Space Engine - Fly the complete Universe

[Neon3001]

Hey All,

Anyone seen the program currently underdevelopment called Space Engine?

If you ever saw Celestia, well Space Engine is Celestia on steroids.

You have the complete Universe, to explore, including every known galaxy, and any known objects within those galaxies. Spaceflight mode with inertia, and you can pretty much go anywhere you want. Nebula are actual 3D clouds rather than simple images as in Celestia.

The whole thing is done with procedural programming, and the To Do list is impressive. See that on the forum.

It includes Planets (with topography and ability to travel underwater eventually, as well as procedural life). I think it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Check out Alpha Centauri (Toliman or Denebola star, some nice planets there. There are also plenty to find in other galaxies as well.

It's free to download, current vers is 0.93 and is still in development. I don't have anything to do with it, except as a user.

If you are into Astronomy, then you really have to see this ppl. It's really amazing what it can do. Be warned, it needs a good computer to really get the best of it. 3ghz n 2 Gb Ram n 1 Gb Vram is definitely recommended system. If you don't have that, you can fiddle with "main.cfg" and adjust the level of detail you see. Sounds like I'm flogging it lol.. but I'm just a user, it's just a great proggie. Don't forget to edit main.cfg and enter your screen resolution and VRam (Video Ram) and Computer Ram. It improves performance greatly.

Here's the link:

spaceengine - Home page

Neon3001

[ZZraynj]

Going to have to brush up on my Russian

I'm sure I'll get there though.

[Hypernova]

I am downloading it now to have a look, it is a big file BTW (358MB!) could be a problem for those with really slow connections or strict bandwidth limits.

Cannot wait to try it, just hope my low-mid-range laptop with integrated graphics is up to the job!

[Superewza]

Is it windows only?

[Hypernova]

Not going well for me, I am getting it crashing on startup and I think I know why. The program needs OpenGL 3 to run, my integrated Intel HD graphics only supports version up to 2.1

[Neon3001]

There is a fix for the Open GL issue, look on

the forum, if you can't find it, then just drop a post in

the troubleshooting area on the forum n he'll tell you how to

adjust the settings in the main.cfg file (where open gl stuff is).

As I said, it's still in development, so there will be the odd crash.

I have not had it crash yet. He's working on

the open gl issue.

The site does have an english vers, as well as an english forum, you'll

find the link to that on the main page I think.

[Neon3001]

Yes it is PC windows only, I think I mentioned that in my post.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the controls are listed in the Readme.

[Hypernova]

I have looked at that thread in the forum but no luck after trying the suggestion contained within it, turning off the extensions and allocating more vRam didn't help so I assume that the crash is caused by the lack of OpenGL 3 compatibility with my graphics. There are no specific error messages in the log, there was something about a particular galaxy in the catalog so I just deleted that from the file and i went away but this problem still persists. I guess I won't get to look and see how good it is after all!

[Neon3001]

That's a real shame Hypernova... it does need a good sytem

for it to work well, since it's very cpu intensive as well

as graphic card. Try posting a msg in the Troubleshooting

forum on the site, if there's a fix, he will give it to you.

He's very supportive.

[Tomjo59]

Potentially sounds like a brilliant program - think I'll wait for the final, polished release though. Oh, might need to upgrade the PC as well!

[Hypernova]

No chance on any of my computers, none have a graphics card capable of OpenGL 3.0 and all get the same crash on startup. I think I need a new PC