreo.html

While we're still at least a couple weeks out for all these changes (and other bug fixes and start up improvements)... there's still time to get in a few quick fixes.

Here are a couple of screenshots of tests we've created this week...

What's the one feature you'd like us to add or bug that you'd like us to fix in Alpha 12?

[Lord DC]

first post in official thread woohoo!

I think you guys should add an artistic color mode where you can give stars any color you want 

[nosirrbro]

first post in official thread woohoo!

I think you guys should add an artistic color mode where you can give stars any color you want 

I agree, but this should be added for all bodies (Except maybe meteors, or something)

[gabriel.dac]

Having stars of any color you wouldn't make sense. It is not physically possible to have a green star, for instance. Google blackbody radiation. As an object gets hotter, it glows infrared, red, orange, yellow, yellow-white, white, white-blue, blue, and then ultraviolet. The game is supposed to be realistic after all, isn't it?

[Dan Dixon]

Having stars of any color you wouldn't make sense...

True... but no reason to not have both a realistic and optional artistic mode where the user can set the color. And it's something you could do in the original. No promises for Alpha 12... but it's on our list of things to do for sure.

[gabriel.dac]

I think a thread like this one should always be made. It is good to know what you guys are working on.

Well it is my time to shine. I decided to log in again... I'm gonna be dumping a few suggestions for features

1) Make US² even more realistic by adding the electromagnetic force in it. Planets will have info on their magnetic fields (this might make the properties list even more confusing than it already is but anyway...) and there will be ionized plasma (H+, for instance) in the dispenser. You can launch it at Earth and see it align with the magnetic field and cause auroras. I know this can be tricky to be implemented...

Adding bar magnets in the Add list (under the objects section) would be cool too

2)I've said this in the past, but reinforcing it: A "Replace" feature in the Add menu would be great. Or perhaps: When you have an object in the Add list selected and you click on a body in the simulation, it will instantly replace it, considering it doesn't make sense to try to add an object in orbit by clicking on the body itself.

3)Add relativistic effects. It doesn't have to be very accurate, but please don't let objects travel 152 times the speed of light. That gives me itches.

3) I'm sure this will be implemented but... neutron stars. We need them. Also, it'd be cool to throw ionized gas at it or add a bar magnet in its orbit considering they have a super powerful magnetic field, so neutron stars would be one more reason to consider my suggestion 1). lol

4)FRICTION IS COLLISIONS. That's it. No more rolling around planets until infinity

That's what I can think of right now

[gabriel.dac]

Having stars of any color you wouldn't make sense...

True... but no reason to not have both a realistic and optional artistic mode where the user can set the color. And it's something you could do in the original. No promises for Alpha 12... but it's on our list of things to do for sure.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that.

I don't like that idea at all. The game is supposed to simulate the universe. our universe, where stars cannot be green (unless there is a load of Boron in it...?). You can either choose to make a simulator for kids to mess around or to make something educative and scientifically accurate. Well, if you intend to add that feature, I can do nothing about it... but while you're at it, why not add ponies as well...

[Dan Dixon]

I don't like that idea at all. ... You can either choose to make a simulator for kids to mess around or to make something educative and scientifically accurate.

No worries... We're very focused on making something that's accurate and it's a constant point of discussion. That we'll have an artistic color override option that allows users to optionally create fantastical simulations does not take away from the accurate code that describes the colors of the stars currently.

We're making both a simulator for kids to mess around with that is also scientifically accurate. These are not mutually exclusive.

I think a thread like this one should always be made. It is good to know what you guys are working on.

I decided to log in again... I'm gonna be dumping a few suggestions for features

Good to see you online again... and thanks for the suggestions.

1 - This is beyond our current scope right now... but something that I agree would be really cool.
2 - This is a good idea. I've made a task for myself to figure out how this should work.
3 - Something we've talked about... we have no time line for this though.
4 - This should be fixed now... or at least better than it was.

[WitheHole18]

 Another idea from different planets would be the first contact with electromagnetism. But maybe it will be placed in other alpha .. Another idea might be modeling on the planets .. Anyway good work on the development of collisions.

[Xriqxa]

Gabriel just talked about magnetism...

(and what was the need for all those pictures? =P)

Anyway, the problem I totally want fixed is the Random Gas Giants being so tiny, as well as having terribly long orbital periods and axial tilts.

[Zerodaspace]

You should make random planet surfaces save instead of reverting to a weird texture.

[Xriqxa]

Speaking of which, I'd like to see some more random textures. More than half the time I get that flat one with the planet-wide mountain range near the Tropic of Cancer.

[CarpetCreatures]

I would like to see the weird saving bug fixed. The one where the saved planet's texture is distorted near the equator.

[smjjames]

Add functionality to the explode button.

Unless the system isn't quite ready for that just yet.

[nosirrbro]

I would like to see the weird saving bug fixed. The one where the saved planet's texture is distorted near the equator.

I agree. The saving needs alot more attention.

[Feldruam]

Procedural clouds  that are effected by asteroid impacts. More awesome looking "body" collisions . More galaxies. Optimizations so we can have higher FPS during heavy loads.

[DiamondMiner10]

Withthehole, maybe putting magnetic field lines is too complicated for now, but maybe they can add more accurate star flares and auroras on planets in response

[Wally-kun]

Terraforming a planet is great. I always liked being able to earth-ify any random rock.

But at a certain point I stop and look at what I've made and I can only see a rock with water on it. The continents/whatever are all the same color as the land of the default planet. It's dry. Dead. Empty.

When the conditions for life are right, I want to see it generate. It won't be fast. Maybe over millions of years or something, you'll see some green start to spread. Some kind of texture creep or something. I don't know how it works, I'm not going to pretend I understand this stuff. But when I earth-ify a planet, it'd be really cool if over time, it really does start to become like earth. I want to bring life to star systems far and wide. I want to REALLY terraform, not just slap a layer of air on a planet and splash some oceans down and just leave it like that.

So that's what I'd like.

[creeperz1211]

Good job Dan! Keep it up.

[Camacha]

Check out his website... his work is awesome: http://gminton.org/choreo.html

Is anything known about these patterns in real systems? I have found a minimum of information and know most arrangements are inherently unstable, but I could not confirm whether some of these things are actually possible and whether they exists for as far as we know.

[valentin123]

will like to you guys improve the gas planets and stars collisions because there are just too unrealistic for me

[BBorke]

I think these are some important things Universe Sandbox needs now:

Save stars and planets as they are - When some planets and stars are saved now, planets sometimes change texture, and stars saved with "Realistic" off change properties.

Hills sphere - Just like in the old.

Background - I would be nice one could use what ever picture they like, as the background.

Axis value - Just like in the old one, that would make it much easier to adjust planets and stars axis, and also transfer stars systems from the old too the new simulator.

Inclination - It would be nice to have a funktion to make all inclinations 0.

Roche limit - Would be nice.

Trails - Custom trail colors

Atmosphere color- Custom atmosphere colors

Atmosphere properties - All atmosphere now spawn to look exactly the same, just different colors.

Craters - Maybe add a funktion to make craters disappear with time, with a value determining how fast.

Surface view - Dense atmospheres like Venus¨s should be dense enough, so that only the Suns light would be able to penetrate. Now, the background-image can easily be viewed through the center of the sky.

Impacts - If large enough, they should be able to make the planets deformed.

Lense flare - A funktion to make stars shine into the "camera", would make it much more alive.

Comets - Their gasses should blow directely away from the stars, but dust and ice should bent.

Clouds - Maybe a bit too much, but changing cloud coverage would be nice.

Textures - Texture editors, or the ability to "random" a planets texture to find the one you like, and custom textures and bumpmaps.

Objects - Like we have a teapot, pool-ball, and a bowling ball, i think we need a sattelite model and a space shuttle/craft model.

Planetary comets - Terrestial and gasplanets close enough to their host stars to become "comets", should loose mass with time.

Magnetosphere - A very simple magnetosphere would be a very nice feature. + Aurora

Planet brightness - I have noticed that Jupiter, Saturn and even mars and Venus are barely visible from the surface of the Earth - in the simulator. That should be fixed, also for other systems.

Create planet/star - When i create a planet or star, the properties often change back to the numbers it where before. If i change mass on a planet to 0,24 Earth, and then change the radius to from 6000 to 5000 km, it will change back to 6000. This can happen with densities and mass too. Very annoying.

Hope it wasnt too much.

[creeperz1211]

Can you add ring planets with the surfaces on the inside like on halo? So you can simulate stuff like Threshold Basis and Installation 04 in the soell system. Like i did on universe sandbox 1. Here is the link (BTW it must be used on Universe sandbox 1 because ring objects don't exist on US2)

[Xriqxa]

US1 already has a simulation for the ringworlds in Halo:P
But yeah, US2 would have to be really advanced to simulate the centrifuge effect on the air and water etc
Maybe it will be easier after SPH is implemented.

[QuantumDotGuy]

Terraforming a planet is great. I always liked being able to earth-ify any random rock.

But at a certain point I stop and look at what I've made and I can only see a rock with water on it. The continents/whatever are all the same color as the land of the default planet. It's dry. Dead. Empty.

When the conditions for life are right, I want to see it generate. It won't be fast. Maybe over millions of years or something, you'll see some green start to spread. Some kind of texture creep or something. I don't know how it works, I'm not going to pretend I understand this stuff. But when I earth-ify a planet, it'd be really cool if over time, it really does start to become like earth. I want to bring life to star systems far and wide. I want to REALLY terraform, not just slap a layer of air on a planet and splash some oceans down and just leave it like that.

So that's what I'd like.

I want this attached to a "Seed" button.

[Xriqxa]

"Organics particles"

Wait till all planets have climate support

[Deadpangod3]

I think the collision friction is a bit too much, cause I had two moons barely glance each other and the larger one snatched the smaller one and pull it in.

But a few other things like pause before supernova and creation of black holes or neutron stars are good too,

But I would really like it if they fixed this problem,
I can place a planet a bajillion light years away and have a star go supernova, and it will still destroy the planet, but when I place a planet afterwards right inside the supernova, nothing happens.

[DenisineD]

Create planet/star - When i create a planet or star, the properties often change back to the numbers it where before. If i change mass on a planet to 0,24 Earth, and then change the radius to from 6000 to 5000 km, it will change back to 6000. This can happen with densities and mass too. Very annoying.

Hope it wasnt too much.

Well had the same problem....was guessing it was me who was doing something wrong, i m happy to see that someone else did point it out

[jkblaster]

Yeah, I think it happens to most people if not all.

[Hati Hroovitnisson]

I'd honestly love to see the roche limit implemented.