Simulated Water

[Kaito]

One thing that...bugged me about Orbiter is that Earth is just one big...rock. The water is solid. I think a very popular add-on that people would want would be one that makes the water...actually water. I have a thought on how to do this:
First off, the mesh of the Earth needs to be redone so there are Holes where the oceans would be. Then, to simulate water, just put in a very thick atmosphere. You hit it to hard, you die, but gravity will slowly sink you.
I dont know how to simulate "floating", but i'm sure it could be done.

What do you guys think?

 

[Xantcha]

Having a water could be nice.. I don't think a full simulated solution is requred (it's space sim after all) A fake water effect (like that in X-plane) would satisfy me.

And you can't just add hole in planet mesh

 

[Coolhand]

you could offset orulex via the heightmap to be higher than usual, so you could presumably have height data for the oceans and the offset would mean that everything would be above the earths sphere. or alternatively somehow shrink the earth to everything is at the altitude it should be. however you'd never be able to simulate the sea by somehow thickening the atmosphere, at least you'd never see it because orulex draws on top of atmospheric effects.

also you wouldn't be able use any ground bases. because they would all be miles 'underwater'.

bit of a non starter.. but you could potentially use it to explore a virtual version of the ocean floor.

 

[Quick_Nick]

How about putting two planets in the exact same position with the inner one having a thick atmosphere that suddenly cuts off at sea level, and the outer planet being a mesh that uses Orulex to have higher areas that are land and lower areas that are the sea floor. Crazy idea, probably won't work, but it's the best I can think of.

 

[silent_protagonist]

I think Artlav toyed with water affects in an earlier version of Orulex. The idea was to have a noise function for water areas that would generate something that looked like swells and then animate them (this was back when Orulex still had the "morphing terrain"). Don't know what ever happened to teh idea but I don't think it's in the latest version. (I confess I haven't taken a look at Orulex in a while.)

 

[penlu]

What is Orulex? Sounds interesting!

 

[Eagle]

What is Orulex? Sounds interesting!

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2686"]Orulex_Land_Gen-v1.2[/ame]

Basally it adds hills and mountains to planets. You won't notice too much difference in Florida, where its already flat, but it adds realistic terrain to Orbiter. Its coolest on the Moon and Mars.

 

[Overmind5000]

How about putting two planets in the exact same position with the inner one having a thick atmosphere that suddenly cuts off at sea level, and the outer planet being a mesh that uses Orulex to have higher areas that are land and lower areas that are the sea floor. Crazy idea, probably won't work, but it's the best I can think of.

Clever idea quick nick. I also like coolhand's idea as well. Personally, If we could use Meshland (the orulex man made this too), configure the earth mesh in Orulex and/or meshland, add an inner planet with thick atmosphere, but no burn, instead, bubbles, I think this would be accurate.:roflcopter:

 

[ar81]

What is Orulex? Sounds interesting!

ORULEX = ORbiter ULtimate EXperience

 

[Dig Gil]

I have my opinion here: http://orbiter.dansteph.com/forum/read.php?f=1&i=19035&t=18891#reply_19035

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Any particular reason why you can't just make 1 atmosphere with a step change in properties at sea level? Making a general buoyancy module isn't too hard (this would have negligible effect in air but notable in water).

I haven't tinkered with this, so I might be wrong.

EDIT: Drat, you can't as the atmosphere assumes ideal gas properties based on sea level values.

One could write a dll for a ship that assigns lift and drag assuming lquid properties below a certain altitude, but there doesn't seem to be a more general way of doing it for all ships.

 

[spcefrk]

Why not read ground-level altitude from a texture mask (like is used for specular reflections).

White=Max Altitude
Every altitude in between
Black=Min Altitude

That may not offer a lot of altitude resolution (256 steps I guess) but it would be pretty simple.