Space Engineers

Space Engineers

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Aerodynamic Physics
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Type: Mod
Mod category: Script, Other
File Size
Posted
Updated
3.072 MB
Dec 8, 2015 @ 9:05pm
Oct 22, 2024 @ 11:24pm
180 Change Notes ( view )

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Aerodynamic Physics

In 1 collection by DraygoKorvan
Space Engineers Physics
11 items
Description
Adds lift profiles to all grids in the game.
Adds deadly reentry to the game.
Adds wind to the game.

Physics simulation includes, drag forces, deflection forces, lift, differential lift, ground effect.

Ground effect will calculate based on altitude from voxels or water.
Mod compatible with digi's wings blocks (this mod may override the physics of his mod).
FAQ
Q: Drag does not feel like it is taking effect, I cant seem to get reentry to work?
A: Usually this is because you are running an unlimited speed mod or using relative top speed. In either of these cases if you want reentry to happen at lower speeds please change the Simulation Max Speed to a lower value. The Debug GUI will tell you what the simulated mach 5 is (m5), and simulated reentry ablation speeds (ab). ab is the speed that aggressive reentry heat happens.

Settings Menu
You can access a graphical admin menu with Alt + F10 (Or Shift + Alt + F10)
Player preferences menu is accessed by opening chat and pressing F2, these settings are global and apply to any online or private save.
Preferences Menu
Open Chat and press F2, then click Mod Settings
  • Particle Effects: Turns on and off particle effects
  • Lighting Effect: Turns on and off lighting effects
  • Center of Drag Gizmo: Auto - only shows you the CoM and CoD markers on craft you are actively building, Always On, shows for every craft, Always off, shows for no craft
  • Lift Gizmo: Shows the green marker to indicate an angled surface that interacts with the lift profile
  • Gui Options
    • Debug
      • Show Debug Text, shows some debug text, useful to attach to bug reports
      • Debug GUI Position, you can move the debug text using this option
      • Lift 1: Debug lift profile 1st direction
      • Lift 2: Debug lift profile 2nd direction
      • Lift 3: Debug lift profile 3rd direction
      • Lift 4: Debug lift profile 4th direction
      • Lift 5: Debug lift profile 5th direction
      • Lift 6: Debug lift profile 6th direction
    • Heat Alarm: Turns on or off the heat alarm and lets you move the GUI element
    • Heat Indicator: Turns on or off the heat indicator GUI and lets you move the element
    • Wind Indicator: Turns on or off the wind indicator GUI and lets you move the element
    • Show Hints: Turns hints GUI on/off
    • Reset GUI: Resets all gui options to default
  • Color Options
    • Center of Mass: Color of Center of Mass marker
    • Center of Drag: Color of Center of Drag marker
    • Block Lift Indicator: Color of lift indicator on the block you're building
    • Lift Test Direction: Line that shows which travel direction the grid is being tested on
    • Lift Result Direction: Result of the lift test
    • Block Drag Indicator: Same as lift indicator but only indicated if the block only effects drag

Admin Menu
(Alt+F10 menu or Shift+Alt+F10 on some computers - Top Left Corner)
  • Physics
    • Advanced
      • Drag Multiplier: Percent, multiplies drag by this percentage, Default 100
      • Deflection Multiplier: Percent, multiplies the deflection force on an aircraft.
      • Rotational Drag Multiplier: Only takes effect if Advanced Lift simulation is off, changes how easy it is to turn at speed
      • Atmospheric Minimum: Percent, How much atmosphere is in space. For those that want to apply drag physics to space (ie starwars sim)
      • Ignore Static: Skip static grids.
    • Advanced Lift: Enables advanced lift simulation (Center of Mass vs Center of Aerodynamics)
    • Disable Reentry: For maps where you do not plan to go to space adjusts the simulated mach 5 speed to match the max speed of the world
    • Small Ship Max Speed: Maximum speed for small ships, Default 150
    • Large Ship Max Speed: Maximum speed for large ships, Default 150
    • Simulation Max Speed: Max speed to use to calculate simulated mach 5 and simulated ablation speed. If you are running speed of light settings you can use this to bring reentry speed lower.
    • Enable Character Drag: Apply drag to characters
    • Simulate Wind: Apply wind forces
    • Enable Occlusion: Enable reducing drag based on how much the craft is occluded (inside something)
  • Heat Settings
    • Heat Damage: Turns on and off heat damage
    • Heat Radiation Multiplier: Adjusts how fast heat is removed from craft, default 100
  • Compatibility
    • Digi Physics: Enable or disable physics calculation on Digi's aerodynamic wings mod.
  • Reset Settings: Resets all settings to default


Mod Features
Mod will automatically adjust drag to be more realistic with higher maximum speeds. This is to allow drag to feel natural in worlds with 150m/s top speeds, and worlds without a top speed.

Mod takes in account your ship's design. If you have a sleek jet like design, flying forward will result in less drag, if you pitch up exposing the surface area of your wings to the direction of travel you will increase the drag and slow down faster.

Heat is calculated by adding or removing energy from the surfaces of your ship. It will dissipate on its own. Ideally you wont overheat from regular planetary travel, unless you strap a ton of thrusters on.

Ship drag and lift is pre-calculated in a separate thread to prevent lagging the main game thread.

Nerdy details
Math behind it:

D = (Cd * r * V^2 * A ) / 2

D = Drag Force (this is a force, it is applied to the craft with the opposite vector as the crafts direction of travel, mass impacts the delta v applied to the craft)
Cd= (coefficient of drag, varies based on max speed and drag multiplier setting)
r = density of the air at your particular elevation this is the games air density multiplied by the actual air density of well, air.
V^2 = velocity squared
A = Surface area of your ship facing the direction of travel. (Yes, very close to the actual surface area!)


Mod Support

The following file will let your retrieve certain settings from this mod, such as the digi setting and advlift.
https://github.com/DraygoKorvan/ModAPI/blob/master/RemoteDragSettings.cs

Aerodynamic block properties can be modified using Mod Definition Extensions, details on discord.

MES compatability
Older NPC packs may not have the aerodynamic compatibility flag set. You can allow them to spawn by using the override command: /MES.Settings.Grids.AerodynamicsModAdvLiftOverride.true

Discord
Discord[discord.gg]
Popular Discussions View All (36)
128
Nov 11, 2023 @ 9:22am
Deadly reentry
DraygoKorvan
8
Feb 21 @ 9:44am
Question about Power generation
Prince
7
May 6, 2025 @ 6:43am
Settings on a Dedicated Server
[STK] bigsteve
3,577 Comments
Jun 4 @ 6:19pm 
is there any way to see centre of mass/drag etc
i for my part hadnt probs with solar panels on rotors spinning out of control but i also stay relativly close to the vanilla speed limits witzh 150m/s for large grid and 200m/s for small grid and as far as my informations got speed above 500m/s can cause hickups in the physics calculations from se itself.
May 17 @ 6:55am 
Tested but at certain speed my solar panel spins! Sadly rotor can't recuparate :(
May 17 @ 6:20am 
Or I might need to reduce wind mult to 0.1 if I use 1000 m/s speed limit?
May 17 @ 5:56am 
Mod still works great at 1000m/s max speed, you've just to balance center of mass and center of drag(?), or if you like then you can make arrow-flight model when center of mass if in front and you craft will try to face you speed vector!

For those you do not liek it you can disable deflect, so there will be only drag and lift force (if advanced lift force is enabled)

Anyways you've to disable wind simulation cuz it has to much power that could spin rotor based solar panels to unlimited speeds...
May 8 @ 10:18am 
can you still brute force u way around?
May 2 @ 2:28pm 
mod makes everything thats not a jet unusable
bad mod
@Shredder
the settings are in the upper left corner where a text "mod settings" or something along that line should show. click on it and you open the texthudapi based menu where you can find the settings.
Apr 3 @ 11:23am 
Pressed alt+F10 with mod active (wind was shown in GUI).
No settings. Nothing. Stock atmosphere unplayable.
Mar 18 @ 9:38pm 
right now I'm having and issue where I'm playing on Pertam and using a mobile base... the vehicle is tall but it has an open frame and low center of mass, and its big, really big and heavy, yet it keeps flipping as winds have started to reach speeds over 150 to 200... but that didn't happen to me before, idk if there was an update or if it was something I did, my speed mod is the same as far as I know, but yeah, there is that... no bug report, doesn't seem to be an error at all, just change on conditions...