Sim, eu uso a algum tempo já. Muito bom!
Inclusive tenho falado com o criador desse software sobre algumas adições que poderiam ser feitas.
Ele tem as prioridades dele nas adições, mas quando todas forem implementadas, vai ser demais!
O Celestia eu já conhecia, e recomendo vc a baixar o Educational Activities (
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/educational.php)
Tem alguns outros que já joguei, porém o Space Engine foi o que eu mais gostei.
- Noctis IV (
http://anynowhere.com/bb/posts.php?t=409) - Muito bonito para um jogo de apenas 1.7MB
- Pioneer (
http://pioneerspacesim.net/) - Clone do Elite com gráficos atualizados
- Outterra (
http://outerra.com/) - Esse é o que chega mais perto do Space Engine e em alguns pontos é melhor por enquanto.
- Kerbal Space Program (
http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/) - Nesse jogo o objetivo é fazer os alienígenas (Kerbals) chegarem ao espaço. Divertido e engraçado
- Star Citizen (
http://starcitizen.robertsspaceindustries.com/) - Esse não está pronto ainda, mas aproveitei o tópico para citar. Esse já é um jogo de combate espacial ala Wing Commander, Freespace, Freelancer, etc... Já reservei minha cópia... :)
Video do Star Citizen
Abaixo seguem o que está por vir no Space Engine:
Engine:
- Eliminating the crashes
- The galactic map, star map, map of the planetary system, a map of the planet
- Improved interface and control system (control panel, prompts, Bind keys, etc.)
- Deferred shading
- Shadow maps
- Ambient occlusion
- Anti-aliasing
- Environment map lighting, reflections, refractions
- On-screen motion blur
- Proper auto exposure, the real brightness of the surface of planets and stars
- Loading of models with animations (spaceships)
- Different materials on the same models / textures (metal, glass, etc.)
- Networking
- Camera control and physics (including the orbital motion of bodies) in a parallel thread
- Recording of flight, its editing and smoothing
- Scripts for the autopilot
- Loading/generating resources in a parallel thread
- Displays the names of objects on the planetary surface (sea, mountains, craters, etc.)
- Unicode fonts
- Localization to other languages (done for Russian)
- Empowering the planetarium (the constellation - the figures, boundaries and names, astronomical coordinate grid, control of the telescope)
- Multi-monitor support, customizable "warper" to create video walls (including fish eye view)
- Network synchronization for distributed videowall rendering
- Built-in editor of planets, galaxies, etc.
- In the editor: importing of textures, catalogs and models, exporting of procedural textures, catalogs and models (content sharing with Celestia, etc.)
Galaxies:
- Correct rendering of dust sprites (extinction effect)
- Complex rendering of spiral galaxies (bulge as precomputed texture + disk as sprites)
- Procedural models of galaxies
- Models of irregular and colliding galaxies
- Procedural large-scale distribution of galaxies (clusters, filaments, walls and voids)
- A closed universe or a universe with a domain structure
- Embedding of giant nebulae sprite models into the galaxy disc sprite model
- Adaptive level of detail of galaxy sprite model
- Render the galaxy by ray tracing
- Correct blending of dust with the stars (ray tracing or multipass)
- Animation or simulation of galaxy rotation (?)
- Simulation of collision of galaxies (?)
- Modeling the evolution of galaxies (?)
Nebulae:
- Unique procedural model for each nebula
- Correct rendering of dust sprites (extinction effect)
- Animation of accretion disks and jets
- Complex rendering (subsystems with independent LODs)
- Lighting from any number of stars
- Animation of light wave (light echo)
- Animation of expanding shells of supernova and planetary nebulae
- Render the nebula by ray tracing
- Correct blending with the galaxy (ray tracing)
- Correct blending with the stars (ray tracing or z-multipass)
- Modeling of evolution of diffuse nebulae: its collapse and the formation of star clusters (?)
Stars:
- Triple and multiple systems (done)
- Correct dynamic lens flare effect
- Stars velocities in the galaxy (needed for ship's hyperflight physics)
- Tidal distortion of shape, filling the Roche limit (taking into account the ellipticity of orbits)
- Animation of flowing substance, accretion disks and jets
- Black holes with the effect of the distortion of light rays, Kerr black holes (done partially)
- Super-massive black holes in galactic center, modeling or animation of motion of nearby stars (done)
- Quasars with accretion disk, lighting of planets within entire galaxy
- Neutron stars and pulsars with the animated jets, embedding it into the nebula model
- Animation of surface
- Magnetic activity
- Catalog of binary and multiple stars
- Binary file format for star catalog with built-in octree
- Compilation of a text script catalog into a binary catalog
- Embedding a star catalog in the galactic procedural stars octree
- Dynamic loading of stars catalog from the disk (supporting of unlimited number of stars)
- Variable stars, supernovae
- Catalog of variable stars
- The stars floating in intergalactic space
- Prominence's, flares, clouds (in the form of magnetic field lines)
- Motion of stars in the galaxy (?)
- Modeling of evolution of stars (?)
Planets:
- Improving the level of detail (done partially)
- Decrease of loading/generation time (done partially)
- Reaching of 1 mm level of detail
- Checking of collisions with the surface
- New classes of planets, binding to astrophysics, geology and geochemistry
- New classes of surfaces (Europa, Triton, etc.)
- Linear and radial structures (rivers, ridges, cracks, grooves, scarps, the rays of craters)
- Lights of the night side (hot planet, lava, cities)
- Volcanoes
- Different types of terrain in different places
- Distortion function for elevation map (terraces, horizontal shift)
- Modeling of continents
- Fixing of bugs with ellipsiodal planets
- Improved modeling of the structure of the planetary system, taking into account migration of the planets, resonances, high ellipticity and inclination of orbits
- Illumination of planets with globular clusters, galactic core, close nebulae, supernovae
- Self-shadowing of the terrain, ambient occlusion
- Animation of clouds, cyclones
- Clouds shadows on the landscape
- 3D clouds with lighting and self-shadowing
- God-Rays from the landscapes and clouds in the atmosphere
- Different types of clouds, multiple layers
- 3D water with waves animation, simulation of the tides
- Refraction and reflection on the water surface
- Underwater World
- Different types of hydrosphere (water, methane, lava sea, etc.)
- More types of atmospheres, generation of models at run-time, binding to astrophysics
- Volcanic eruption, animation of explosions and ash clouds
- Glowing lava flow animation
- Magnetic activity, the aurora with the lighting of surface
- Asteroids, comets with a tail (animation or simulation of evolution)
- Asteroid belts and comet clouds (animation of the motion on the GPU or the N-body simulation on the GPU)
- Dust and the asteroid belts around stars and planets (rings), animation, or simulation of the motion
- The shadows of the satellites and other planets on rings and vice versa; volumetric shadows inside the dust rings and self-shadowing of the rings
- Illumination of a planet and satellites by the rings
- Improving gas giant atmospheres
- Surface components (stones, plants, roads, buildings)
- Terramorphing
- Modeling of asteroids collisions with lighting, explosion and the formation of the crater
- Animation of meteorites and meteor rains (with reference to external astrophysics)
- Holes in the surface (caves, mines)
- Modeling of 2D gas dynamics of the atmosphere on the GPU (?)
- Right cone of the shadow of the eclipse from moons and rings in the atmosphere
- Refraction in the atmosphere (up to the "bow-tie world")
- Weather conditions (rain, snow, fog, lightning, rainbow)
- Seasonal changes (snow cover and polar caps, dust storms, evaporation or freezing of the seas and the atmosphere)
- Climate and surface generation of "lying on its side" planets (like Uranus)
- Climate and surface generation of tidal-locked to the sun planets (done)
- The planets floating in interstellar space (planemo) (?)
- Modeling of water erosion (?)
- Modeling the tectonics and evolution of planets (?)
- Simulation of the collision, tidal or artificial destruction of the planets, formation of the asteroid belt and the dust disk around the sun, its further evolution (?)
- Modeling the evolution of the planetary system when the sun goes in the red giant phase
- Simulation of destruction of the planetary system in a supernova explosion
Gameplay
- Server database (work in progress)
- Network system
- Loading of models (spaceships, buildings, etc.)
- Physics: collision detection, Newtonian physics, jet propulsion, aerodynamics and hydrodynamics, orbital flight physics, hyperspace flight physics
- Spaceship builder with physical testing of construction
- Cockpit devices: orbital transfer calculator, hyperflight calculator, programmable autopilot, etc.
- Docking system, remote control of units
- Economics, harvesting of resources, refueling, building, etc
- Weapons, combat system
- Destruction of spaceships and buildings (modelling of thousands of fragments on the GPU), animation of explosions (gas dynamics simulation on GPU(?))
- Giant alien astroengineering constructions
- Procedural life (?)
- Procedural civilizations (?)
- Internal structure of ships and buildings (indoor-engine)
