Getting it working was a "holy shit, we can actually model this complex real-world phenomenon pretty well with a few relatively simple calculations" moment. I went from a static blue skybox to a full day-night cycle just like that.
https://www.threads.com/@mrsharpoblunto/post/DVS4wfYiG8f?xmt... https://www.threads.com/@mrsharpoblunto/post/C6Vc-S1O9mX?xmt... https://www.threads.com/@mrsharpoblunto/post/C6apksDRa8q?xmt...
I've thought before about trying to render skies on the web as a series of gradients overlaid on top of one another. I expect I could have had some level of success and gotten some mediocre results, but it would be nothing compared to what you've created.
Thank you so much for sharing this; it's inspirational, must have taken you a very long time to put together, and I'm blown away by your results.
I was using XNA (Microsoft's C# gamedev platform) and following Riemer's excellent series of tutorials, which have been preserved here[0], but I don't see anything about scattering. I might have gotten that bit from somewhere else. I do recall reading papers with math equations.
[0] https://github.com/SimonDarksideJ/XNAGameStudio/wiki/Riemers...
Q: How many objects are there in SpaceEngine?
A: The entire Hipparcos catalog of stars, all known extrasolar planets, over ten thousand galaxies, most objects in the solar system, which adds up to 130,000 things. In addition, more galaxies and star systems than exist in reality in all of the observable universe.
Q: How can a water planet be hot?
A: Water in the upper atmosphere is in the form of hot vapor, but farther down it smoothly transitions into a liquid state under high pressure. Even deeper it turns into a solid state called ice VII.
Q: How do I move?
Use WASD keys.
Also given this is MIT licensed, the skybox for my game is a solved problem! All I need is that render where the sun traverses the sky since perspective will be fixed. This allows me to extend it for the variation of the Sun’s angle through the year with sinusoidal periodicity.
There's something particularly entertaining on developing visuals and watching them come a reality — I hope at some point be able to experiment in this field.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxfEbulyFcY