More planet customization options

[Commander McLane]

I have added a new, nicely textured planet to a system using addPlanet:. It works, but the clouds Oolite wraps around it look rather artificial. In general I don't like them too much, but for a nicely textured planet they are really not the best choice.

I guess it will be a lot of work to create a completely new way of doing the clouds, but in the meantime I'd like to have more flexibility in handling them. Namely I suggest two keys for planetinfo.plist (sorry for suggesting ready-made names again, but I think that's the best way to explain what I mean):

"percent_cloud" = "0..100"

and

"cloud_hsb_color" = "0.0..1.0 0.0..1.0 0.0..1.0"

I imagine them perfectly analogous to percent_land and land_hsb_color, so the first one should determine the percentage of the planet's surface covered by clouds and the second one the colour these clouds should have. Perhaps for the second one a single grey-scale value would be sufficient for having brighter or darker clouds? On the other hand, why not the possibility to generate purple clouds, if a scripter wishes so?

[JensAyton]

That’s not a scripting request, but… done. New keys added:

• percent_cloud
• cloud_alpha – scale factor for cloud_color and polar_cloud_color alpha values, [0, 1].
• clear_sky_color – a colour specifier (not HSV string) for the clear part of the sky at the equator. The alpha must be specified or will default to 1, as with all colour specifiers. Randomly-generated atmospheres use an alpha of 0.05 (or 13 on the 0-255 scale).
• cloud_color – a colour specifier for the cloudy part of the sky at the equator. Alpha for random atmospheres is 0.50. The alpha value is multiplied by cloud_alpha.
• polar_clear_sky_color – a colour specifier for the clear part of the sky at the poles. Alpha for random atmospheres is 0.34. If this is not specified, but cloud_color is, it will use clear_sky_color with its alpha scaled by 0.34/0.05.
• polar_cloud_color – a colour specifier for the cloudy part of the sky at the poles. Random atmosphere alpha is 0.75. If not specified, cloud_color is used, with alpha scaled by 0.75/0.50. The alpha value is multiplied by cloud_alpha.
• atmosphere_rotational_velocity – like rotational_velocity, but for atmospheres.

In the mean time, remember that you can get rid of the atmosphere entirely by using addMoon: instead.

Limitation: atmospheres configured this way will not be displayed when setting up a scene using setBackgroundFromDescriptionsKey:. Since this is completely undocumented, and I have no idea whether it actually works, that shouldn’t affect anyone. :-)

[Commander McLane]

Wow, that was fast! And even better than I imagined!

P.S.: Why was this not a scripting request? It's an addition of commands/methods/keys for one of the plists. It enhances functionality, doesn't it?

Please post specific requests for scripting functionality here.

[JensAyton]

The configuration plists, in general, are not scripts.

[Commander McLane]

Okay, okay, I get your point.

Nevertheless we are using them along with our scripts, aren't we?

And even if the look of planets or moons is mostly a cosmetic feature, I can easily imagine an OXP needing a specific cosmetic feature to work (in order to develop a certain storyline).

[Arexack_Heretic]

such as a field of dust instead of a planet?

[Commander McLane]

Nice idea, A_H! I have to admit that I had nothing special in mind.

[TGHC]

Would Saturn type rings be possible?

[Killer Wolf]

what i'd like to see, might not be possible : for me the planets seem to rotate too fast. i'd like them to be static, and have the skin for them split into night and day sides. you sometimes come up to planets on their "dark side", i think it would be nice if the skin there was mostly dark, w/ little light clusters for cities etc.

[Commander McLane]

The rotational velocity of the planets is one thing that can be set already, so it can also be set to zero. The skin depends on their texture. Why not texture a planet with citylights? Of course you then have to place it right, so that the dark side is really the side away from the sun. But that can be done by trial and error at least, and perhaps in a smart way as well. Or you have citylights everywhere, but not very bright, more yellowish then snow-white. Then perhaps you wouldn't notice them on the sunlit side of the planet.

Might try this out with a texture of the nightly Earth.

[CAPTN_SPARROW]

is it going to be possible to land on the planets like in frontier?

[JensAyton]

No.