Oolite Bulletins

Moons

Core pack

Latest OXZ - Version 1.1.1
Updated 09 February 2019

Moon texture pack

Latest OXZ - Version 1.2.0
Updated 28 November 2020

There are 19 natural satellites in our Solar System massive enough to have achieved hydrostatic equilibrium (having shape of globe, not irregular shape like potato). One large moon of Earth, four Galilean moons of Jupiter, seven moons of Saturn, five moons of Uranus, one moon of Neptune and Pluto.
How many moons we have in generic Ooniverse system?
Exactly zero.
Well, obsolete System Redux pseudo-randomly generates maximum two moons of main planet in static configuration. Additional Planets SR pseudo-randomly generates maximum three moons of additional planets in static configuration too.
Having pseudo-dynamic solar system in Planetary Systems, simulation of pseudo-dynamic moons is logical next step.

Two moon sets implemented in Moons OXP: 2 main planet moons (Terran moons) and 2 moons of gas giant (Jovian moons). Positions of Terran moons are calculated to simulate circular orbits (the Third Kepler's law used, but constant of gravity is not matched exactly with real value to simplify code). Positions of Jovian moons are vectors with pseudo-random magnitudes and random orientations (Oolite is not planetarium software and I have no ambitions to simulate orbital mechanics in details!).
Why only two moons of Jupiter analog, not all four?
Lazy coding You always has centers of three objects (planet and two moons) in one plane.
There is some trick in seeding of Jovian moons. Planetary Systems needs some time to place planets on calculated orbits, so to place Jovian moons correctly you need some time lag. But if you are using Planetary Compass OXP (author Thargoid), too long time offset will prevent generated moons to be displayed on ASC. Seems Planetary Compass completes system scan and generation of navigation database before seeding of Jovian moons, so these moons remains unvisible to ASC. This issue was fixed by reducing time lag from initial 1 s to 0.2 s.

Conflicts and dependencies

Due to large moons you need Planetary Systems OXP to use Moons.
Distance between main planet and large moon is in range 16...24 main planet radii, comparable with distance to sun in vanilla Ooniverse. So Sun Gear OXP is obligatory too. In any case you need Sun Gear for correct functionality of Planetary Systems.
Planetary Systems also provides additional option - displays Moon Data Sheet if you are docked with moon surface port. See Planetary Systems readme file for more details.
Using Moons with Additional Planets SR can generate logical collision as a result of conflicting mechanisms of moon seeding.

Moons OXP structure

To provide easy updates all moon textures repacked as separate texture pack.
Moons.oxp - core package.
Moons Texture Pack.oxp - Textures.

Credits

A piece of code from Additional Planets SR base 0.6 (authors: spara, Redspear, phkb) and Orbits (authors: Ebi, Kaks) is used to calculate orbits of main planet moons.
See more detailed moon texture credits in Texture Pack Readme document.

I look forward to trying this out (along with sun gear etc.)

I didn't realise that sun radius was included in planetinfo.plist, so this could combine very nicely with my rescaling work (fingers crossed...)

Reading a bit about your rescaling project, Redspear. Think I'll ask some questions later - after New Horizons fly-by Ultima Thule

I hadn't thought that the Ooniverse lacks moons, but it does! Or it did . .

UK_Eliter wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:07 am

I hadn't thought that the Ooniverse lacks moons, but it does! Or it did . .

Thank you!

UK_Eliter wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:07 am

I hadn't thought that the Ooniverse lacks moons, but it does! Or it did . .

+1

Some screenshots would be nice!

UK_Eliter wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:42 pm

Some screenshots would be nice!

OK, I'll post it later.

OK, how it looks.

moons-001
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Y7ioe ... r2wh4CTNv4

Screenshot taken returning from in-system flight. Distance to Zaonce Prime approx. 1.4 OU.
No more huge planet disks behind sun.

moons-002
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iYeLP ... SmwT2bAyoT

Arrival to Zaonce Prime. Screenshot taken to get impression of planet/moon scale. Zaonce Prime is in custom tailor-made texture.

moons-003
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Fsi8J ... 5-yNLIpgGf

Just another shot of Zaonce Prime and moon.

Nice! Thanks. How about a close up? (Also, it's possible to embed images into posts, but the images dimensions must be below certain limits, though I forget what the limits are.)

I'll post close-ups later. Perhaps close-ups will be not so cool - there is degradation of image sharpness due to limit of texture resolution. Below altitude H = R it is noticeable.
There is also graphical glitch, making moon textures too grainy from large distance. I don't know how to avoid it.
Cody told me that upper limit of embedded image size is 1000 pixels width.

This is a very good material for some excellent screenshot composition!
Very nice!

Thanks, Getafix!

Moons in OXZ version is available.