Universe Sandbox
Universe Sandbox Legacy => Universe Sandbox Legacy | Discussion => Topic started by: Dan Dixon on April 19, 2012, 07:02:17 PM
-
These are work-in-progress screenshots of a black hole, rocky planets, and a sun like star in Universe Sandbox 2.
Further down you can find three new (and very early) screenshots of a galaxy, rocky bodies, and ring debris.
Universe Sandbox 2 is a major update due out in 2013 for both Windows and Mac. This is a full rewrite of Universe Sandbox in a new 3D engine.
These screenshots largely represent the amazing shader and graphic programming work of Georg at IonStar (http://www.ionstar.org/) in Solingen, Germany. And thanks to Chris for his excellent (and unseen) UI system and code that glues everything together.
The original Universe Sandbox 3 screenshots: 1st (http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,5528.0.html) | 2nd (http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,5865.0.html) | 3rd (http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,6242.0.html)
Newer Screenshots - November 2012 (http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,8261.0.html)
Edited to reflect the delay in the release from end of 2012 to 2013. Sorry about that. We want to make sure it's awesome.
-
And some images from some very experimental ideas and techniques we're working on.
-
Looks very nice. I like the rings and the rocky planets/moons. The galaxy sort of resembles the one in the game Spore. I like it :)
-
Is that gas and bump maps I see? The rocky planets look amazing, as well as the star glow.
-
Wheres the jaw drop smiley? I'm asking because we need one, but I guess this one is the closest :o :o :o
WOW, just WOW! I'm finding it hard to believe (and at the same time, I DO believe) that such awesomeness is going to be in Ubox3, I guess we are too used to what it is now, but believe me, I'm not saying that I won't like it or anything, this will be going to a new level of awesome.
I mean, seriously, those screenshots have the quality of a CG render.
Also, if the planet behind Earth is suppoused to be Venus, its missing its clouds. What the other two behind Mars are, no clue (the last one could be The Moon and the next one could be Io or another Venus?.
-
(http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/085/444/1282786204310.jpg)
-
Oh god yes.
-
Oh deer.
(http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g406/FireOwl7/effedef8.jpg)
-
Oh my mother of the gods.
Also, if the planet behind Earth is suppoused to be Venus, its missing its clouds. What the other two behind Mars are, no clue (the last one could be The Moon and the next one could be Io or another Venus?.
The one behind Mars is Mercury.
-
Amazing. :o
The ring objects seem to look a bit big, and the stars in the galaxy also seem big imo, but maybe that's the best idea considering most computers can't handle enough stars/ring objects to make galaxies and rings look smooth with smaller objects.
-
Oh my mother of the gods.
Also, if the planet behind Earth is suppoused to be Venus, its missing its clouds. What the other two behind Mars are, no clue (the last one could be The Moon and the next one could be Io or another Venus?.
The one behind Mars is Mercury.
Shouldn't it be more of a greyish color (maybe with some reddish color to it?) than a yellow-red similar to cloudless Venus?
-
It depends on which type of texture, although I would assume the planet would somewhat near be orange, as Mariner 10 pictured it with an orange tone.
-
It depends on which type of texture, although I would assume the planet would somewhat near be orange, as Mariner 10 pictured it with an orange tone.
Or depending on whether its in false color or something. Anyways, some images of Mercury have it greyish with a reddish tone and a hint of blue in some places.
-
Looks very nice and realistic, any ideas when it will be released?
-
Looks very good. Looking forward to it.
-
I need new pants :-X
-
I need new pants :-X
I always wondered why you need new pants but no new underwear... Do you keep spare underwear with you?
-
I need new pants :-X
I always wondered why you need new pants but no new underwear... Do you keep spare underwear with you?
Yes, for some reason someone keeps steeling my pants!
-
mmm damn
-
Looks very nice and realistic, any ideas when it will be released?
No idea myself, but I'm hoping for a summer release.
-
Sometime this year according to Dan.
-
It looks very nice. :)
-
Thanks for all the kind words everyone. :)
Also, if the planet behind Earth is suppoused to be Venus, its missing its clouds. What the other two behind Mars are, no clue (the last one could be The Moon and the next one could be Io or another Venus?.
Yeah... that's Venus with no clouds and it needs clouds. This is all a work-in-progress and we haven't finalized anything yet. In order the planets are: Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Pluto.
The ring objects seem to look a bit big, and the stars in the galaxy also seem big imo, but maybe that's the best idea considering most computers can't handle enough stars/ring objects to make galaxies and rings look smooth with smaller objects.
Yes, objects are too big right now. The ring objects are the first example of this that Georg got working, so almost no tuning or adjustments have been made yet.
Shouldn't it be more of a greyish color (maybe with some reddish color to it?) than a yellow-red similar to cloudless Venus?
Yes... just like Venus, Mercury's coloring and appearance is totally wrong at the moment. The hard part is getting all the new tech to work together, once that's finalized we can tune and tweak the appearance and colors.
A couple more comments about the screenshots:
The galaxy screenshot is also very early and in-progress. Eric (http://ifa.hawaii.edu/users/hilton/), an astronomer who's recently joined the project, is still ramping up but has already pointed out how the distribution of stars is inaccurate (it should be much higher in the center; not as even) and he will be writting code to improve make it more realistic.
He will also be working on hooking up stellar evolution code soon. < I'm really excited about this. :)
And the rocky bodies (the 5th screenshot) is the result of some very early and experimental code that allows for bodies much more interesting than perfect spheres.
Thanks again. We can't wait to let all of you try this out for yourselves.
-
Looking amazing. I can't wait to see more of this in the future!
-
Wow! That is very impressive. I'm curious what will be the system requirements. I am running a single gtx260 on and a 9850be quad core with 6gb of RAM. Anyway, looking forward to the update.
-
Wow! That is very impressive. I'm curious what will be the system requirements.
Not sure exactly... but if you can run the current version (v2) then you'll be able to run the new version (v3). Although it is possible some graphical effects won't work on very old hardware, you'll still be able to run the core simulation.
That said... Your video card will do just fine.
-
When will the beta for Universe Sandbox 3 be released? Just wondering. :)
-
Dan, I have a question:
As well as Black Holes looking a lot better, Will an Object falling into a Black hole be more realistic?
-
Le Le Le Le Le Star life cycle yes! went it blows up it will go nova or super- nova or even hyper-nova ;D
-
Hey folks,
thanks for the kind words, much appreciated! I'm really excited to be on the project. Developing Universe Sandbox is great fun, Dan is really a joy to work with, as are my other teammates Chris, Thomas and Eric. Sort of like a rock band, but with less groupies, more coffee and a lot quieter. Well, maybe not like a rock band. But still rocking.
When working in the industry you find yourself in a very restrictive environment sometimes... development isn't cheap, and that cuts down on the time you have, and in the end, creativity and attention to detail suffer. Not over here, though - we're still working hard to get a release out to you quickly, but not at the cost of rushing it. So I've got more headroom to make things look good, which makes us - and you, too - smile more. That's what we're here for, right?
Most visuals you see in the screenshots are work in progress and as such will continue to be awesomized (awesomified? incrawesomed? you know, that kinda thing), so stick around and keep the feedback coming, we're listening to you, talking about your opinions and insights just the same as we do about ours.
Have a nice rest of the weekend and greetings from Germany,
Georg
-
Welcome to the forum Goerg!
-
Well, we appreciate all the work you people are putting into it and thank you for your love of the project as much as our love of it. Thank you guys. :D
-
Is version 3 being done in Unity? ???
-
yes
Universe Sandbox 1 and 2 were made with Truevision3D and used Squid for its UI.
Click on the "Credits" link on the main menu for a full listing of what I used and who helped.
Universe Sandbox 3 is being made with Unity 3D and will use Squid for its UI.
-
Will it be x64 or x86? If its only x86 will it at least have LAA? Loving US2 right now, just crashes often on my pc.
-
Universe Sandbox 3 will be x86 (not 64 bit).
What's LAA?
The new version is a full rewrite, so while that inevitably introduce new problems, I expect the new version to be much more stable than the current version.
-
LAA is Large Address Awareness. (It's related to the maximum RAM usage that a program can run.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Windows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Windows)
-
screenshots look fantastic as per :P
-
LAA is Large Address Awareness. (It's related to the maximum RAM usage that a program can run.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Windows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Windows)
Its not that US is ram intensive its just the nature of x86, if there is no LAA flag for the program it crashes much more often on my PC when I have other programs using the first 2GB, with the LAA flag that limit would go to 3GB and it would be much more stable I believe on my PC, I have edited the exe's of many games and programs that are x86 to let them access that extra 1GB (think Skyrim and the 2GB limit compared to 3GB) which makes them all much more stable on an x64 machine that can address more memory. Also like molunbun said multithreading would be GREAT, as it is in US2xxx I dont see any difference when I have it checked than not other than it crashes (as stated) when objects collide.
-
Are these solar prominence I see ;D
-
(http://ginoraidy.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/tumblr_lx4or62fjn1qmyyan.png)
-
Dan,
Are there any plans to utilize an API such as Open CL to offload some of the calculations to more capable hardware?
It would be great to see this implemented in US3 seeing as how even integrated graphics hardware is capable of greatly accelerating these calculations!
-
It would be great to see this implemented in US3 seeing as how even integrated graphics hardware is capable of greatly accelerating these calculations!
Unless its made by Intel, they have almost zero support for Open GL and I doubt CL. My HP laptop with integrated "graphics" cant even run Star Ruler properly since it doesnt support enough shaders. Also since most integrated systems use the CPU for processing and RAM for their memory that might be a big drag on the whole program. IMO integrated graphics systems are for the low end PCs that are not meant to be used for anything more than email and office programs much less a program as complex as this.
-
It would be great to see this implemented in US3 seeing as how even integrated graphics hardware is capable of greatly accelerating these calculations!
Unless its made by Intel, they have almost zero support for Open GL and I doubt CL. My HP laptop with integrated "graphics" cant even run Star Ruler properly since it doesnt support enough shaders. Also since most integrated systems use the CPU for processing and RAM for their memory that might be a big drag on the whole program. IMO integrated graphics systems are for the low end PCs that are not meant to be used for anything more than email and office programs much less a program as complex as this.
If you can run it as is right now you most likely can run Ubox3. (Don't qoute me on that...)
-
It shouldn't be a problem
Wow! That is very impressive. I'm curious what will be the system requirements.
Not sure exactly... but if you can run the current version (v2) then you'll be able to run the new version (v3). Although it is possible some graphical effects won't work on very old hardware, you'll still be able to run the core simulation.
That said... Your video card will do just fine.
-
Are these solar prominence I see
Yep. :)
I'm curious what will be the system requirements.
Some of the graphical effects may require newer video cards, but if you can run Universe Sandbox 2 (the current version), you'll be able to run Universe Sandbox 3.
Are there any plans to utilize an API such as Open CL to offload some of the calculations to more capable hardware?
We're setting up the code to make it easy for us to swap out the CPU physics code with a different library that uses the GPU (for example) in the future, but we don't expect that to be done for the initial release.
Also like molunbun said multithreading would be GREAT...
One of the latest code check-ins involved this very thing:
"Integrator development to... partition a large job into optimal sized blocks and solve those blocks on multiple threads."
-
Any New pic? Dan >.> :)
-
THis looks so realistic. Like in one screenshot i can see earths atmosphere so in ubox 3 u can add atmospheres to planets????? Plus the star looks better than in ubox 2
And plus staurns rings instead of wut it is in ubox 2 crappy tiny balls in the picture the rings actually look like reel rings.
And here r my ideas wut should be added to universe sandbox 3
-more advanced collisions instead of a white mark and little dust in a asteroid collision if instead a crater would form and a fireball and fragments shooting out.
-PLanetary collisions. Instead of when a planet collides all that happens is that a gigantic white mark covers the planet and dust goes off. Can a planetary collision in universe sandbox 3 actually shatter off the crust or mantle of the larger planet?
-solar flares. If u can make stars shoot flares that would be cool.
-Supernovae. Why cant u make a star go supernova in universe sandbox 2?
-
so in ubox 3 u can add atmospheres to planets?
That's the plan.
... staurns rings instead of wut it is in ubox 2 crappy tiny balls in the picture the rings actually look like reel rings.
I appreciate your honest comment about how the rings look in v2. :)
And here r my ideas wut should be added to universe sandbox 3...
Collisions are a focus for us, although it's still up in the air how they will turn out. Either way... Universe Sandbox is a long term project. Regardless of how they turn out in the initial release of v3, we'll be iterating and improving collisions in future updates.
-
Wait... is that an Earth atmosphere I see on Venus? Kol. ;D
-
No it's greenish. And Mars's atmosphere is all reddish.
or is that even venus
-
I meant the clouds.
-
Holykol it is
-
Wait... is that an Earth atmosphere I see on Venus? Kol. ;D
No it's greenish. And Mars's atmosphere is all reddish. or is that even venus
Venus's atmosphere is more of a yellowish-white to me. And yes thats Venus, it's just the false color radar map and it's missing its usual atmosphere.
I meant the clouds.
I guess so. They just weren't able to make the usual atmosphere texture yet (or Dan, maybe just do a planetary skin texture with the atmosphere colors?).
-
These asteroids actually look like reel asteroids.
PS: when will universe sandbox 3 come out?
-
These asteroids actually look like reel asteroids.
PS: when will universe sandbox 3 come out?
Depending on their size though, an object with the mass of Ceres (or at least very close to it, the point where an object has enough mass to pull it into a sphere is somewhere between that of Ceres and Vesta) and up would look spherical, but anything below that mass would have an irregular shape.
-
Universe Sandbox 3 will probably come out sometime this year
-
any new Pic ??
-
There haven't been too many visual improvements over the last couple weeks.
We've been re-factoring the code to make it leaner and "future proof" and working on optimization and performance.
No worries... I'll share more screenshots soon.
-
When will there be a beta for UBox3?
-
Not sure yet... although it's at least a few months away.
-
Sir, Yes Sir Mister Dan Dixon!
-
Will There Be nebulae?
???
Do you mean as a background or as part of the simulation?
-
yes let's make this everything sandbox
-
yes let's make this everything sandbox
The universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe)
-
Because of the scope of the universe, it is pretty much impossible to completely simulate it. This is compounded by the face that we don't even know how most of it works yet! Also it would probably take an insanely powerful computer.
-
Processing Universe Sandbox
-
Then How About In The Backround Because, That Is Possible.
-
Yeah, or make it easy to use other images as a background. Finding images that look seamless for the background might be a problem though.
-
This looks awesome!! Good luck!
-
Here's a development screenshot that Thomas shared with the team earlier today.
"The image shows the test solar system running with a user time step of 4 days.
Each object then subdivides this step into smaller intervals to remain accurate. The sun can advance 4 days at a time with no problem, but mercury needs to subdivide into 16 steps of 4 days/16 = 6 hours ..and so on.
The steps are power of two divided, so it is either 2 or 4 but not 3. The longer the user step, the more substeps each need to take." - Thomas
In short... moons thrown out the simulation because you turned up the time step too high? Soon to be a thing of the past. :)
-
Very naicce.
-
Awesome. Now I can collide two solar systems and watch the moons get thrown off and become planets or do funky stuff like that!
-
That's awesome, I couldn't imagine there being a solution to that problem. :)
-
Here's a development screenshot that Thomas shared with the team earlier today.
"The image shows the test solar system running with a user time step of 4 days.
Each object then subdivides this step into smaller intervals to remain accurate. The sun can advance 4 days at a time with no problem, but mercury needs to subdivide into 16 steps of 4 days/16 = 6 hours ..and so on.
The steps are power of two divided, so it is either 2 or 4 but not 3. The longer the user step, the more substeps each need to take." - Thomas
In short... moons thrown out the simulation because you turned up the time step too high? Soon to be a thing of the past. :)
Awesome! Now orbits of days or hours won't force us to slow down the simulation.
Awesome. Now I can collide two solar systems and watch the moons get thrown off and become planets or do funky stuff like that!
Could we have a copy and paste function so we can copy an entire system and then paste it somewhere in another simulation?
-
Could we have a copy and paste function so we can copy an entire system and then paste it somewhere in another simulation?
Yes. Chris is working on this tech right now (save/load/copy/paste).
-
It'd be cool to be able to make a spiral/elliptical/irregular/barred galaxy of any size in the new version :)
-
Will we see volcano's and lighting on the planet? >,.....>
-
yes let's make this everything sandbox
-
(http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6467.0;attach=15394;image)
Is that gravitational lensing?
It is.
(http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lltzgnHi5F1qzib3wo1_400.jpg)
-
Everything Sandbox eh ;D
-
Everything Sandbox eh ;D
Well.......the universe is everything
-
The Textures Look Much Better! ;D :o
-
maybe later
'It's a good idea, but it's currently too buggy and incomplete for any sort of beta feedback to be useful right now.
I know you're excited... we are too. We're really looking forward to showing off the new version to everyone.' - Dan
-
It's Probably A Long Time Before Version 3 Comes Out.
And Not By Years But, Months.
-
Dan Dixon said sometime this year. That's all we know.
-
By The Time It's Out I Will Be Able To Copy 1 Galaxy To Make 7 Galaxies Colliding! instanty.
But For Now I Have To Do It By Hand.
-
And Just Sometime This Year Is Really Not A Long Time From Now! ;D :D :)
-
Hopefully there will be a beta in late July or Early August (Just in time for the summer holiday's so i will have a lot off time to test it) :)
-
No, they're only progressing rather slowly on it.
-
I cant wait much longer for US3!!! ;D
-
I Hope UBOX3 Comes Out Not So Long From Now!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
-
will there be a view from surface feature? view the endless eye candy of multiple star/moon systems
-
NOW IS THERE NEW SCREENSHOTS? last Time I Asked Was About a Month Ago
-
So how about a beta release?
-
Dan said something along the lines of 'not yet' a month or so ago.
-
(http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6467.0;attach=15394;image)
Seems Legit
-
Seems Legit
Elaborate on what you mean...
-
Atmospheres On UBOX3! :) One Of The Reasons I Want UBOX 3 To Come Out Soon As Possible
-
Atmospheres On UBOX3! :)
This. Is. AWESOME!
-
These are screen shots we've already seen, are there any new ones?
-
I CAN'T WAIT TILL UBOX 3 COMES OUT!
-
ME TOO!!!!!
-
Dan said something along the lines of 'not yet' a month or so ago.
I KNOW BUT, CAN'T WAIT!
-
Seems Legit
Elaborate on what you mean...
It's a joke, mate.
-
No, it is actually a meme.
-
Dan,
Are there any plans to utilize an API such as Open CL to offload some of the calculations to more capable hardware?
It would be great to see this implemented in US3 seeing as how even integrated graphics hardware is capable of greatly accelerating these calculations!
That would be nice, I have 2 firepro v5800s crossfired and if it could utilize these pro 3d workstation cards I would be in heaven!
My specs: 3.6GHz eight-core (amd 8150), @ firepro v5800s crossfired and 32Gb 1866MHz RAM.
-
My specs: 3.6GHz eight-core (amd 8150), @ firepro v5800s crossfired and 32Gb 1866MHz RAM.
Even on this set up, Universe sandbox doesn't run at 60fps when large scenes are up, yet I can play battlefield 3 on ultra. This being my favorite game on my computer, I hope that the new engine will be able to run this awsome update faster than the game did originally.
Even on this set up, Universe sandbox doesn't run at 60fps when large scenes are up, yet I can play battlefield 3 on ultra. This being my favorite game on my computer, I hope that the new engine will be able to run this awsome update faster than the game did originally.
-
universe sandbox's comp usage is a lot different than battlefield 3, because universe sandbox has to calculate gravity, which uses CPU, and battefield 3 is like 95% graphics
-
cool pics ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
-
You have a date of the big update ? and i like your game :D
-
The major update is not going to be released until early next year. I hear a beta will come out by the end of this year. :)
-
ok thanks :)
-
Can't wait for this to come out!
-
NEW SCREENSHOTS YET?
-
It's coming out in beta in a month or two, I can wait without screenshots. However, some screenshot previews of some new features would still be cool
-
It's coming out in beta in a month or two, I can wait without screenshots. However, some screenshot previews of some new features would still be cool
yeah hopefully in the next month and yes we can do without screenshots for now.
-
AMAZING 1000000000000/100
-
New Screenshots! (December Screen Shots)
http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,8261.0.html (http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,8261.0.html)
New Screenshots!
]http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,9069.0.html] (http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,9069.0.html) (Feburary Screen Shots)
-
i think the ring look kinda weird. can you add some dust like milkyway?
:-[
-
i think the ring look kinda weird. can you add some dust like milkyway? :-[
No worries... that's an older screenshot and will look better for the public release.
-
so, i see. about the planet? its look awesome. but, can we change the atmosphere color, texture and cloud texture? like the version 2. ;)
-Sirius
-
I think the planets in the screenshot are this:
1:Earth
2:Venus(Without Clouds)
3:Mars
4:Mercury
5:The Moon
-
I can't wait i am really looking forward to number 3 is out! i am very happy with Sandbox 2 great software it does what i want it to do and i guess number 3 will have even more i think the price is very low for such a great program.
-
if a star gone supernova in ubox 3, there is some class in the supernova? such type 1a. (sorry for bad english)
-
when will version 4 come out?
-
The new one isnt even done