Stars: Eta Carinae

[Viajero]

Dear devs,

Following on the fun discussion about Canis Majoris I was wondering what level of fidelity will be used to model some of the most peculiar stars out there...

I mean I guess Procedural Generation can churn out lots of "Sol-like" stars out there etc, with varying colours and sizes etc. But what about stars like Eta Carinae (or any other more weird types for that matter)?

Eta Carinae seems to be actually a double star with a built in thick red nebula wrapping around the 2 stars that may look something like the pics below.

Will PG allow for such level of fidelity? Or is FD planning to do a large amount of manual work on this? Or maybe it has been settled that these peculiar stars will simply look like "normal" stars maybe?

 

[Voyager_NL]

Devs don't need to have that in now... it's 7700LY away.. it will take you some time before they need to start working on that

 

[BigPickle]

Devs don't need to have that in now... it's 7700LY away.. it will take you some time before they need to start working on that

And what about the warp jump?

 

[Viajero]

Devs don't need to have that in now... it's 7700LY away.. it will take you some time before they need to start working on that

Probably true. But I presume there is a chance that by now they have already more or less settled on a design decision for these. Would be interesting to understand those ideas if they think it is appropriate to share it.

 

[roryscarlett]

Eta Carinae is fascinating. What I find most interesting is that it apparently went Nova produced the lobed nebula we see today. But survived the cataclysm and continues to 'shine'.

I would imagine this kind of thing will have to be 'created' by the Devs rather than be procedurally generated. I guess if this was possible procedurally then we would see far too many of them. As far as I know, stars like Eta Carinae are very rare.

And being between 7500 and 8000 lights years away, the Devs have plenty of time before anyone gets there!

 

[Meritz]

And what about the warp jump?

Probable max range of hyperspace jump drives: 30ly
Distance: 7723ly
Number of jumps required: 257

Assuming ideal conditions, that is only having to worry about fuel, quality fuel sources in every stopover system, perfect, instant probe scanning of your next jump target, unlimited hyperspace probes, zero drive malfunctions and no need for maintenance of your ship, it would probably take you about 20-30 minutes to jump to a new system, find the fuel source (gas giant or a cold-ish star), maneuver for a fuel scoop, refuel, scan the next system (so you can jump to it) and make the jump, again at extreme jump range.

That's 7723 minutes of gameplay. Assuming four hours of gameplay a day, it means 32 days of doing nothing but beelining it for that star for four hours each day.

And it is not going to be ideal conditions all the way there. The galaxy is a big place.

 

[roryscarlett]

Probable max range of hyperspace jump drives: 30ly
Distance: 7723ly
Number of jumps required: 257

Assuming ideal conditions, that is only having to worry about fuel, quality fuel sources in every stopover system, perfect, instant probe scanning of your next jump target, unlimited hyperspace probes, zero drive malfunctions and no need for maintenance of your ship, it would probably take you about 20-30 minutes to jump to a new system, find the fuel source (gas giant or a cold-ish star), maneuver for a fuel scoop, refuel, scan the next system (so you can jump to it) and make the jump, again at extreme jump range.

That's 7723 minutes of gameplay. Assuming four hours of gameplay a day, it means 32 days of doing nothing but beelining it for that star for four hours each day.

And it is not going to be ideal conditions all the way there. The galaxy is a big place.

Well if I were a teenager who was on my summer-holidays, that's what I'd be doing!!!!

 

[Darth Krayt]

I hope we get some kind of flight planner system for our ships that can make these long trips easier.

 

[alexios]

Eta Carinae is fascinating. What I find most interesting is that it apparently went Nova produced the lobed nebula we see today. But survived the cataclysm and continues to 'shine'.

I would imagine this kind of thing will have to be 'created' by the Devs rather than be procedurally generated. I guess if this was possible procedurally then we would see far too many of them. As far as I know, stars like Eta Carinae are very rare.

How rare is rare when we're talking about 4×10^9 stars? Even one in a million will give us 4,000 Eta Carinae-like post-nova nebulae. I mean, what are the chances such a rarity would be visible from our viewpoint? And what other ultra-rarities could we possibly encounter?

The wonder and exploration is part of the reason I funded the Kickstarter campaign.

 

[Viajero]

The main point on this thread is the assumption that devs may have already settled for a design decision on these or on other rare types of star or stellar bodies in the galaxy. I.e. PG, manual, mix of both etc.

I was asking if those decisions can be shared so we know if there is a chance we may see things like these or not etc.

From that point of view the fact these may be far away is not too relevant for the discussion. It is a design discussion so the issue is simply: Has a design decision been taken yet or not? And if it has, are devs willing to share it?

 

[roryscarlett]

How rare is rare when we're talking about 4×10^9 stars? Even one in a million will give us 4,000 Eta Carinae-like post-nova nebulae. I mean, what are the chances such a rarity would be visible from our viewpoint? And what other ultra-rarities could we possibly encounter?

The wonder and exploration is part of the reason I funded the Kickstarter campaign.

It's not the nebula that is rare, its the star itself. Eta Carinea is so huge (around 120 Solar masses) that its thought the star is nearly at the limit for the size a star can be. It's envelope may be trying to rip itself apart because the radiation pressure from the fusion is nearly too strong for the gravity that's holding it together. In the 1800's there was what is called a False-Nova event where Eta Carinea blew off a vast amount of material, that's what we see in the Homunculus Nebula.

Such lobed Supernova remnants are common as you say, it's the star itself that interests me though

 

[Technotica]

We should make a list of all interesting and unusual stars, where they are and what they look like.

Then the devs could use that list and wouldn't have to compile one themselves, it would probably be a lot easier for them to then just add those stars they think they can realize in game.

 

[roryscarlett]

We should make a list of all interesting and unusual stars, where they are and what they look like then the devs could use that list and wouldn't have to compile one themselves.

Thatw ay they could jsut read through it and pick the stars they think they can add to the game in their 'real' form.

Great idea, but I would imagine they already have one

 

[CaptainTrips]

To the OP.

The thing is if you could "see" this star with your naked eye, it wouldn't look anything like the image here. The human eye has a very limited range of wavelengths it can see - if you look at the image you posted you will see that this is actually a fake colour image, and a key to the colours of the different wavelengths is there in the bottom left corner.. So unless you can see in Ha and OIII or even ultraviolet, the star would more thant likely look like a big blob, a very very bright blob. I may be wrong and Frontier have a few tricks up their sleeve and a few surprises for us out there. Even seeing textures on the currents stars is totally unrealistic unless you was viewing through an Ha filter - but let's asssume that the glass in the cockpit allows that (but then you wouldnt actually be able to see much else!!) Personally for now I am more than happy with 400billion round stars - and if Frontier want to introduce a Deep Space Objects DLC for us astronomers then great! But I'd rather they work on planetary landings and nail that before worrying about the more obscure stars out there..

Saying that, good post from you - repped!!

 

[Technotica]

Great idea, but I would imagine they already have one

Are you sure? I'd think that would be pretty low priority in the dev cycle, like a pass just before release?

I mean I am sure they have a pretty complete dataset of the galaxy, but picking out interesting stars so that they can be made to look like their real counterparts instead of being procedurally generated sounds like something you'd need to crowdsource, since even a huge dev team would take ages to do it.

 

[Kris]

I have said in other threads, that for me Eta Carinae is one of the most fascinating objects in the sky. Truly a freak of the cosmos.

 

[Vandaahl]

Will PG allow for such level of fidelity? Or is FD planning to do a large amount of manual work on this? Or maybe it has been settled that these peculiar stars will simply look like "normal" stars maybe?

In theory yes, I mean, its just a type with properties. Eta Carina is 'just' a hypergiant, but cloaked in a nebula (same as most pulsars). So, basically, we don't even know what it looks like.

If you look at the scale of this nebula, it is almost 0.75 ly across. So the question would be, would be able to see this nebula? The question to that is still yes I think, looking from the outside from a proper distance. Looking from the inside, dunno... This nebula is soooo big, you would not be able to grasp its size or see any details. Maybe a little change in surrounding color, or a hazy surrounding. We haven't seen any nebula's yet (or I haven't at least).

In addition...
We have a system (lost the name) where an object a 0.15 ly away. You have to travel in sc for 30 minutes to get there. Imagine yourself flying around in a nebula the size of 0.75ly...

 

[Technotica]

But what exactly could a nebula look like from the inside? Like fog? Or would the particles be so far apart that it simply colors the 'sky' around you? There must be some scientific theory about it?

Will nebulas be physical objects in E: D or maybe just colorization and 2d images?

 

[Vandaahl]

But what exactly could a nebula look like from the inside? Like fog? Or would the particles be so far apart that it simply colors the 'sky' around you? There must be some scientific theory about it?

Will nebulas be physical objects in E: D or maybe just colorization and 2d images?

In addition...
We have a system (lost the name) where an object a 0.15 ly away. You have to travel in sc for 30 minutes to get there. Imagine yourself flying around in a nebula the size of 0.75ly...

Nebula's are huge objects. We look at them from huge distances and see details. What would you see when you're inside a nebula... Dunno?

 

[Technotica]

Yes the question is , how dense are Nebulas. But that must be measureable in some way?