Gf_neutronstar rendering problem
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Well, looks like he’s right, and you’re right to. So you’re both right. I’ll have to watch it again and pay more attention to exactly what he says, I know he talked about temperatures, maybe I only grasped the part he said said about composition.
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I’m a physics undergrad, so yeah, I’d say I can at least tell you a thing or two about physics. At the very least, those things we are speaking of aren’t exactly quantum field theory. They’re very well explained and detailed by modern science.
Stars happen to be almost perfect black bodies. Yes, the color of a flame is determined by the material that is being burnt, but the sun doesn’t “burn”. That’s a misnomer. It’s a giant fusion reactor. These are not chemical reactions, but nuclear ones. A star’s color is entirely determined by its temperature - the Sun is yellow because its surface temperature matches that of yellow. However, it’s important to point out that the color we see isn’t actually because the Sun is yellow, since its emissions are mostly white anyways. That’s caused in part by atmospheric scattering, which is also the cause for the blue of the sky.
Other components in any star are just traces up and until the star reaches the giant/supergiant state, at which point it’ll fuse heavier and heavier elements. However, anything heavier than iron will require a supernova. Even then, a star’s color isn’t really determined by what it is “burning”, otherwise you’d have disco stars whenever they go end of life as they’d switch elements in relatively rapid succession.
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Disco stars would be so cool, though. Way to go and ruin that dream of mine, FF >_<
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I see this went a bit off-topic since I last checked in. No matter. Since I got the neutron star working thanks to your help, I think you deserve to see the payoff. Click on the image for a larger copy.
Ruppetthemuppet wrote:
If you happen to know what a real neutron star looks like up close, I’m pretty sure there are some physicists who would love to speak with you about it.As to that, allow me to offer this as a rebuttal:
Looks pretty white to me.
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Timmy51m wrote:
Well, looks like he’s right, and you’re right to. So you’re both right. I’ll have to watch it again and pay more attention to exactly what he says, I know he talked about temperatures, maybe I only grasped the part he said said about composition.Ah, just remember when you’re watching anything Science related on TV, it has almost certainly been made to have the material accessible to the majority of the population
Undoubtedly Prof Cox is exceptionally clever, and has a marvellous gift when it comes to presenting (a combination of enthusiasm for his subject really capturing the viewer, and being able to break complex things into laymans terms).
Cox won’t give out false info, but he may give a very simple to digest explanation which hides the true complexity from the viewer in order to maintain viewer interest and allow for some degree of understanding
Not many would have watched if he’d gone on about the math behind everything
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While we’re on the subject of the neutron star, anybody have any idea how I’d speed up the effect’s animation? I’m using this for a pulsar that’s throwing off lot’s of radiation, and a slow rotation just doesn’t fit with that.
I’ve poked around in ALEs before, but I have no idea what I’m looking for to accomplish what I want.
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At a guess (and without trying), if you have a look at the Node_Transforms in gf_neutronstar_pulse.app#1.app, gf_neutronstar_pulse.app#2.app and gf_neutronstar_sparkles.app you’ll see there’s a 360 present. In the XML Project, it’'ll look something like:
<single type="4" count="1">0: 0 <loop count="2">0.0061660000: -0.001737, 0, 50.015507 360.0000000000: 1000, 50.015507, 0</loop></single> ```I think that **360** is the time at which it will increase to that size. If, say, you halve it, it should pulse twice as fast. (If it doesn't, sorry to have wasted your time. :))
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Nope, tried changing it 180, no effect (at all, ~weird~)
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Having another look, I see the emitters have a value of 360, which might need to match. The only other thing that looks promising is the BasicApp_Size. There’s two that look to be particularly interesting: gf_neutronstar.app and gf_neutronstar_outring.app. The latter especially, but I don’t really know how to change it. Perhaps something like this:
<float type="1" count="2">0.0000000000: 400 1.0000000000: 20000</float> <float type="1" count="4">0.0000000000: 400 0.5000000000: 20000 0.5010000000: 400 1.0000000000: 20000</float> ```My reasoning is that it starts at 400 and ends at 20000, where it immediately resets to 400 and starts again. So just insert another one at the half-way mark. But even if it works, it's just a work-around, since it still doesn't control the overall duration.
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Thats the ring that expands out. I messed with this one a long time back and kicked it way up so the ring would expand a very long way.
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I managed to crack this one on my own. Tuns out that I was overthinking the issue by looking in the ALE. Since the effect is attached to a bouy tucked into the middle of the star, I just made the bouy spin by putting this line into the object’s entry in the system’s ini file.
spin = 0.000000, 5.000000, 0.000000
That’s got it rotating quite fast, but it’s very good for my needs.
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Well, I tried adding the space_farclip option and I notice something odd. If I look at the star from a distance obliquely (in turret view with ship neither pointed directly away or towards the star) I can see the effect at 26k away. But, if I’m in cockpit view looking directly at the star from that same point, it doesn’t show unless I turn the ship away.
This is my entry:
[SystemInfo]
space_color = 0, 0, 0
local_faction = li_p_grp
space_farclip = 100000Yeah, yeah… I know. li_p_grp???!
I’ll get rid of that in the next iteration…spin rate of 0.05 works great btw.
Edit:
After further playing with it I notice that if the solar is in the very corner of my screen in such a manner that I can not actually see the star, but rather just the edge of the rings I can see the effect at around 33k, but not further away. The moment I turn my view so that the solar is visible, the effect disappears until I’m at around 25k away. At that point the solar will remain visible regardless of view angle.So, 0-25k effect is visible regardless of view angle
25k-33k, effect is visible only from an angle and the solar is off to the side of the view screen.33k effect is not visible at all.
Figured it out:
Somehow I had two entries for the effect in effect_types.ini.
Getting rid of the incorrect entry fixed it. Working perfectly now.