These are
planet layer description tags. A layer is a spherical surface, which represents the solid surface of a planet, its ocean surface, or one or more cloud layers. Layers may or may not be displaced with a
Bump map, colored by a
Diffuse map and have or not have an emission or
Glow map. Each planet has at least a
Surface layer, and may have an
Ocean layer, and up to ten
Clouds layers. The
Lava layer is not implemented yet.
If some layer tag is not specified, this layer may be generated procedurally. If you want to disable the procedural generation of the specific layer (except the Surface), use these parameters in the
Planet tag:
NoClouds true - disable all cloud layers,
NoOcean true - disable ocean,
NoLava true - disable lava (lava layer is not implemented yet).
Planet can have several cloud layers with different textures, altitudes, and moving velocities. To do this, simply specify the
Clouds tag several times with different parameters inside them. Or you may use an empty tag:
Clouds { } to let SpaceEngine generate all parameters procedurally. A planet can also have several ocean layers, but this is useless now.
Below there are descriptions of all parameters allowed inside these tags. First we will describe the parameters common to all layers; after this - the parameters allowed only in a specific layer tag.
Parameters common for all the Surface, Ocean, and Clouds tagsIf you making a planet with textures stored on disk, use the
DiffMap,
BumpMap, and
GlowMap parameters to describe the textures (read this manual for details:
Creating custom planet textures).
DiffMap, BumpMap, GlowMap - path of the folder with cubemap texture tiles for the Diffuse, Bump, and Glow maps respectively. If not specified, a procedural map may be generated.
DiffTileSize, BumpTileSize, GlowTileSize - resolution of the tile images for the corresponding maps.
DiffTileBorder, BumpTileBorder, GlowTileBorder - width of the border on the tile images for the corresponding maps.
BumpHeight - height scale of the Bump map in km, i.e. height difference between the lowest and highest point on the layer.
BumpOffset - negative offset of the landscape in km. For example, if you want to make a landscape from -8 km to +12 km, type
BumpHeight 20 and
BumpOffset 8.
DiffMapAlpha - how to use the alpha channel of the Diff texture:
"Water" - water specular (solar specular spot on water surfaces), used as a river/lakes/seas mask on Earth
"Ice" - ice specular (solar specular spot follows all curved surfaces of the body), used as an ice mask on a cold planets,
"Transp" - surface transparency, used for clouds only,
"None" - ignore the alpha channel.
GlowMode - how to use the Glow texture:
"Alpha" - the mode is set by the alpha channel of the glow texture (0.0-0.33 = night, 0.34-0.66 = permanent, 0.67-1.0 = thermal),
"Night" - night side city lights (not visible in daytime),
"Permanent" - permanent lights (do not react to external lighting),
"Thermal" - thermal lights, react to local temperature, and have a complex format (RGB channels of the texture represents a single 24-bit temperature value).
GlowColor - scale (multiply) the RGB color of the Glow texture by this value.
GlowBright - overall brightness of the Glow texture.
ModulateColor - scale (multiply) the RGB and Alpha colors of the Diff texture by this value.
SpecBrightWater - brightness of the solar glare spot on the water surface.
SpecBrightIce - brightness of the solar glare spot on the ice surface.
SpecularBright - brightness of the solar glare spot on the both water and ice surfaces.
SpecularPower or
SpecPower - size of the solar glare spot (default value is 55) - the lower the value, the larger the spot.
Hapke or
Lommel - Lambert lighting model to Hapke lighting model ratio. Use
Hapke 0.0 for pure Lambert model (good for gas giants) or
Hapke 1.0 for pure Hapke model (good for dusty bodies, like airless or desert planets - simulates the opposition glare effect). Use intermediate values for mixed lighting model (linear interpolation).
SpotBright - brightness of the opposition glare spot.
SpotWidth - size of the opposition glare spot.
DayAmbient - fake ambient lighting during daytime. Use for bodies without atmospheres and for cloud layers.
Exposure - the same as
Brightness in the
Planet tag - overall rendering brightness of the object. Saved for backward compatibility.
Parameters allowed only in the Surface tagThe next parameters control the procedural surface textures.
SurfStyle or
Style - style (color scheme) of the surface. Corresponds to the StyleRange in the palette file.
OceanStyle - style (color scheme) of the ocean. Corresponds to the StyleRange in the palette file.
Randomize - a randomization vector. If you make two identical planets (with all parameters identical), type different randomization values to make them look different.
colorDistFreq, colorDistMagn - frequency and magnitude of "spots" of various detail textures.
colorConversion true - if specified, SE converts colors of atlas textures to colors defined by the palette file or the
colorBeach ... colorUpPlants parameters (see below).
detailScale - scale of the detail texture noise, visible close to the surface.
drivenDarkening - amount of darkening of the the leading/driven hemisphere of icy moons.
seaLevel - relative depth of sea, obsolete parameter (use
Ocean tag instead).
snowLevel - relative height of snow level on mountains
tropicLatitude, icecapLatitude - sine of latitude of tropics and polar ice cap edge (0.0 - equator, 1.0 - pole).
icecapHeight - relative height of ice caps.
climatePole, climateTropic, climateEquator - climate of poles, tropics, and equator (it is an index into color table, 0.0 - desert, 0.5 - temperate zone, 1.0 - snow).
tropicWidth - tropics width.
mainFreq - frequency of main (global) noise, defines continents/oceans distribution.
venusFreq, venusMagn - frequency and magnitude of Venus-like landscape forms.
mareFreq, mareDensity - frequency and density (number) of impact basins similar to lunar maria.
erosion - magnitude of a water erosion on mountains (0.0 for dry planets, 1.0 for wet planets).
terraceProb - probability of terraced mountains.
montesFreq, montesMagn, montesFraction - frequency and magnitude of mountain ranges, and relative fraction of these structures on the planet's surface.
montesSpiky - amount of spiky mountains like in SE 0.94.
hillsFreq, hillsMagn, hillsFraction, hills2Fraction - frequency and magnitude of hills, a.k.a. "eroded mountains", and relative fraction of these structures on the planet surface (two different looking forms).
dunesFreq, dunesMagn, dunesFraction - frequency and magnitude of sand dunes, and relative fraction of these structures on the planet surface.
canyonFreq, canyonMagn, canyonFraction - frequency and magnitude of canyons, and relative fraction of these structures on the planet surface.
riversFreq, riversMagn, riversSin, riversOctaves - frequency, magnitude, curvature, and number of octaves of pseudo-rivers.
cracksFreq, cracksMagn, cracksOctaves - frequency, magnitude, and number of octaves of cracks in an icy crust, like on Europa.
craterFreq, craterMagn, craterDensity, craterOctaves - frequency, magnitude, density (number), and number of octaves of craters.
craterRayedFactor - number of rayed craters relative to regular craters.
volcanoFreq, volcanoMagn, volcanoDensity, volcanoOctaves - frequency, magnitude, density (number), and number of octaves of volcanoes.
volcanoActivity - amount of active volcanoes on the planet.
volcanoFlows - length of the lava flows.
volcanoRadius - radius of volcanoes.
volcanoTemp - temperature of lava in caldera and in flows in Kelvins.
lavaCoverTidal, lavaCoverSun, lavaCoverYoung - for molten planets: relative amount of lava coverage by tidal heating, sun heating, and heating due to young age of the planet.
stripeZones, stripeFluct, stipeTwist - number of Jupiter-like zones or stripes, amount of their randomness, and amount of twisting (used for gas giants).
cycloneMagn, cycloneFreq, cycloneDensity, cycloneOctaves - cyclone magnitude, frequency, density, and number of octaves (used for gas giants).
colorSea, colorShelf, colorBeach, colorDesert, colorLowland, colorUpland, colorRock, colorSnow - 8 vectors (in RGB or RGBA format) for the color table from lower altitudes to higher altitudes. Alpha value, if specified, modulates the brightness of the ice specular (on cold planets), or cloud layer temperature (for hot gas giants and brown dwarfs).
colorLayer0, colorLayer1, colorLayer2, colorLayer3, colorLayer4, colorLayer5, colorLayer6, colorLayer7 - the same as previous, can be used for gas giants and brown dwarfs (with less confusion).
colorLowPlants and
colorUpPlants - modification of
colorLowland and
colorUpland parameters for planets with life, sets the vegetation color.
Parameters allowed only in the Ocean tagHeight - height of the water surface above the lowest point of the planet's surface in kilometers (i.e. from the
Radius in the
Planet tag minus
BumpOffset in the
Surface tag). Make it lower than the highest mountains (less than
BumpHeight) to obtain the seas and continents, and above them to get a planet completely covered by water.
Parameters allowed only in the Clouds tagHeight - the height of the clouds above the lowest point of the planet's surface in kilometers (i.e. from the
Radius in the
Planet tag minus
BumpOffset in the
Surface tag). Make it higher than the highest mountains (more than
BumpHeight), if you want clouds to not overlap with mountains.
Velocity - velocity of the clouds at the equator relative to the planet's surface, in kilometers per second.
Coverage - clouds coverage (0...1). Note that this is very approximate coverage amount.
ModulateColor - scale (multiply) the RGB and Alpha colors of the clouds Diff texture by this value. Use alpha component to specify overall clouds layer opacity.
The next parameters control the procedural cloud textures.
mainFreq, mainOctaves - main clouds pattern frequency and number of noise octaves.
stripeZones, stripeFluct, stipeTwist - number of Jupiter-like zones or strips, amount of their randomness, and amount of twisting (used for gas giants).
cycloneMagn, cycloneFreq, cycloneDensity, cycloneOctaves - cyclones magnitude, frequency, density, and number of octaves (used for gas giants and terrestrial planets).
TidalLocked true - if specified, the cloud layer will form a giant cyclone on one side of a planet. Used for a planet tidally locked to its sun.
Note about multiple clouds layers. You can type the
Clouds tag several times with empty curly braces:
Clouds { }
Clouds { }
Clouds { }This will generate three cloud layers with automatic procedural parameters. However, you can type
Height,
Velocity and other physical parameters for each
Clouds tag individually. But procedural texture parameters will always be the same in each clouds layers, so you can type them in any
Clouds tag or even in the
Surface tag (look above).
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