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Star Browser
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| neutronium76 | Date: Sunday, 09.10.2011, 11:55 | Message # 1 |
 World Builder
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Greece
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| Hi there. I am trying to use an imaginary rule (taken from space game Elite) in order to travel between stars in Space Engine. This rule sais that my "fantastic" spaceship can only do a max. of 7 light years (or 2.15 Parsecs) jumps (using the "G" key). So from my point in space I can travel to any star within this 7LY/2.15PC radius or less (obviously in any direction). I have managed to figure out how to search for nearby systems within this radius using the procedural naming system. For example Star RS 8404-1572-9-68364476-6 is closest to Proxima Kentauri (1.something Parsecs) and from there the rest procedural stars within the RS 8404-1572-9-68364476 sector are accesible. HOWEVER.. The next closest star within the next sector is not necesseraly RS 8404-1572-9-68364475-xx or RS 8404-blabla- - 68364477-xx. Which makes searching using "F3" a bit complicating and time consuming. Trying to find nearby catalogue stars complicates things even further. So, until a search tool is implimented that can list all stars (catalogue + procedural) within x radius from the observer, is there another way to search for closest stars? I mean is there a way to "guess" which star from the adjacent sectors would be closest to you? Also is there a way to know which real (catalogue) stars are within which sector?
Sorry if I posted this topic on the wrong category. Mods please move it to the correct thread if needed.
PC1:Core i7 970@3.34GHz, 6 cores/12 threads, 12GB DDR3 RAM@1.34GHz, 2x(SLI) GTX-580 GPUs 3GB VRAM(GDDR5)@1GHz, OS:Win7x64SP1
PC2:Core2Quad X9770@3.2GHz, 2 cores/4 threads 4GB DDR2 RAM@1GHz, GTX-285 GPU 1GB VRAM(DDR3)@1.24GHz, OS:WinVistax64SP2
Edited by neutronium76 - Monday, 10.10.2011, 08:18 |
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| Robbie | Date: Sunday, 09.10.2011, 12:23 | Message # 2 |
 Pioneer
Group: Global Moderators
United Kingdom
Messages: 590
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| Hello neutronium76,
I'll let SpaceEngineer answer your question in more detail.
Speaking of "imaginary rules," you may be interested in this post: [Click here] - This is my imaginary "space ship" travels through SpaceEngine's galaxies. I also did a video on warp speed travels and hyper-jumping to stars within a limited 500 parsec range. I carried out an experiment to see what problems I would encounter with my hypothetical warp- and jump-drives while travelling between the stars. It was a mini form of gameplay for me. It was a fun exercise too. 
Here's the link to my Youtube video if you're interested. It's best to watch it in HD and at full screen, if your broadband speed allows it.
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| SpaceEngineer | Date: Sunday, 09.10.2011, 12:39 | Message # 3 |
 Author of Space Engine
Group: Administrators
Russian Federation
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| neutronium76, I'm working on Star Browser:
In the Star Browser you can see spherical region around current position with stars, radius of the sphere can be changed with mouse wheel, stars can be clickable. I plan to merge this Star Browser with Galaxy Browser and Universe Browser on one side, and with Planetary System Browser on the another side.
I'm not sure if this feature will be included in next version, because it reqires a lot of work.
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| neutronium76 | Date: Sunday, 09.10.2011, 14:26 | Message # 4 |
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World Builder
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Greece
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| Quote neutronium76, I'm working on Star Browser:
In the Star Browser you can see spherical region around current position with stars, radius of the sphere can be changed with mouse wheel, stars can be clickable. I plan to merge this Star Browser with Galaxy Browser and Universe Browser in one side, and with Planetary System Browser with another side.
I'm nos sure if this feature will be included in next version, because it reqires a lot of work.
I don't think it is really necessary to have a 3D star browser in SE. SE is an excellent 3D Star Browser by itself already. No need to put extra load onto the GPUs/CPUs. A simple table with fields to input the desired radius will be just perfect. It will then display a list of nearest stars and/or clusters, nebulae etc. from the closest to the most distand within the specified radius. Sure a 3D map will make for a nice extra eye kandy but i think it can wait for the time being. 
Robbie I will check your post and video later. I need to get some sleep now 
PS: I don't have words to express my gratitude to you Space Engineer. I wish the day had more than 24hrs to marvell your creations.
PC1:Core i7 970@3.34GHz, 6 cores/12 threads, 12GB DDR3 RAM@1.34GHz, 2x(SLI) GTX-580 GPUs 3GB VRAM(GDDR5)@1GHz, OS:Win7x64SP1
PC2:Core2Quad X9770@3.2GHz, 2 cores/4 threads 4GB DDR2 RAM@1GHz, GTX-285 GPU 1GB VRAM(DDR3)@1.24GHz, OS:WinVistax64SP2
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| SpaceEngineer | Date: Sunday, 09.10.2011, 16:01 | Message # 5 |
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Author of Space Engine
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Russian Federation
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| 3D browser will be necessary in game mode, where you can't detach camera from your ship and fly away to look on galaxy.
Quote (neutronium76) S: I don't have words to express my gratitude to you Space Engineer. I wish the day had more than 24hrs to marvell your creations.
Haha, I dream about 30-40 hours day... I must migrate to another planet!
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| Robbie | Date: Sunday, 09.10.2011, 16:22 | Message # 6 |
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Pioneer
Group: Global Moderators
United Kingdom
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| I love the look of the star browser/s. I can't wait to play with that. Just hope it makes it into 0.95
Quote (SpaceEngineer) Haha, I dream about 30-40 hours day... I must migrate to another planet!
Well let's see now: 16-hours awake and 8-hours asleep = 24 hours. But if you worked twice as fast on Space-Engine you'd get the equivalent of those hours: 16 x 2 (2 = twice the speed = more work done) = 32-hours crammed into your work day, so there's your "extra hours" you wanted, and no need to go to another planet to get them 
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| neutronium76 | Date: Sunday, 09.10.2011, 20:27 | Message # 7 |
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World Builder
Group: Users
Greece
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| Ok, Ok I am perfectly fine with a 3D star browser. Just wondering if there is going to be a 2D star browser in a table/board format with no graphics in the meantime (and as an option in game mode). Just for people with less powerful computers in order not to put extra processing load onto GPU/CPU/RAM. 
PS: The data on this table will either change dynamically in real time as you move in space or (if this is too difficult to do) change every time you press a "refresh position" button (eg a Function button).
PC1:Core i7 970@3.34GHz, 6 cores/12 threads, 12GB DDR3 RAM@1.34GHz, 2x(SLI) GTX-580 GPUs 3GB VRAM(GDDR5)@1GHz, OS:Win7x64SP1
PC2:Core2Quad X9770@3.2GHz, 2 cores/4 threads 4GB DDR2 RAM@1GHz, GTX-285 GPU 1GB VRAM(DDR3)@1.24GHz, OS:WinVistax64SP2
Edited by neutronium76 - Sunday, 09.10.2011, 20:33 |
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| SpaceEngineer | Date: Monday, 10.10.2011, 11:32 | Message # 8 |
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Author of Space Engine
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Russian Federation
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| Star browser didn't make extra load for system, it is just another render mode (orthogonal projection and spherical clipping) and another control mode (mouse wheel change distanse in logarithmic scale).
But generating a text table is difficult and reqires extra calculations. Engine must pass over star octree, calculate a distance, and add star to a dymanic array. BTW, this array must be limited in size: it is impossible (and not necessary) to create a table with 1 billion stars. So maximum radius must be limited. Or use some other clipping function, by luminosity for example.
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| neutronium76 | Date: Monday, 10.10.2011, 17:28 | Message # 9 |
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World Builder
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Greece
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| Ok Ok you are the doctor. Just to show you that Celestia has something similar in a table form (I will try to post an image):
don't know if this is too difficult for space engine 
PS: Maybe insteed of filtering with brightness you could filter with distance. I don't think there will be many stars within a 3 parsec radius. Or there could be some sort of trade-off: If you filter with brightness then you could increase distance to 10 parsec or more as most dwarf stars will be omited but if you want ALL stars within a certain range to be displayed then the system will have a max radius of say 3 parsecs.
PC1:Core i7 970@3.34GHz, 6 cores/12 threads, 12GB DDR3 RAM@1.34GHz, 2x(SLI) GTX-580 GPUs 3GB VRAM(GDDR5)@1GHz, OS:Win7x64SP1
PC2:Core2Quad X9770@3.2GHz, 2 cores/4 threads 4GB DDR2 RAM@1GHz, GTX-285 GPU 1GB VRAM(DDR3)@1.24GHz, OS:WinVistax64SP2
Edited by neutronium76 - Monday, 10.10.2011, 17:34 |
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| Hasforjs97 | Date: Thursday, 05.01.2012, 00:17 | Message # 10 |
 Space Pilot
Group: Translators
Spain
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| I suppose someone has already suggested a star browser, but I didn't find the post, so I made one to explain how in my opinion should the browser be.
Here's the things you could do with the browser:
- Filter the stars by "Spectral type", "Has planets or hasn't", "Procedural, Catalog or both", "Single, binary or multiple"
- In case they have got planets, filter them "With life" or without.
- In case of "Procedural", See in what galaxy are them, and highlight the ones that are in the current galaxy (the galaxy where the actual selection is placed)
- Order them by "Distance", "AppMagn", "AbsMagn", "Radius" or "Number of planets"
- Select the number of closer stars to include in the browser, like in Celestia (from 10 to 1000 or something like that)
So with that browser you could find exactly the solar system you are looking for, because you could see the class of star, if it's single or not, if it has life, how many planets has, etc.
I hope it can help. Anyway I know the interface has less priority than improving the engine itself, and I encourage you to improve it because I think it's the most important for now.
HasFörjs
My desktop:
Pentium G3260 @ 3.30GHz
8.0 GB DDR3
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Edited by Hasforjs97 - Thursday, 05.01.2012, 00:21 |
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| apenpaap | Date: Friday, 27.04.2012, 21:45 | Message # 11 |
 World Builder
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Antarctica
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| A function from Celestia I would really love to see in SpaceEngine would be the Star Browser. Especially its function that basically gives you a sequential list of the closest stars to your current position. Especially in SpaceEngine, with its great potential for exploration, this would be great: when I am done exploring a certain system and want to move on to another one, it is most logical that this would be a nearby system. But at the moment those are rather hard to find, as just clicking on the brightest stars in the sky is just as likely to find you a very distant blue giant as a nearby yellow dwarf (and orange and red dwarfs are more or less left out of your exploration altogether like that). It's possible to go a parsec or two away from the current star and orbit it at that distance to find the nearest stars, but to me that rather detracts from the realism, which is why a nearest star list would be really nice, I think.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
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| SpaceEngineer | Date: Saturday, 28.04.2012, 01:17 | Message # 12 |
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Author of Space Engine
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Russian Federation
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| apenpaap, your suggestion was proposed several times here, for example: http://en.spaceengine.org/forum/8-198-1
Instead of simple text list of nearest stars, I have create a Map mode: http://en.spaceengine.org/forum/21-475-1
This is much more powerful system to navigate in space. In its final stage, it will have a lot of filters to display objects. For example, you will be able to choose a filter to show yellow dwarfs only or planetary nebulae only.
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| apenpaap | Date: Saturday, 28.04.2012, 01:56 | Message # 13 |
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World Builder
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Antarctica
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| Oh, that's great, can't believe I didn't see it yet. And sorry for asking the same question that had been asked before, I'll use the search function next time.
I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
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| SpaceEngineer | Date: Saturday, 28.04.2012, 12:19 | Message # 14 |
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Author of Space Engine
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Russian Federation
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| [The threads have been merged.]
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| smjjames | Date: Wednesday, 12.09.2012, 18:53 | Message # 15 |
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World Builder
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United States
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| I like those filter ideas because once you go beyond a few parsecs, the universe map gets crowded, not to mention the fact that for the catalog stars, the bright giants, supergiants, etc are usually selected instead of any much closer stars.
Also, this probably should be merged with http://en.spaceengine.org/forum/8-198-1
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