Planet Generation

This guide covers some aspects of generating your planet, a lot of stuff is already explained in the celestial body schema.

Orbits

First thing you should specify about your planet is its orbit. primaryBody will specify what planet this body will orbit. If you’re in a new solar system and want this planet to be the center, set centerOfSolarSystem to true (keep in mind centerOfSolarSystem is in the Base module, not Orbit). Next up you’ll need to specify the orbital parameters.

Heightmaps

Heightmaps are a way to generate unique terrain on your planet. First you specify a maximum and minimum height, and then specify a heightMap image. The more white a section of that image is, the closer to maxHeight that part of the terrain will be. Finally, you specify a textureMap which is an image that gets applied to the terrain.

Here’s an example heightmap of earth from the Real Solar System addon.

cool_planet.json

{
    "name": "My Cool Planet",
    "HeightMap": {
        "minHeight": 5,
        "maxHeight": 100,
        "heightMap": "planets/assets/my_cool_heightmap.png",
        "textureMap": "planets/assets/my_cool_texturemap.png"
    }
}

There are also tools to help generate these images for you such as Textures For Planets.

Variable Size Modules

The following modules support variable sizing, meaning they can change scale over the course of the loop.

• Water
• Lava
• Star
• Sand
• Funnel
• Ring

To do this, simply specify a curve property on the module

cool_water_planet.json

{
    "name": "My Cool Planet",
    "Water": {
        "curve": [
            {
                "time": 0,
                "value": 100
            },
            {
                "time": 22,
                "value": 0
            }
        ]
    }
}

This makes the water on this planet shrink over the course of 22 minutes.

Quantum Planets

In order to create a quantum planet, first create a normal planet. Then, create a second planet config with the same name as the first and isQuantumState set to true. This makes the second planet a quantum state of the first, anything you specify here will only apply when the planet is in this state.

cool_planet_sun_state.json

{
    "name": "MyPlanet",
    "Orbit": {
        "semiMajorAxis": 5000,
        "primaryBody": "Sun"
    }
}

cool_planet_th_state.json

{
    "name": "MyPlanet",
    "isQuantumState": true,
    "Orbit": {
        "semiMajorAxis": 1300,
        "primaryBody": "TIMBER_HEARTH"
    }
}

Keep in mind that if you redefine Orbit on all configs (even with the same parameters each time), the planet will change its position within its orbit when changing states. If you want your Quantum Planet’s position to NOT change, only define Orbit on the main state.

Barycenters (Focal Points)

To create a binary system of planets (like ash twin and ember twin), first create a config with FocalPoint set

center.json

{
    "name": "My Focal Point",
    "Orbit": {
        "semiMajorAxis": 22000,
        "primaryBody": "Sun"
    },
    "FocalPoint": {
        "primary": "Planet A",
        "secondary": "Planet B"
    }
}

Now in each config set the primaryBody to the focal point

a.json

{
    "name": "Planet A",
    "Orbit": {
        "primaryBody": "My Focal Point",
        "semiMajorAxis": 0,
        "isTidallyLocked": true,
        "isMoon": true
    }
}

b.json

{
    "name": "Planet B",
    "Orbit": {
        "primaryBody": "My Focal Point",
        "semiMajorAxis": 440,
        "isTidallyLocked": true,
        "isMoon": true
    }
}