Page 1 of 2

Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 12:34 am
by stranger
Habitable Main Planets

Current OXZ - Version 1.6.0.
Uploaded 08 December 2020.

Can planet with radius 3000 km or so be advanced agriculture world with population of billions residents? Definitely no any way. Such planet is too small to maintain dense AND warm atmosphere. Located in habitable zone small planet would has extremely rarefied atmosphere with pressure about few millibars or less.
This OXP redefines vanilla planet database to more realistic values.

Habitable Main Planets was developed to adopt PlanetEngine, integrated onto Planetary Systems OXP, to main planets. PlanetEngine calculates atmosphere temperatures and pressures depending of planet mass and insolation level, but some of vanilla main planet population has unrealistically low radii to be densely populated worlds.
PlanetEngine with Habitable Main Planets gives more reliable data for main planets too.

Range of main planets radii redefined from vanilla 2820...6911 km to 2505...7496 km. As a result average planet radius increased from vanilla 4870 to 5465 km.
Minimal radii of planets with biomarkers in description such as tree, forests, ocean etc are increased to 5425 km.
Minimal radii of agricultural planets with TL > 3 AND without biomarkers are increased to 4450 km.
Radii of all above listed planet are proportionally scaled using 6400 km radius as reference point.
Radii of some Famous Planets are readjusted individually using above mentioned rules of thumb.

Minimal air pressure on surface level for planets with biomarkers is approx. 0.5 bar, permitting flourishing natural ecosystems and outdoor activity without breathing equipment.
Minimal air pressure on surface level for agricultural planets or Famous Planets without biomarkers is approx. 0.2 bars, permitting outdoor activity without pressurized suits, only with breathing equipment. It seems too harsh environment for advanced agricultural worlds, but aquaponic farms can be solution.
Small agricultural planets with TL < 4 has too low air pressure to permit any outdoor activity without pressurized suits. Due to new legend such planets are mining worlds, but it is a different story.
More info about PlanetEngine will be in the relevant topic.

Dependencies

Habitable Main Planets OXP can be used per se as pure ambience, bit it provides more realistic background for PlanetEngine. So Sun Gear and Planetary System OXPs are recommended.
Now Habitable Main Planets declared as obligatory in Sun Gear manifest.

Known Issues

Unfortunately this readjusting did not completely eliminates conflicts with vanilla descriptions such as "The planet Atrare is cursed by vicious mountain monkeys" (case for poor industrial planet with radius 3144 km). Procedural generation is so procedural :-)
Setting minimal radius to 4250 km or above will partially solve problem, but I prefer to allow more variation in main planet physical conditions. If you plan terraforming missions planet with almost zero atmosphere pressure will be a bit wrong target, isn't it?
Distance between witchpoint and main planet in vanilla game is pseudo-random value in range 10...14 main planet radii. Since Oolite 1.82 this distance is defined as absolute value – parameter planet_distance, so increasing Lave vanilla radius from 4116 km to 5821 km for example will only slightly affect distance from witchpoint to main station and travel time. Main station is always positioned on distance to main planet surface equal to main planet radius, but some OXPs using absolute coordinates for positioning of additional objects will not function as intended after installing Habitable Main Planets.

UPD

Improved visual appearance of all main planets is included onto Habitanle Main Planets since version 1.5. See my post from 25.10.2020 for more details.

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 6:55 am
by another_commander
Unfortunately this readjusting did not completely eliminates conflicts with vanilla descriptions such as "The planet Atrare is cursed by vicious mountain monkeys" (case for poor industrial planet with radius 3144 km). Procedural generation is so procedural
In Oolite 1.88 the vast majority of planet data is not procedural. There should be nothing stopping you from overriding the descriptions of planets inside your own planetinfo.plist.

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 7:27 am
by stranger
another_commander wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 6:55 am
Unfortunately this readjusting did not completely eliminates conflicts with vanilla descriptions such as "The planet Atrare is cursed by vicious mountain monkeys" (case for poor industrial planet with radius 3144 km). Procedural generation is so procedural
In Oolite 1.88 the vast majority of planet data is not procedural. There should be nothing stopping you from overriding the descriptions of planets inside your own planetinfo.plist.
Of course planet data in Oolite are not procedural generated per se. It just replicates procedural generated data of 8-bit Elite planet data for historical reasons.
Overriding of vanilla planet descriptions in Famous Planets was terminated after approx. 100 entries, so vast majority of Oolite planets has descriptions inherited from procedure generated Elite world. This is more correct formulation of problem.
I don't think these vicious mountain monkeys and spotted wolves are bad - this is a part of fun :D

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:34 pm
by Damocles Edge
Hi Just thought I would report back a few of my findings after playing this oxp for a while.
I found that whilst I was at Cevege (TL12 Communist state in galaxy 1) that the oxp appeared to have strongly altered the geometry of the map.
Travelling to a Collective Zero Gravity Factory (located right next to the sun) would usually take a considerable journey even using torus drive, with HMP installed it seemed a very short journey (almost like the planet and the sun were almost beside each other). If more info needed see http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/CZGF

I also found that the Collective Zero Gravity Factory constantly seemed to have traffic stuck in docking queues, it appeared that ships would stop on approach and allow traffic to build up, almost like the ship at the front was confused or unsure. If I was persistent and patient I could move my ship to within 200 - 300 metres behind the stuck ship in order to get it to slowly move forward a short distance, by slowly doing this repeatedly I could eventually get it to dock.
Wish I had taken some screen shots for you to show what I mean.
I must also stress that I only tried using this oxp in 1 or 2 systems (think I also went to Raoror TL9 Anarchy which is 1 jump away from Cevege)

Hope this may be of some help.

Cheers

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2019 11:32 pm
by stranger
Habitable Main Planets was planned to use in vast solar systems, generated by Sun Gear and Planetary Systems. Maybe it will be better to declare HMP dependency from Planetary Systems in future update - without Planetary Systems it is just ambience with already mentioned issues.
There are issues with correct positioning of some objects in vast dynamic solar systems. Maybe Rustem will help to fix these issues - he has more adequate skills in this area.
And thank you for feedback once more!

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 2:58 am
by Damocles Edge
stranger wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 11:32 pm
Habitable Main Planets was planned to use in vast solar systems, generated by Sun Gear and Planetary Systems. Maybe it will be better to declare HMP dependency from Planetary Systems in future update
Apologies - I should have pointed out that I am using Planetfall oxp rather than Planertary systems as it is available via the in-game download manager.
Will be Planetary systems oxp be added to the download manager?

Thanks

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 3:15 am
by stranger
You have no reasons to apologize, sir! I must apologize for issues with Sun Gear and HMP.
Yes, Planetary Systems will be uploaded later (I hope, this week).
Planetary Systems is not alternative for Planetfall. You can use Planetfall with Planetary Systems and Moons, I hope.

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 9:28 pm
by Damocles Edge
Just realised that I am confusing Planetary Systems with PlanetLand :oops:
Eejit! :lol:

Speaking of which is there a download for PlanetLand available ?

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:28 pm
by stranger
PlanetLand is a bit different story. It is heavy modified PlanetFall with concept "one planet - one port", but with improved market rules (price and quantity of item depends on system TL and economic specialization) and tons of graphics.
Graphics is a main issue. Assembling this OXP personally for me and my friends from Russian Ooniverse, using sci-fi and landscape wallpapers. So part of content may be in "gray" legal zone. :oops:
Maybe it will be better to reassemble PlanetLand in lite version before presentation.
In any case PlanetLand is terminal branch of my personal Ooniverse. It depends on Planetary Systems and System Makeup (not presented yet too), so I'll convert my OXPs step by step - firstly Sun Gear, then Planetary Systems and Moons.

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 1:22 am
by stranger
The main changes in HMP version 1.4 - now all 2048 main planets has redefined radii.
1. Main planets population is rescaled from vanilla 2820...6911 km to 2505...7496 km radius. Having terrestrial planets in Planetary System from 2500 to 7500 km radius it is quite logical reason to match this range.
2. Additional radius readjustments were applied to planets with biomarkers and to agricultural planets with TL > 3.
3. Famous Planets were readjusted individually to match descriptions.
Changes reflects in updated OXP description.
Enjoy!

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 12:06 am
by stranger
New features of Habitable Main Planets - improved visual appearance of main planets.

Can you disappointed with default visual appearance of Oolite main planets? Well, air haze around planet limb and oceans with sun reflections are pretty cool, but yellow, cyan and magenta oceans and continents are… Strange? Weird? Ugly? Listen, water is quite common matter in known universe and if it is liquid water on surface of Gliese 667 Cc or some other exoplanet world, it will probably looks like Earth sea or lake, with blue tint, not magenta. Of course, in theory there are more exotic thalassogenes, but it is hard to imagine advanced agricultural world with oceans of hydrofluoric acid or liquid sulphur, right?

Fortunately, it is possible to redefine surface and ocean colors to more realistic looking appearance. Unfortunately, despite obvious improvement procedural generation of planets in Oolite still has limited ways to control. You can generate planet with ocean and islands. Or desert planet with inland seas. But it is hard to generate something like Earth with several large continents and oceans. You can generate some looking as green coastal lowlands and arid highlands. But not climate zones, not large inland deserts, not such prominent terrain details as mountain ridges, canyons, planes and river networks.
In any case I hope it will be fun to enjoy new planet appearance.

It is not just visual make-up. PlanetEngine was used to calculate physical properties and surface conditions of all 2048 main planets. So planet with 3000 km radius will look like Mars, not like little Earth twin. Cold worlds will have more developed polar ice caps. Advanced agricultural worlds will have more water and will be more green than industrial. And so on.

There are some “pink oceans” in Oolite canon. Color of oceans for such planets was readjusted individually – not to vivid pink, but to blue with magenta tint… you can imagine to observe really pink ocean from planet surface, not from orbit.
There are also some Famous Planets with remarkable visual appearance. Readjusted individually to match Famous Planets descriptions as possible. I’m planning to create new individual textures for some Famous Planets. Be patient – it is not easy work.

There is some issue with Oolite engine. If you’ll look at Zaonce, for example, from Lave, you’ll see low-res image on F7 screen with prominent noise. But after jumping to Zaonce you’ll see crisp image of planet. I have no idea how to fix this issue. It is clearly noticeable for default planet textures too. Seems Galcop witchspace transmission relays has low bandwidth. :-)

Enjoy!

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:00 am
by another_commander
Very nice work! Some of these new planets are truly a sight to behold.

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:27 am
by stranger
another_commander wrote: Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:00 am
Very nice work! Some of these new planets are truly a sight to behold.
Thank you, sir!

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:34 pm
by Reval
I have to say this is one of my favourite OXPs. One of my 3 'desert island' OXPs. It brings a deep new dimension to the Ooniverse experience. Indebted to you for making me come back for more :)

Re: Habitable Main Planets

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 3:41 pm
by Cholmondely
stranger wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:28 pm
PlanetLand is a bit different story. It is heavy modified PlanetFall with concept "one planet - one port", but with improved market rules (price and quantity of item depends on system TL and economic specialization) and tons of graphics.
Graphics is a main issue. Assembling this OXP personally for me and my friends from Russian Ooniverse, using sci-fi and landscape wallpapers. So part of content may be in "gray" legal zone. :oops:
Maybe it will be better to reassemble PlanetLand in lite version before presentation.
In any case PlanetLand is terminal branch of my personal Ooniverse. It depends on Planetary Systems and System Makeup (not presented yet too), so I'll convert my OXPs step by step - firstly Sun Gear, then Planetary Systems and Moons.
There are some PlanetLand pictures here http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/User:Stranger