Planet and game Corrections

[Kero Drezden]

So I just got this yesterday, 06/13/2024, and I like it... I have many ideas and theories, and I can see this helping me demonstrate these and see the effects in real-time. I can already see updates where I could stand on these planets or even walk around.

Yet, Many of the planet's default makeup is vastly incorrect making orbits, density, rotation, mass, etc. incorrect. When I try to correct it, it quickly becomes an uncontrollable mess. For example: Mars has a dense core at its center between 930 and 1,300 miles (1,500 to 2,100 kilometers) in radius. It's made of iron, nickel, and sulfur, according to NASA. Again, Venus's core is made up of mostly iron (80%), nickel (6%), some sulfur, and little to no oxygen, according to NASA. Yet the game has Mars core as ONLY made of Silicate a low-density material compared to the actual composition. Iron has a density of about 8 grams per cubic centimeter. The densest silicate minerals can be as dense as about 4 grams per cubic centimeter. As your aware this changes the mass, gravity, tidal forces, and many other important factors that affect the game's great physics. This is not just Mars but many other plants and planetoids as well.

Nickel, H3, and other fundamental elements of the planets and moons are MISSING! I know this may seem trivial but Nickel is SUPER important to the makeup of planets and the chemistry that can happen within them.

Also, the Earth does NOT have a moon... in any of the default sims... at least not that I can see.

Also, the mass of objects that collide does NOT update their mass or any other factors. Also, the plants do not capture Co2 which means I cannot terraform.

Further, when freezing a planet the atmospheric pressure changes but NOT the temperature, even over a million years the temperature never changes and the thaw of the gas ice or liquid ice is not at different temperatures, which affects Terraforming and makes it nearly impossible to terraform planets or moons correctly.

Also, I would love to be able to place reflective material in the orbit of the planets and see their real-world effects on the atmosphere. As I suggested this was done around Venus to NASA years ago.. and it was finally done in 2021 in Earth's orbit, after research was completed, and has proven effective by lowering the global temperature of the Earth.


Please understand I really like this game... and I think with realistic attributes it will be able be more than just a game, but an educational tool. A tool that could educate people about the wonders of our Solar System, and beyond.

[bshapiroalbert]

Originally posted by Kero Drezden:

Yet, Many of the planet's default makeup is vastly incorrect making orbits, density, rotation, mass, etc. incorrect. When I try to correct it, it quickly becomes an uncontrollable mess. For example: Mars has a dense core at its center between 930 and 1,300 miles (1,500 to 2,100 kilometers) in radius. It's made of iron, nickel, and sulfur, according to NASA. Again, Venus's core is made up of mostly iron (80%), nickel (6%), some sulfur, and little to no oxygen, according to NASA. Yet the game has Mars core as ONLY made of Silicate a low-density material compared to the actual composition. Iron has a density of about 8 grams per cubic centimeter. The densest silicate minerals can be as dense as about 4 grams per cubic centimeter. As your aware this changes the mass, gravity, tidal forces, and many other important factors that affect the game's great physics. This is not just Mars but many other plants and planetoids as well.

Nickel, H3, and other fundamental elements of the planets and moons are MISSING! I know this may seem trivial but Nickel is SUPER important to the makeup of planets and the chemistry that can happen within them.

I'm glad that you're enjoying Universe Sandbox, and we appreciate the feedback.

The current set of materials we include in Universe Sandbox is intended to simulate what we think are some of the most interesting surface (ice, liquid, and atmosphere) features of known objects in the Solar System. As you said, the interiors of planets are much more complex in reality than what we are currently simulating, but we can get fairly realistic radii for most planets in the Solar System with our current composition models. That doesn't mean that we won't add more materials in the future, but we don't have any plans to add more right now.

Universe Sandbox is also primarily a physics and space simulator. We have no plans to simulate any chemistry, either on the surface or internal to any objects.

Originally posted by Kero Drezden:

Also, the Earth does NOT have a moon... in any of the default sims... at least not that I can see.

We don't include moons or many other minor objects in our default Solar System simulation for performance reasons. The more objects there are in a simulation, the more computational power is required. Earth will have an moon in the Solar System - Live View simulation, or any other the Solar System with Moons simulations.

Originally posted by Kero Drezden:

Also, the mass of objects that collide does NOT update their mass or any other factors. Also, the plants do not capture Co2 which means I cannot terraform.

We've been working on fixing some issue with material mass transferring during collisions and expect those to be fixed in our next update.

Vegetation is currently purely visual and has no effect on the simulation or materials. We are actively working on adding basic life simulation that will eventually include more of and oxygen and carbon dioxide cycle.

Originally posted by Kero Drezden:

Further, when freezing a planet the atmospheric pressure changes but NOT the temperature, even over a million years the temperature never changes and the thaw of the gas ice or liquid ice is not at different temperatures, which affects Terraforming and makes it nearly impossible to terraform planets or moons correctly.

Could you provide some steps I could try to replicate to reproduce the issue with planets cooling but not having their temperature decrease? That sounds like something that should not be happening.

Originally posted by Kero Drezden:

Also, I would love to be able to place reflective material in the orbit of the planets and see their real-world effects on the atmosphere. As I suggested this was done around Venus to NASA years ago.. and it was finally done in 2021 in Earth's orbit, after research was completed, and has proven effective by lowering the global temperature of the Earth.

We don't have any plans to add reflective materials that would deflect radiative heat from other objects to Universe Sandbox right now, but that doesn't mean we won't add it in the future. It's certainly an interesting idea.

You can learn more about what we're currently working on in our 2024 Roadmap post
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/230290/view/6501581293008131627