An idea for a new feature

[Avhaz]

I was just thinking the other day that it might be great if we could create planetary rings For example it would be great to make a nice render with the camera on the default planet and have a huge planet up in the sky with some massive planetary rings around it Any thoughts?

[Will]

yes Ive been thinking about this, Ive also noticed that the atompheric floor is always a negitive I wonder if you set it to a positive what would happen.

[jo]

Hi,

You can make planetary rings already. One ( or more ) of the alpha testers has done it. I forget how they did it exactly, maybe they will chime in and say. I think it involved a population of rock objects and a disk to control the distribution or something. We could very well have a planetary rings node or preset in the future though, to save you some work.

Regards,

Jo

[Cyber-Angel]

I heard tell long ago that some future version of Terragen would be able to do planetary rings like the ones in the Planetside logo: but that was some time ago I think it was about the time it was mentioned that 0.9.xx would be receiving the ability to generate boulders.

Some things to keep in mind when viewed form certain angles planetary ring systems have a level of translucency to them and this phenomenon has been seen in the ring systems of both Saturn and Uranus.

Also keep in mind that the individual rings in a ring system can and often are variable in both width and thicknesses not only between rings in any given indiviual ring its self.

The spacing between one ring and its counterparts either side can and often is variable and may or may not be equidistant in its spacing.

If it's planed to include planetary rings in the future then it would be a good idea if Planetside worked with a professional astronomer on putting together the parameters needed for such ring systems.

These need to be Procedural in nature so that they will take close ups, at a certain distance away you would be able to discern individual rock fragments in the ring system.

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel 

[Will]

Thats a very good point Cyber-Angel It could also be done use, as jo said, a population on a disk but perhaps allow for a feathering effect around the edges to acount for thediminished gravity. Also it would have to be done in such a way that, like you said, it would look good in a close up shot.

[The Geostation]

Interesting to see that the method for making planetary rings (many rocks around a planet) actually mimics reality 

Andrew Randle
The Geostation

[Cyber-Angel]

 It would work even better if Terragen had a full particle system that included a particle replacement system where you can replace the particles with geometry, and this partical system would need to be a where of gravity.

The larger the mass the greater the force of gravity (Please correct me if wrong) the tech preview allows you to determine the radius of a planet a body of know radius will have a known mass, thus the gravitational force produced by that body can be determined and thus can be calculated the effect on any smaller bodies in orbit.

The situation is made more complicated when you add in the effects of Axial tilt and rotational centripetal force and the gravitational effects of any moon/s in orbit of the planetary body; as to the rocks the make up the rings them selves their behaviour is determined by Complexity Theory, The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and Chaos Theory these are on top of the effects already outlined.


"Oh yes, please feel free to correct any errors here it's been a while since I have had to deal with this stuff."

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel

[Will]

yes, I wonder if such a thing was possable to simulate in terragen wether could could create a situation where a moon in in the prossec of being created though the colloection the the matter inside the ring. Also by centripical force I imagine you mean the inerta of the inividual patricals (or rocks) have and the interaction they have with each other. Also have the stuff I say (most of it accualy) I only have a vauge understanding of Im still in high school so my knowlage of the physical interaction of astrological...stuff is not really all the great.

[Cyber-Angel]

Sorry, for a better understanding of what I mean see this artical on Wikipidia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centripetal_force

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel

[Will]

hmm strange my physical sciene teacher freshman year said that centripical force did not exist it was just the comination of inertia and the phyical interactions of two or more objects...hmmm oh well thats what you get for having a bio teacher for intro to physics. I wish I new about programming so I could some how created a way to use net force to effect cloud systems taking in factors like heat, moisture ect.

[Matt]

Hi Will,

I think your teacher meant centrifugal force. It is true that centrifugal force is not a real force.

Centripetal is a real force - this is a force acting towards the centre of the rotation. When you are inside a spinning drum, the centripetal force is the force from the inside of the drum pushing you towards the centre, preventing you from flying outside the drum. Centrifugal force, on the other hand, is commonly thought to be the force that is pushing away from the centre and against the outside of the drum, but really there is no such force (your body just naturally wants to continue along its original straight line path but the outside if the drum prevents that with centripetal force.

[3DGuy]

The larger the mass the greater the force of gravity (Please correct me if wrong) the tech preview allows you to determine the radius of a planet a body of know radius will have a known mass, thus the gravitational force produced by that body can be determined and thus can be calculated the effect on any smaller bodies in orbit.

That all depends on the type of planet. i.e. what is the planet made of. A gass giant is much larger than a solid planet of the same mass. So, planet radius in itself doesn't tell you much about the mass.

[Will]

Hi Will,

I think your teacher meant centrifugal force. It is true that centrifugal force is not a real force.

Centripetal is a real force - this is a force acting towards the centre of the rotation. When you are inside a spinning drum, the centripetal force is the force from the inside of the drum pushing you towards the centre, preventing you from flying outside the drum. Centrifugal force, on the other hand, is commonly thought to be the force that is pushing away from the centre and against the outside of the drum, but really there is no such force (your body just naturally wants to continue along its original straight line path but the outside if the drum prevents that with centripetal force.

Ah that would explain it, thank you for clearing that up Matt. 3Dguy does have a good point also think about a black hole.

Regards,

Will

EDIT: Spelled hole correctly just for calico

[rcallicotte]

Will,

There's no such thing as a black whole.     

[Will]

Fixed it , anyway ive been playing around with it trying to but populations on a disk but without the registered version its kind of hard. Do you guys think a fake stone shader would work for this type of thing?

Regards,

Will