A decent space map...

[Reactor Worker]

wow...alot of comments and questions...

Are there any hills or lakes on the planets?

Not so far. Hills may come later but lakes don't seem possible. I may add some trees and other features along the outside edge so it feels more 'cosy' on the surface.

You should release the standard map with the high-detailed models, and offer the low detail ones as a replacement pack.

Well, that was the original plan but now, after comparing the originals to the improved ones, the old ones look like crap and I notice no apparent difference in frame rate. A low-poly version may be released later.

Also, you should put a transparent sphere the color of the atmosphere of the planet around each planet so it looks like they've got an atmosphere. For example, the Earth would have a transparent blue sphere around it, Mars would have a transparent orange atmosphere, etc. Mercury or the moon would have no atmosphere. You could keep these sphere's fairly low detail.

I did that with earth and mars, and the other planets will get the same treatment shortly. Trouble is that I can't seem to make them transparent. They just come out in solid colors. If you check out the video I released yesterday on youtube you can see the solid blue atmosphere when the camera flys inside earth. I really need help making it transparent.

Oh, I'll get to work on your asteroids, don't think I forgot about them. I've just had some other stuff to do.

Cool. Can't wait :)

Are you still having problems with your gravity zones?

Nah, Nitram showed me a better way to deal with gravity with a really good bonus that there is now no gravity whatsoever in space, not even 1% as before. It also saves when I save the map.

Any chance of putting up a server with the current build?

Sorry, even if I could host I would have to turn down the request. I don't want to release this until its good. It still needs all the planets, some asteriods and quite a few other features.

The size of the planets sound amazing. It's nice to know that you're basing this on reality, with Jupiter being the largest, then Saturn, and so on.

I'm trying to get as close as possible however I am taking some liberities regarding scale with some of the planets and the sun. I obviously can't make them their real size but I will try and scale them so that they match their RL counterparts.

Is it going to include Pluto?

Yes, it will likely be very small and far away and hard to find. Possibly some secrets...

X-WINGS PL0X

I would but I always get beaten about for using the magic carpet script (which I think is perfect) so you probably won't see an X-wing included with the map.

There may be a minute chance that I may make a Star Wars themed Solar System. Keyword: Maybe. However this system comes first.

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[Reactor Worker]

Im not sure if this is easy/possible, but you could get rid of the premade sun, and give the sun in your map a huge light. Then if we went behind the sun it would still be bright.

The sun has been giving me alot of trouble. I asked for an emitter and monty (I think) provided one, problem is that is much too lagy. For now the sun will be a simple model and if and when a better solution arises I will change it.

[Wedge]

Nah, Nitram showed me a better way to deal with gravity with a really good bonus that there is now no gravity whatsoever in space, not even 1% as before. It also saves when I save the map.

Please tell. :)

[Reactor Worker]

ok.

Following Nitram's idea, I set the gravity of space to Zero creating a Zero-G environment and, as you predicted, the gravity of the planets was cancelled out by a zero multiplier. Then, using the same physical zones as before, I used the applied force function rather than the gravity modifier to give each celestial body its own 'gravity'. Despite my doubts, it is not glitchy, laggy nor bouncy and it functions just as gravity did. Bonus is that I don't really have to calculate the values based upon the nullling effect of space.

On a completely different note, I have just checked out Wikipedia and am a bit disturbed by the relative sizes of the planets. In retrospect, I will have to abandon some of the scaling realism and instead go for something thats more realistic to the capabilities of the TGE and functional gameplay.

[Naes Draw]

If you look at the Gmod map it might help with size and spacing.
Take your time, there's NO rush.

[Reactor Worker]

Take your time, there's NO rush.

Good advice :)    *sighs of relief*

[Wedge]

Well, there is one benefit we have over the source version, we can scale are planets and distances almost as big as we want. As long as we don't go past a few thousand spaces in the x y and z coordinates. I recall someone hosting a bizarre server where you spawned 5 million units away from the normal start on slopes. You could only build in two dimensions and collisions screwed up.

EDIT: That was in RTB 1.45.

[Reactor Worker]

Well, there is one benefit we have over the source version, we can scale are planets and distances almost as big as we want.

Yeah. Although no screenshot can give you an accurate guage of distance, just know that the planets are very far away from each other and it will take some time to travel between them. Adds to realism.

UPDATE:

Mercury, Venus and jupiter have been added. Pluto too.

Trying to add an animated cloud layer to earth. No luck so far.

[zackin5]

are you able to put rotaiting .dts? if you can that might do for clouds :/

btw. that celesta software might come in handy to get a idea of how to place the planets

[Reactor Worker]

are you able to put rotaiting .dts? if you can that might do for clouds :/

Well, that was my plan. No luck yet.

[Jaymz]

whoa Improved alot!
Nice work I hope you finish.

[Wedge]

As I recall, you have to run the animation through a script, the static shape or whatever you are placing won't be animated.

Honestly, you don't really need clouds, you could just put a transparent blue sphere around the Earth.

[rkynick]

If you wanted to add water you could use one of those too.

[laremere]

For the sun maybe you can make the default sun go basically bye bye (don't delete it, just make it's like virtually gone, because with no default sun, things are black...) so it is dark in space...

Then, put lights in the planets near the top center so it's like it's noon in the planets, and some lites by the sun so it is like the sun is bright when in space


(IDK if all these are possible, but I hope they are)


Also, I wouldn't mind if this takes 2 months more of work, just make sure that it is nice...

[Wedge]

It isn't that dark in space, not in our solar system anyway, as long as you are facing the sun. So the light would need to be put at the center of the sun. But it would probably cause lighting issues, so its just easier, for playability, to just use normal mission lighting.