How does Stellar Forge handle other galaxies?

[Carr0t]

I read the bit about Stellar Forge being used for procedural star system generation in this week's newsletter, and listened to the IGN Gamescom David Braben interview where it was explained that the 160'000 odd stars that are visible from Earth through Hubble (6000 visible to the naked eye?) were manually entered, then the procedural stuff was used to make the spacefield look right in terms of brightness, density etc when viewed from any given spot.

Thing is, a lot of the images i've seen from Hubble have shown a hell of a lot of other *galaxies* providing light which reaches us eventually. Images from the deep field and such. So how does Stellar Forge handle this? Is the light from all those other galaxies actually so negligible it can be safely ignored (even though they're bright enough for Hubble to image them past all our galaxy's stars), has it actually increased the star density of our own galaxy to fill in for the lost light by not simulating other galaxies, is it simulating them but only as point light sources not full galaxies (which would be insane!), or what?

I was just thinking, because when the game gets a full release i'm going to be all about the exploring. I've also been reading the later Foundation books recently, and i'd love to be able to travel to a planet orbiting a star right at the edge of our galaxy (like Terminus in the books) and look out into black space, where the other galaxies would presumably be much more noticeable with no starfield clouding the view. It's going to be a bit disappointing if I get there, look out, and everything is just black (Unless someone can tell me that our current understanding suggests it *would* just be black, and even at the edge you wouldn't see other galaxies with the naked eye). Even if the other galaxies would only appear to my eye as point lights, like far stars in our own galaxy do, i'd like to be able to look out and see them.

 

[Dirtmuncher]

If you look around in the galaxy map you will see other galaxies outside of the one we are currently playing in I deduce from this that galaxies will be visible on the outer edge.

 

[Celeste]

There's a couple of galaxies in this image below the station

http://i.imgur.com/BrcmjzN.png

 

[Viajero]

Also the ever present magellanic clouds (irregular galaxies)

Spoiler

I d assume they must just be back drop objects wit no real content. Cant imagine the stellar forge being related to those at all.

 

[Elendil]

There are only a few galaxies which can be seen with the naked eye from the surface of the Earth. The two Magellanic Clouds in the southern sky, and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) are the best known examples. I currently don't know if we can even see more than those three. From space, without an obstructing atmosphere, we can probably see a few more. But you'll need a clear and clean canopy in your cockpit, and to switch off all lights from the instrumental panel...
So, in reality, I don't think we really would be able to see any other galaxies than those three (and our own, of course) Anyway, they are so far away (M31 is 2.2 Million lightyears away, and our galaxy is only 100.000 ly across) that there wouldn't be any noticable parallax, wherever you are in our galaxy. So the easiest way would be to create a static background picture with the few visible galaxies painted on them.
The view to the core of our galaxy is what makes me thinking, tho. This view of course changes, depending on where you are located. But not by much. I guess that FD created several 360° 'backgrounds', but every location in a certain bubble of space (100ly across?) will see the same view. So, only if you manage to travel more than several 100s of ly, you will see changed views of the galaxy core...

 

[bujin]

There are only a few galaxies which can be seen with the naked eye from the surface of the Earth. The two Magellanic Clouds in the southern sky, and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) are the best known examples. I currently don't know if we can even see more than those three.

Triangulum too. (Andromeda and Triangulum are the galaxies shown in the pic Celeste posted earlier). But it has to be a very dark site with perfect viewing conditions. This shouldn't be as much of a problem in space. The next nearest galaxy is 11 million light years away, and there are another thee galaxies with potential naked eye visibility.

So the easiest way would be to create a static background picture with the few visible galaxies painted on them.

Yep.

As for the Hubble Deep Field image mentioned in the OP, that took about 140 hours of exposure over five different wavelength filters combined to generate the image. It's certainly not something that would be visible to the naked eye.

 

[CaptainTrips]

I've only ever seen Andromeda Galaxy with my naked eye and no scope. You can see plenty more with a telescope, but as mentioned above, you need optimal viewing conditions. Even then, some of the better galaxies are only small hazy patches - hence the name that the amateur astronomy groups give them "fuzzies". You could possibly see them better from space, but I reckon you would need to be on the dark side of the planet with the sun/moon obscured.

 

[jamieboo]

Also the ever present magellanic clouds (irregular galaxies)

Spoiler

I d assume they must just be back drop objects wit no real content. Cant imagine the stellar forge being related to those at all.

I know that photo is probably enhanced, but I must admit I wish the in-game starfield was as dense as that!

 

[Zenicetus]

Just agreeing with the others here, as an amateur astronomer who has done a lot of observing at dark sky sites. The game shouldn't represent more than Andromeda, the Magellanic Clouds and Triangulum, and hopefully at the right scale.

Scale is the reason you wouldn't see Hubble Deep Field galaxies all over the place. There is an astonishing number of galaxies that can be seen with even decently large amateur telescopes, but you need magnification to see them. If the view from our cockpit is assumed to be 1:1 with normal human vision, then all the galaxies except the few mentioned above would be too small to see.

If the game ever added a zoom function for the cockpit view, then it would be cool to see a few more galaxies in that mode. But that may be putting too much load on the game engine or the player's GPU.

 

[Iain M Norman]

The galaxy's you can see are attached to a traditional sky map So not generated by the forge I don't expect.

The stars though are generated, each time you jump to a system IIRC.

Interestingly if you look in the stellar forge game files, there's a 'Galaxies' folder with a 'MilkyWay' folder within it.

 

[Seventh Circle]

Interestingly if you look in the stellar forge game files, there's a 'Galaxies' folder with a 'MilkyWay' folder within it.

...suggesting the potential for more?

You know, just in case we somehow manage to explore and get bored of the one we've got already

 

[bujin]

...suggesting the potential for more?

You know, just in case we somehow manage to explore and get bored of the one we've got already

Yeah. 400 billion systems? We'll get through that in, like, a week and a half. Come on, FD! You did the Milky Way galaxy in Frontier. We want the whole universe this time. And other universes in some later DLC!

 

[ledpup]

If the game ever added a zoom function for the cockpit view, then it would be cool to see a few more galaxies in that mode. But that may be putting too much load on the game engine or the player's GPU.

It wouldn't put any load on the game engine. They would only be pictures (bitmaps) like the Milky Way is currently.

 

[MrVibrating]

...suggesting the potential for more?

You know, just in case we somehow manage to explore and get bored of the one we've got already

Additional galaxies might be the subject of brief forays, say.. perhaps an alien race is attacking from another galaxy; so there might be a mission to aquire a galactic hyperdrive and counter-attack their base, before returning home victorious. Or something..

It needn't be purely for exploration purposes. Although that, too, would be a perfectly valid reason. Point is, there could be all sorts of reasons why galactic hyperdrive would be cool, from wanderlust to special missions, or just for the ultimate rush of jumping between galaxies (eat yer heart out Stargate or Contact etc.)..