Author Topic: Space Engine  (Read 5676 times)

Space Engine



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Space Engine, not to be confused with Space Engineers, is a free-roam space simulator that allows you to go literally anywhere in the universe. It uses real data to render objects, and procedurally generates your world after you explore beyond the known universe. There are countless things to explore, such as trillions of stars, millions of galaxies and much more. Any object can be visited and landed on, with terrestrial planets having actual randomly generated terrain.



Capabilities
(information from website)

Quote
All types of celestial objects are represented: galaxies, nebulae, stars and star clusters, planets and moons, comets and asteroids.
Known celestial objects are represented using data from the catalogs: galaxies (NGC/IC), stars (HIPPARCOS), star clusters, nebulae, planets (our Solar system data and known extrasolar planets).
Uncharted regions of space feature procedurally generated objects: galaxies, stars, star clusters, nebulae and planetary systems.
The observer is free to move around the universe. Transition between any celestial body and any scale occurs seamlessly.
The observer can move around in space using the WASD keys, like in First Person Shooters. Movement with inertia is made possible in Spacecraft mode or Aircraft mode.
"Select and fly" autopilot: just click on any object with the mouse and hit the 'G' key to automatically go directly to the object.
Automatic binding of the observer to a moving object and automatic selection of optimum flight speed.
Search for celestial objects by name. Search for stars in a radius around you. Scalable map of the Universe and a planetary system browser. Saving locations and autopilot's journal.
Built-in wiki system with descriptions of many known objects and ability to extend by user. Possibility of renaming and describing of any object, including procedural ones.
The orbital motion of planets and stars is calculated in real time, with the ability to accelerate, decelerate, or reverse the flow of time.
Display of orbital paths of celestial objects, their rotation and motion vectors, labels and markers, celestial grid, current selection pointer and user velocity vector.
Volumetric 3D models of galaxies and nebulae with interstellar dust clouds.
3D landscapes of planets and stars: for many solar system bodies actual data from space probes is used; for uncharted and procedural planets the surface is generated procedurally on the GPU.
The exact model of the Earth's atmosphere (code by Eric Bruneton), adapted for the other planets.
Lighting effects: lens flares, solar eclipses, shadows of planetary rings. Celestial objects cast light and shadows onto each other.
Controllable space ships. (alpha)
Original background music with context-dependent switching of tracks.
Localization to many languages, with the ability to add new ones.
Ability to import user addons: models, textures, catalogs.



Screenshots
(hover mouse over images for a short description)









The game is completely free if you want to try it out.

Download

Not really a game lol. But I've always loved looking at planets with copious amounts of lens flare, so live on I guess. :)

I wish I could run this on my computer. I would spend countless hours exploring every planet.

Oh my good god, this is the most beautiful game I've ever played. I've always loved astronomy and all of that. This is absolutely perfect, thank you for sharing this!

Not really a game lol. But I've always loved looking at planets with copious amounts of lens flare, so live on I guess. :)
oh well. I didn't feel like this would go in off topic but still wanted to share it.

I wish I could run this on my computer. I would spend countless hours exploring every planet.
aw, that sucks that you can't play. Everyone should be able to experience this game imo. It's really amazing

Oh my good god, this is the most beautiful game I've ever played. I've always loved astronomy and all of that. This is absolutely perfect, thank you for sharing this!
<3


this looks neat, I'll have to play it tomorrow (well today really) cause my dad's downloading games too so it's gonna be a while

oh well. I didn't feel like this would go in off topic but still wanted to share it.

Not a problem lol, I was just stating stuff.

It should just change its title to "Wallpaper Generator".









« Last Edit: January 09, 2015, 08:57:23 AM by Oasis »

It should just change its title to "Wallpaper Generator".
i'll say





Has anyone been able to find nebulae outside of the milky way or andromeda? I wonder if any are procedurally generated.

I agree that it's not really a game, but I do like it!

Here are some screenshots I've taken:




(I wish asteroids looked better.)


Has anyone been able to find nebulae outside of the milky way or andromeda? I wonder if any are procedurally generated.
I don't think they are.


« Last Edit: January 09, 2015, 05:00:52 PM by Oasis »

Has anyone been able to find nebulae outside of the milky way or andromeda? I wonder if any are procedurally generated.



just found this one in the triangulum galaxy. i'll still look around some more considering triangulum is pretty close to the milky way



it never ceases to amaze me that all these surrounding lights (from this point of view) are not stars, but entire galaxies


There are procedurally generated nebulae, but are rare. I love this game, and it makes my gaming rig chug a bit.