Astronomical Nerdgasm

[RogerSmith]

A universe simulator, words cannot express how awesome this is. Just please try it out for yourselves

 

 

http://en.spaceengine.org/

 

if you need examples: Starts at 5:21

 

[+Gr.Viper]

Couldn't you see similar things in Celestia?

[+Swordsman422]

I'll only play it if hyperspace looks like the stargate sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[Lexx_Luthor]

I made one of those, kinda, for myself only, years back, for old DOS computer, 1990s. Spacecraft combat sim, the relevant thing here is the ability to zip among the local stars. Took weeks to input about 7000 stars down to magnitude 6.0 from a star catalogue, and I had to guess many distances from spectral type or cluster association. The goal for me was to ... turn off all lights in a room, except the computer monitor, and you can't tell the difference between the monitor and the real sky on a clear night. It worked, but requires CRT monitor for true black ...

 

True black being when in a room with zero lighting, totally dark, you can't see the monitor screen glow, at all. Nothing.

[RogerSmith]

Couldn't you see similar things in Celestia?

 

Never heard of Celestia, tried it out and I think that Space Engine is actually better. It gives me a better sense of size of the universe and find that the controls and GUI make more sense and smoother feel. You can also land on planets and it will render terrain and atmosphere, but for some reason it renders our own solar system's planets poorly but planets are way more defined when it comes to other solar systems, which is the only bad thing I can find.

[RogerSmith]

I hit the screenshot key way too much

 

[+Gr.Viper]

Celestia has a ton of mods adding a massive star database, high res textures for the planets and the Sun.

 

for some reason it renders our own solar system's planets poorly but planets are way more defined when it comes to other solar systems, which is the only bad thing I can find.

Most likely it uses photo textures for the Solar system, and highly scalable procedural generation for the alien worlds.

 

Although for alien planet browsing, I'd go with Noctis.

[Lexx_Luthor]

Oh those are nice. Love the blend of star magnitudes. The neastest thing to think about is seeing the sun in a dark sky, kinda like...at midnight, the bright sun.

[+Gr.Viper]

The neastest thing to think about is seeing the sun in a dark sky, kinda like...at midnight, the bright sun.

Sampled any Pioneer lately?

http://pioneerspacesim.net/

[Lexx_Luthor]

Downloading it. Sampling soon. Its packed up in 7z, nice. Thanks.

[Lexx_Luthor]

Tried it --- pioneer -- , neat but weird. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but ... the set speed thing, if I rotate the ship, it thrusts always until it gains the same speed in the new direction. I wanna rotate and not auto-change velocity.

Edited January 29, 2013 by Lexx_Luthor