Project Orbiter Galaxy

jedidia

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Impressive.
why, thanks!

demonstrated by the common modern misinterpretation of "wherefore art thou Romeo" as "where are you"

It never even occured to me that it could be interpreted as "where are you" (I love shakespear, by the way).

ohhhhhhhh, excellent find! If they had the table downloadable as a csv that would be a dream, as it is it is still great. Will take a lot of work to get it all into a file, but This is definitaly what I need, yes.

I'm still experimenting around a bit, I noticed that the HYG database has color index listed (which I knew), but I assumed only for a fraction of the stars. Turns out that there are only about 2000 stars that don't, and a precise color index might be all I need to get good results. I'm re-parsing the database right now (it takes almost half an hour to convert the whole thing), so I'll see if it works pretty soon.

Here'as a thought. What if we limit the number of star systems created to ONLY those KNOWN to have planets ? This would give us a platform to build on with a set of known valuses.
it's an idea for a testbed, but I want a galaxy. I'm a bit megalomanic :p As it seems, the essential ingredients have already been found by Linguofreak, and if my little experiment described above works I'll be able to continue as planed.
 
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Linguofreak

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It never even occured to me that it could be interpreted as "where are you" (I love shakespear, by the way).

Well, nowadays where/there + preposition is mostly a, so to speak, "deprecated" feature of the English language. We still have a few words left over that are memorized as single units, but you don't often hear arbitrary prepositions added on after where/there like you did several hundred years ago. So since nobody uses "wherefore" any more, when they hear it they just throw out the second syllable and assume it means "where", when it's actually more like "why".

ohhhhhhhh, excellent find! If they had the table downloadable as a csv that would be a dream, as it is it is still great. Will take a lot of work to get it all into a file, but This is definitaly what I need, yes.

Great!
 

jedidia

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Experiment to calculate stellar properties based on magnitude and color index failed. The results don't get any precise, and allthough there are only 2000 stars excluded from the database, most of them seem to be quite close to sol. So all in all, that option failed.

However, my lovely wive just showed me how to convert that table into a csv file with a minimum of work. It's already done, so all I have to do now is write a function to read the table from file and I'll be able to assign stellar properties solely on the basis of spectral and luminosity class. Thanks Linguofreak!
 

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Experiment to calculate stellar properties based on magnitude and color index failed. The results don't get any precise, and allthough there are only 2000 stars excluded from the database, most of them seem to be quite close to sol. So all in all, that option failed.

However, my lovely wive just showed me how to convert that table into a csv file with a minimum of work. It's already done, so all I have to do now is write a function to read the table from file and I'll be able to assign stellar properties solely on the basis of spectral and luminosity class. Thanks Linguofreak!

You're welcome.
 

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cool.....about the textures loaded from memory bit.....isnt it possible to access the planetary textures and modify them in Orbiter ?
 

jedidia

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I'm not 100% sure, but I'd say no. It might be with the OGLA client, but I don't know yet.
 

jedidia

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I started implementing the procedural routines, and therewith have officially entered the "I'm going to crash every 2 minutes until you clean up that memory-management!" -phase. And I'm hating it! :hunter:(that's me shooting pointers around...)
 

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I started implementing the procedural routines, and therewith have officially entered the "I'm going to crash every 2 minutes until you clean up that memory-management!" -phase. And I'm hating it! :hunter:(that's me shooting pointers around...)

I'm going to have fun if I ever get into a real language like C++. All I've learned so far is Java, and Java takes care of memory management for you. I'd much rather have started with a language that made me learn that kind of stuff.
 

jedidia

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It seems to work very stable now, But I'm not sure if I bought that stability by introducing a memory leak... Maybe I'll have some more revision to do on it later, but for now it runs. So on to completing the evolutionary model...
 

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This is most excellent news ! a BIG THUMBS UP to all intrested parties. We may yet see Battlestar combat groups jumping from 1 star system to another !

( cue dramatic music now )

:salute:

On a side note, I'm in the process of cleaning up my vastly bloated Orbiter install by transfering ALL my SciFi vessels to a much cleaner test install so that once this project is finished I will have a lean mean test install to beta test with.
 
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jedidia

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Finished implementing the 2dimensional GalaxyMap for getting around faster (hell, it would take over 2 hours to get from one end of the Galaxy to the other just by scrolling...):




Procedural routines now burning at pretty much full power, and some bugs ironed out that led to different stars in the same cube when aproaching from another direction. There are only Main-sequence stars generated currently, though. Finishing up the evolutionary model is priority number one now, then a GUI and some filters for displaying the clusters, and we're all set for a demo of the galaxy creator. Alas I'm going on a "buisness-trip" at the end of the month (Band-workshops in 7 towns, 7 days each...) I'll see what I can get finished before I have to pack up.

a few memory leaks are still persistent too, but at least I know where they are. Just haven't gotten around to fixing them yet...
 

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That's looking REALLY nice!
 

jedidia

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Well, the picture is by courtesy of NASA, of course, I didn't draw it myself.
 

jedidia

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I have a functional, if somewhat basic evolutionary model now. First thing I noticed is that red giants are an awful lot rarer than I'd expected... the bloody things die too quickly and become white dwarfs and neutron stars instead!

currently I have a Red Giant phase of 10% of main sequence lifetime for Stars between 0.5 and 3 Solar Masses, 18% for up to six solar masses, 23 % for up to 10 (heavier stars become blue giants).

These numbers are pretty much out of my guts, so if anyone can provide me with something more precise that would be very nice. I could only find a few scraps about the lifetime of red giants...

Also, is there an established classification system for neutron stars?

On the exciting side, I found a black hole today while strolling through the galaxy...:p

I also finished the atmosphere model for planets today. Turned out StarGen provided all the data I needed, I just had to find it and interpret it :thumbup:
 

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This is awesome :speakcool:!
 

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this is wonderful work.....pioneering in this department I think.....hope this leads to jumping star systems without restarting orbiter :thumbup:...perhaps martin will consider making some changes in the core if this add on can be made absolutely compelling !!
 

jedidia

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*sigh*

I can't get my stellar populations the way I like. The problem are red and blue giants.

Allthough I think I got their lifetime about right, it seems too short. By the rules of probability there should be some red giants, but so far I have not found a SINGLE generated red giant (opposite to black holes, of which I have found about 4 so far, which also proofs that the algorithm works and the problem is not code-related). Not even in the rim, where stars are much younger than in the core, I find any. The few million years they are around are obviously not enough to get them in reasonable numbers in my generator (they're either still main sequence, or they already died and became neutron stars...) The number of neutron stars is accordingly high, but they aren't exactly a rare phenomenon, so I'm not so much concerned about them. If I'd manage to get a few more giants I'd also have a few less of those.

But I don't know how to fix it yet. I have spent the last few days working on the GUI (which is almost complete now) in the hope I'd happen on something to help me out on this, but so far nothing. I'm thinking about putting in a probability for Giants and tweaking their age accordingly, a solution I'd not be too happy about, but unless someone comes up with a better Idea that's what it will end up at... :/

---------- Post added at 11:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 PM ----------

Hmmm... I finally encountered one source of the problem... I knew the table I am using is not entirely accurate, but when it comes to giants it seems to be pretty far off. The minimal mass for a red giant (an M9III) is noted as 4.1 solar masses, which clearly isn't correct. A red giant can already be formed at less than 1 solar mass ORIGINAL mass, which will bring the mass of the giant down to almost 0.5. So most of my red giants fail the mass-test. I need more reliable data, but it seems rather difficult to find any.
 

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Hasnt a single red giant been spotted by yet ? I mean you could use the data for existing red giants and extrapolate their frequency from existing data? Or is there no data about them at all - I mean the positions? As regards their mass - surely the range is available online.
 
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