planets



Configure Planet Wizard: Sheet 1 of 3 (Planet Is Orbiting)

In case a planet is orbiting, Space Explorer 1.0 needs two positions in order to compute the initial velocity necessary for a stable circular orbit.


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Some dialog controls

... and what they do

Initial planet position

  • Right Ascension
  • Declination
  • Distance from origin

Is explained in detail here and here.

Second planet position

  • Right Ascension
  • Declination
  • Distance from origin

Is explained in detail here and here.


Configure Planet Wizard: Sheet 1 of 3 (Planet Is Not Orbiting)

In case a planet is not orbiting, Space Explorer 1.0 needs an explicit initial value for the velocity instead of a second position.


Click to enlarge

Some dialog controls

... and what they do

Initial planet position

  • Right Ascension
  • Declination
  • Distance from origin

Is explained in detail here and here.

Initial planet velocity

  • dx/dt
  • dy/dt
  • dz/dt

The velocity is to be specified in terms of the cartesian coordiantes (x, y, z) rather than the spherical coordinates (RA, Dec, R) used for the positions, because doing so appears to be more intuitive.


Configure Planet Wizard: Sheet 2 of 3

Not much to explain here. The meaning of the parameters to be entered here is pretty much obvious from their names.

However, I provide an Excel sheet containing the numerical values for many physical parameters of most of the major objects in our solar system. The data has compiled from the web. See the links page for further references.


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Configure Planet Wizard: Sheet 3 of 3


Click to enlarge

Some dialog controls

... and what they do

Planetary ring

  • Check box 'Planet has a ring'
  • Inner ring radius
  • Outer ring radius
  • Ring texture

When you indicate that the planet is supposed to have a ring, you can specify an inner and an outer ring radius.

Without a texture the ring will appear featureless. In order to give it the well known appearance, one has to provide texture files in .bmp, .dds, .dib, .jpg, .png, or .tga format. Space Explorer 1.0 comes with textures for the rings of the planets Saturn and Uranus. They can be selected from the drop-down list.

If you would like to add other textures of your own, put them in the 'Space Explorer 1.0\Media\Ring Textures' folder.

Planet mesh

A so called mesh is what gives a 3D-object its visible shape in DirectX. One mesh, called 'planet.x', is used for both planets and stars since it basically is a sphere.

The other mesh you will see in the drop-down menu is called 'station.x' and represents a very simple space station. There are no textures suitable for the space station, though.

You can add meshes of your own, however. They must be formatted in DirectX's x-file format and stored in the folder 'Space Explorer 1.0\Media\Models'.

Planet texture

Without a texture the surface of the planet or moon will appear featureless. In order to give it the expected appearance, one has to provide texture files in .bmp, .dds, .dib, .jpg, .png, or .tga format. A number of textures for planets and moons come with Space Explorer 1.0 and can be selected from the drop-down list.

If you would like to add other textures of your own, put them in the 'Space Explorer 1.0\Media\Textures' folder.

Planet name

This is the name of the planet as it will appear in the available objects and selected objects lists, respectively. You may pick one from the drop-down menu or enter a new one.

If you edit an object that is part of more than one configuration and you don't want to change it for all configurations simultaneously, you must give it a new name, because all models are stored in the same folder regardless of the configurations they are part of.

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