SpaceEngine

Last updated
SpaceEngine
Original author(s) Vladimir Romanyuk
Developer(s) Cosmographic Software
Initial release0.74 / June 2010
Stable release
0.990.47.2015 / 18 April, 2024
Preview release
0.990.46.1980 / September 20, 2023
Written in
Operating system
Size 4 GB (software only) to 50 GB (with all optional DLCs: Solar System HD texture packs)
Available inMore than 20 languages
List of languages
English, Catalan, Croatian, Chinese, Czech, Spanish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Armenian, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, etc.
Type Space simulation
License Proprietary [1]
Website spaceengine.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

SpaceEngine is an interactive 3D planetarium and astronomy software [2] initially developed by Russian astronomer and programmer Vladimir Romanyuk, [3] with development continued by Cosmographic Software as of 2022. It creates a 1:1 scale three-dimensional planetarium representing the entire observable universe from a combination of real astronomical data and scientifically accurate procedural generation algorithms. Users can travel through space in any direction or speed, and forwards or backwards in time. [4] SpaceEngine is in beta status and up to version 0.9.8.0E, released in August 2017, it was available as a freeware download for Microsoft Windows. Version 0.990 beta was the first paid edition, released in June 2019 on Steam. The program has full support for VR headsets.

Contents

Properties of objects, such as temperature, mass, radius, spectrum, etc., are presented to the user on the HUD and in an accessible information window. Users can observe celestial objects ranging from small asteroids or moons to large galaxy clusters, akin to other simulators such as Celestia, OpenSpace, Gaia Sky, and Nightshade NG. The default version of SpaceEngine includes over 130,000 real objects, including stars from the Hipparcos catalog, galaxies from the NGC and IC catalogs, many well-known nebulae, and all known exoplanets and their stars. [1]

Functionality

The UI of SpaceEngine, showing a procedurally generated earth-like planet with planetary rings. SpaceEngine gameplayss.png
The UI of SpaceEngine, showing a procedurally generated earth-like planet with planetary rings.

The proclaimed goal of SpaceEngine is scientific realism, and to reproduce every type of known astronomical phenomenon. [1] It uses star catalogs along with procedural generation to create a cubical universe over 10 billion parsecs (32.6 billion light-years) on each side, roughly centered on the barycenter of the Solar System. Within the software, users can use search tools to filter through astronomical objects based on certain characteristics. In the case of planets and moons, specific environmental types, surface temperatures, and pressures can be used to filter through the vast amount of different procedurally generated worlds.

SpaceEngine also has a built-in flight simulator (currently in Alpha) which allows for users to spawn in a selection of fictional spacecraft which can be flown in an accurate model of orbital mechanics and also an atmospheric flight model when entering the atmospheres of the various planets and moons. The spacecraft range from small SSTO spaceplanes, to large interstellar spacecraft which are all designed with realism in mind, featuring radiators, fusion rockets, and micrometeorite shields. [5] Interstellar spacecraft simulate the hypothetical Alcubierre drive, including the relativistic effects that would occur in reality. [6]

Catalog objects

The real objects that SpaceEngine includes are the Hipparcos catalog for stars, the NGC and IC catalogs for galaxies, all known exoplanets, and prominent star clusters, nebulae, and Solar System objects including some comets and asteroids. [1]

Procedurally generated objects

Objects that are procedurally generated in Space Engine are aimed to be as realistic as possible. The objects include galaxies, star clusters (open and globular), nebulae and individual stars, containing terrestrial planets and gas giants and moons. These objects, like non-procedurally generated objects, can be saved manually by the user and searched for.

Wiki and locations

The software has its own built-in "wiki" database which gives detailed information on all celestial objects and enables a player to create custom names and descriptions for them. It also has a locations database where a player can save any position and time in the simulation and load it again in the future. [7]

Extensions

SpaceEngine has a fairly large modding community dedicated to expanding on the program's current catalogues, improving things like texture quality, and even improving the program's terrain and cloud generation as a whole (See Rodrigo's Mod). Some SE add-on creators create fictional star systems for their worldbuilding project, others do 3D modelling for spacecraft add-ons, and some do completely different things. These extensions are all available for download from SpaceEngine's Web Forums.

Limitations

Although objects that form part of a planetary system move, and stars rotate about their axes and orbit each other in multiple star systems, stellar proper motion or precession is not simulated, and galaxies are at fixed locations and do not rotate.

Most real-world spacecraft such as Voyager 2 are not provided with SpaceEngine. The few spacecraft that are included do not use real trajectories or accurate orientations.

Interstellar light absorption is not modeled in SpaceEngine. [1]

Intrinsic variable stars are not supported by SpaceEngine. In fact, most, if not all, simulators do not support intrinsic variable stars.

Gravity is not simulated in SpaceEngine outside the orbits of moons, planets and stars in a system, with the exception of the controllable spacecraft.

Development

Development of SpaceEngine began in 2005, [8] with its first public release in June 2010. The software is written in C++. The engine uses OpenGL as its graphical API and uses shaders written in GLSL. As of the release of version 0.990, the shaders have been encrypted to protect against plagiarism. Plans have been made to start opening them in a way that allows the community to develop special content for the game, with ship engine effects being made available to users who have purchased the game. [9]

On May 27, 2019, the Steam store page for SpaceEngine was made public in preparation for the release of the first paid version, 0.990 beta. [10]

SpaceEngine is currently only available for Windows PCs; however, there are plans for the software to support macOS and Linux in the future. [11] Even though SpaceEngine only natively supports Windows, the Steam version can be run on Linux via Steam's Proton compatibility tool.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebula</span> Body of interstellar clouds

A nebula is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula. In these regions, the formations of gas, dust, and other materials "clump" together to form denser regions, which attract further matter and eventually become dense enough to form stars. The remaining material is then thought to form planets and other planetary system objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of space science</span> Overview of and topical guide to space science

The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to space science:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronomy</span> Scientific study of celestial objects

Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outer space</span> Void between celestial bodies

Outer space is the expanse beyond celestial bodies and their atmospheres. It contains ultra-low levels of particle densities, constituting a near-perfect vacuum of predominantly hydrogen and helium plasma, permeated by electromagnetic radiation, cosmic rays, neutrinos, magnetic fields and dust. The baseline temperature of outer space, as set by the background radiation from the Big Bang, is 2.7 kelvins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celestia</span> Astronomy computer program

Celestia is a real-time 3D astronomy software program that was created in 2001 by Chris Laurel. The program allows users to virtually travel through the universe and explore celestial objects that have been catalogued. Celestia also doubles as a planetarium, but the user is not restricted to the Earth's surface, like in other planetarium software such as Stellarium. Celestia can display objects of various scales using OpenGL.

<i>Orbiter</i> (simulator) 2000 video game

Orbiter is a space flight simulator program developed to simulate spaceflight using realistic Newtonian physics. The simulator was released on 27 November 2000; the latest edition, labeled "Orbiter 2016", was released on 30 August 2016, the first new version of the simulator since 2010. On 27 July 2021, Dr Schweiger announced to the Orbiter Community that Orbiter is being published under open source MIT license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lists of astronomical objects</span>

This is a list of lists, grouped by type of astronomical object.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deep-sky object</span> Any astronomical object that is not an individual star

A deep-sky object (DSO) is any astronomical object that is not an individual star or Solar System object. The classification is used for the most part by amateur astronomers to denote visually observed faint naked eye and telescopic objects such as star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. This distinction is practical and technical, implying a variety of instruments and techniques appropriate to observation, and does not distinguish the nature of the object itself.

<i>Microsoft Space Simulator</i> 1994 video game

Microsoft Space Simulator is a space flight simulator program, based on Microsoft Flight Simulator for MS-DOS. It was one of the first general-purpose space flight simulators and it incorporated concepts from astrodynamics, motion, and celestial mechanics. Microsoft Space Simulator is a space flight simulator program that was developed by Microsoft and released in 1994. The program allows users to experience the thrill of space flight, while also providing a realistic simulation of the physics and mechanics of space travel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmic dust</span> Dust floating in space

Cosmic dust – also called extraterrestrial dust, space dust, or star dust – is dust that occurs in outer space or has fallen onto Earth. Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and 0.1 mm (100 μm), such as micrometeoroids. Larger particles are called meteoroids. Cosmic dust can be further distinguished by its astronomical location: intergalactic dust, interstellar dust, interplanetary dust, and circumplanetary dust. There are several methods to obtain space dust measurement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of astronomy</span>

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to astronomy:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer</span> NASA satellite of the Explorer program

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009. WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and numerous star clusters. Its observations also supported the discovery of the first Y-type brown dwarf and Earth trojan asteroid. WISE performed an all-sky astronomical survey with images in 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 μm wavelength range bands, over ten months using a 40 cm (16 in) diameter infrared telescope in Earth orbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WorldWide Telescope</span> Set of open-source services

WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is an open-source set of applications, data and cloud services, originally created by Microsoft Research but now an open source project hosted on GitHub. The .NET Foundation holds the copyright and the project is managed by the American Astronomical Society and has been supported by grants from the Moore Foundation and National Science Foundation. WWT displays astronomical, earth and planetary data allowing visual navigation through the 3-dimensional (3D) Universe. Users are able to navigate the sky by panning and zooming, or explore the 3D universe from the surface of Earth to past the Cosmic microwave background (CMB), viewing both visual imagery and scientific data about that area and the objects in it. Data is curated from hundreds of different data sources, but its open data nature allows users to explore any third party data that conforms to a WWT supported format. With the rich source of multi-spectral all-sky images it is possible to view the sky in many wavelengths of light. The software utilizes Microsoft's Visual Experience Engine technologies to function. WWT can also be used to visualize arbitrary or abstract data sets and time series data.

Digital Universe Atlas is a free open source software planetarium application, available under the terms of the Illinois Open Source License, and running on Linux, Windows, macOS, AmigaOS 4, and IRIX.

Universe Sandbox is a series of interactive space sandbox gravity simulator educational software video games. Using Universe Sandbox, users can see the effects of gravity on objects in the universe and run scale simulations of the Solar System, various galaxies or other simulations, while at the same time interacting and maintaining control over gravity, time, and other objects in the universe, such as moons, planets, asteroids, comets, and black holes. The original Universe Sandbox was only available for Windows-based PCs, but an updated version was released for Windows, macOS, and Linux in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenUniverse</span>

OpenUniverse is a 3D Solar System simulator created by Raúl Alonso Álvarez. It uses OpenGL 1.1 to simulate the Solar system in complete 3D, including its planets and their major and minor moons, along with a few asteroids with real 3D models created from real data. OpenUniverse is free software distributed under the GNU General Public License. OU is compatible with Windows 95/98/NT/2000, Linux/Unix, and MacOS, and OpenGL 1.1 drivers are required for the program to run correctly. A high-resolution texture pack is available on the SourceForge, and it is linked on the official website under the Download section.

Nightshade is a simulation and visualization software for teaching and exploring astronomy, Earth science, and related topics. Its focus is on use in digital planetarium systems or as an educational tool, with additional features to allow it to also be used on desktop or laptop computers. It operates on Linux, macOS and Windows.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Vladimir, Romanyuk. "Space Engine - Frequently Asked Questions". en.spaceengine.org. Archived from the original on 2015-09-30. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  2. ↑ "SpaceEngine". The world's first science-based photorealistic interactive 3D planetarium that models the entire Universe, using procedural generation for uncharted areas.
  3. ↑ Thomas Tamblyn (October 21, 2014). "Man Builds Massive Virtual Universe You Can Download And Explore". The Huffington Post . Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  4. ↑ Cara Ellison (March 11, 2013). "2012: A Space Engine". Rock, Paper, Shotgun . Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Space ships – Space Engine". spaceengine.org. Retrieved 2022-01-24.
  6. ↑ "Space Flight School – Space Engine". spaceengine.org. Retrieved 2022-01-24.
  7. ↑ Wilke, Stephan (10 May 2013). "Mit Space Engine 0.97 das Weltall erkunden: Faszinierende Ansichten des Universums". PC Games Hardware. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  8. ↑ "Интервью с разработчиком SpaceEngine - Владимиром Романюком" [Interview with developer of SpaceEngine - Vladimir Romanyuk] (in Russian). Elite Games. 2012-03-12. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
  9. ↑ "0.990.41 Public Beta Release". 2 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
  10. ↑ Romanyuk, Vladimir (2019-05-27). "Steam Store Page is Live!". Space Engine. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
  11. ↑ Vladimir, Romanyuk. "Space Engine - Funding and Donations". en.spaceengine.org. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.