Everything that (I know) about planet editing for you to get started!
Basic Guide to Planet Editing
All credit goes to Bruhbb_by!
How to Create a New Pack
Copy and Paste (CTRL + V CTRL + C) the “example” file on Custom Solar Systems in Spaceflight Simulator_Data then rename it to anything you’d like.
Making & Editing Planet
How to Create & Name a Planet
- Copy and paste or just use a stock planet.
- Right click on the .txt file and click ‘rename’ then rename it to anything you’d like.
Editing the planet
Base Data
- Radius – The radius of the planet.
- Gravity – The higher the number the heavier.
- Timewarp Height – When the player is able to teleport (Measured in meters).
- Velocity Arrows Height – When the player sees the velocity arrows (Measured in meters + they show how fast you’re going vertically and horizontally).
- Map Color – What color the planet will be on the map.
Note: Do not make the values go higher than 1.0 then it appear black it can only from 0.1-1.9̅9.
Atmosphere Physics
- Height – How high the atmosphere is (Measured in meters).
- Density – The higher the number to more drag meaning you will fall faster.
- Curve – Sadly don’t know.
- Parachute Multiplier – The higher the number the more effect the parachute will do if 0 then it won’t work.
- Shockwave Intensity – How intense the camera the shakes during re-entry.
- Heating Velocity Multiplier – The faster you go the more heat is applied 0.0 for no atmosphere, 1.0 for thick atmospheres like Earth.
Atmosphere Visuals
- PositionZ – Sadly don’t know.
- Height – How high the atmosphere visual is (Measured in meters).
- Texture – The texture you want for the visual.
To make a texture work you need to put a texture in Texture Data as a .jpeg or .png.
Clouds Data
- Texture – The texture you want for the clouds.
- Start Height – The height the clouds start at.
- Width – Width of the clouds.
- Height – Height of the clouds.
- Alpha – How transparent it is 0.0 being fully transparent and 1.0 being fully visible.
- Velocity – How fast the clouds move I think measured in m/s.
Fog Data
The fog color of the planet. I’d recommend using Mars fog data for red desert-type planets, Earth for habitable planets and etc. There is a picture of a planet in SFS to show what I mean cause I hate explaining this.- Terrain Data
- Planet Texture – The texture of the planet that you see when zooming out.
- Planet Texture Cutout – Keep this on 1.0 I’d recommend.
Everything is too complicated to really explain.
Orbit Data
- Parent – Which planet/moon the planet/moon orbits.
- Semi Major Axis – High far out the planet is from it’s ‘parent’ (I’d assume measured in meters as well).
- Eccentricity – 0.0 means a complete circular orbit but changing it to something like 1.0 makes it more curved.
Idk what arguement of Periapsis mean
- Direction – 1 means it orbits the planet/moon/sun counterclockwise and -1 means it orbits the planets/moon/sun clockwise.
- Multiplier SOI – How large the Sphere of Influence of the planet is.
I would explain landmarks but it’s mostly just guessing angles.
I incorrectly stated the semi axis equation. its as follows…
A Jupiter SA
B Saturn SA
C result of B divided by A
Then take the number in the program’s SA for Jupiter and multiply it by the result of C above, this number is Saturn’s SA for the program.
Jupiter and Saturn will be correctly proportioned to the sun
Arguement of Periapsis is related to Eccentricity. If eccentricity is set to something other that 0.0, then you will have an oval instead of a circle. Arguement of Periapsis tells the program which part of the oval orbit is closest to the parent body vs farthest. If you’re going for accuracy, all this information is available on Wikipedia.
Semi Major Axis (or orbit hight) is not measured in meters. Its a completely program independent number. When I designed an accurately represented solar system, I took the default number from Jupiter as my baseline and calculated the bodies of the rest of the system based on that. Doesn’t matter what units you use (m, km, AU, ly) as long as you use the same units in the equation. To get my orbiting body’s correct SA number, I took Jupiter’s & (lets say) Saturn’s distances from the sun. B (Saturn) distance divided by A (distance) = XX.XXXX. Take Jupiter’s Semi Axis number and multiply it by this result. (B\A=?, Jup*?=Saturn’s Semi Axis input). You can use this exact same formula for the radius too if you wish.
SOI multiplier (sphere of influence) is calculated based on the gravity of orbiting body and the gravity of the parent body. I don’t know it. The easiest route i took (if you want to change it) is I just adjusted it a couple times and observed the change, remembering each time, and continued until the SOI was where I wanted it to be.
And thank you OP for this article.
Thank mate! Very useful info.