Space Engineers

Space Engineers

Real Orbits
672 Comments
hoomannlicher 20 hours ago 
Hey, is it possible to disable the GPS markers for the orbits so that i can avoid screen clutter?
arasmus2 6 Jul @ 11:51am 
is there an AI mod compatible with this mod? I would like to fight against AI in orbits
Echthros  [author] 22 Jun @ 1:40pm 
The falloff starts at R * (1 + HillParams.Max). It's called MaxRadius in code, but I'm not sure if that's exposed in PB. HillParams is defined in the planet definition sbc.
Scopsins 21 Jun @ 3:18pm 
Hey Echthros. I'm working on a ballistic missile script and I'm having trouble calculating the gravitational parameter (g * r ^2) . It appears that the gravitational falloff doesn't start at the surface of the planet but some altitude above it and that throws off my calculations. (e.g. for an earthlike with a radius of 60,000 m gravitational falloff begins at 67,200 m and below that the gravity is constant.) In the mods' code you get this value from the API but the programmable block API doesn't have this value. Is this intended behavior?
Echthros  [author] 16 Jun @ 3:14pm 
The speed required to achieve a stable orbit scales based on gravity strength, planet radius, and distance. You may want to try lowering the gravity strength of the bodies that you are having trouble orbiting (with the RSS Editor). I'm not aware of anything that would have changed in the last few weeks to affect that, but each body will have a different required speed to achieve orbit.
Hyperion 15 Jun @ 5:40am 
@Echthros Been having a lot of fun with this mod in combination with RSS (preset 'real' solar system 1:40). However, I encountered a problem. I used to be able to get into stable orbit with 700-800 m/s. Since a few weeks, this is not possible anymore. I can't seem to get my eccentricity down far enough, without having to speed up well past 1000 m/s. I tried another preset RSS solar system, but I run into the same problem. Any idea what could be causing this?
Wish Dragon 11 Jun @ 8:18pm 
Last update, it only started working on the third restart, no idea why, but ti seems to function now
Wish Dragon 11 Jun @ 7:54pm 
Just tested, can confirm with a ship >15 blocks, travelling over 700 m/s, after using the command, still no dice
Wish Dragon 11 Jun @ 7:49pm 
I am using real solar systems, and I went through the sandbox file and manually changed all orbits already. It is possible I was using too small of a grid but I enabled character orbits and they didn't show up then either
Echthros  [author] 11 Jun @ 3:37pm 
If you are also using Real Solar Systems, you will need to make sure that the planets have their gravity falloff set to 2 in the RSS Editor (or type "/SetupRealOrbits" to change all planets). That's the main conflict I'm aware of.

Also, if I recall correctly, you need at least 15 blocks on a grid and be travelling at least 25 m/s for the orbit info to appear.
Wish Dragon 10 Jun @ 11:52pm 
What non-ui type mods can cause the orbit paths and gps markers to not appear? I've already removed every single UI affecting mod and still they do not show, even when cycling between the modes to try and refresh it.
Darth Mendel 5 Jun @ 6:46pm 
one of the best mods changes game's dynamics alot !!
PeterRabbit 24 May @ 4:18pm 
@Yori Yes, the default space engineers star systems and scenarios have the moon way too close to the earth, so their gravitational fields overlap. I'd recommend using one of the star system presets that are designed around having larger gravity fields such as with this mod.
PeterRabbit 24 May @ 4:16pm 
@DogeKingChris That sounds unrelated to this mod. This mod shouldn't have any effect on the rendering of planets themselves. At most it adds orbit lines and a tiny UI to tell you about your orbit.
Yori 24 May @ 4:35am 
I walk on the moon and the earth's gravity affects me LOL
DogeKingChris 20 May @ 10:52am 
Ok, so bigger planets have this really weird distortion effect where the ground isnt where it actually is, and rises up as you get closer. How do I disable that? I want to be able to see
PeterRabbit 15 Apr @ 1:22am 
@aTruckgril Beverly: Please understand that mod creators are doing this for free in their own free time. If you want mod creators to care about your problems and fix them, maybe treat them with kindness and respect, instead of posting long tirades about censorship and drowning out other people's comments.
Kill3rCat [1st FORECON] 5 Apr @ 3:28pm 
@aTruckgril Beverly; I have to be honest, regardless of mod issues, you seem a bit unhinged
@aTruckgril Beverly thats cool and all but can you not make this all about you. I'd like to get a response to my issue as well
im having an issue with the gps coordinates not disappearing if the grid gets destroyed
Kill3rCat [1st FORECON] 24 Mar @ 8:09pm 
Well we don't really care about the character walking lol
PeterRabbit 24 Mar @ 7:08pm 
The game gets really confused about the player walking around in extremely low gravities, so there's probably a good reason to keep that cutoff.
Kill3rCat [1st FORECON] 24 Mar @ 5:21pm 
It seems one major limitation of this mod is that due to gravity not having any effect < 0.05g, higher orbits and highly elliptical orbits are not possible to achieve.

The other orbital mechanics mod uses its own code to apply forces instead of relying on vanilla gravity; have you considered this approach? Alternatively I wonder if it would be possible for a plugin to change the minimum gravity value.
Gauss 11 Mar @ 4:45pm 
the override max speed doesnt work, i do have changed the values in the xml
wichway 8 Mar @ 3:20pm 
am i tweaking or this mod messes with plates gravity
Andrew900460 .;UbErZ;. 23 Jan @ 11:13pm 
This is something I've always wanted to do in this game.
Echthros  [author] 15 Jan @ 11:09pm 
Not currently, but a few people have requested something similar, so I may add that at some point.
ELLIOTTCABLE on Discord 15 Jan @ 12:09pm 
Is there any API for scripts to grab values from Real Orbits' calculations, so as to avoid doubling the performance cost of recalculating them constantly?
Echthros  [author] 14 Jan @ 9:16pm 
Yes, this is compatible with RSS. I haven't tested with Realistic Thrusters, but I don't think there would be a conflict.
ELLIOTTCABLE on Discord 14 Jan @ 2:06pm 
Ditto @Em Trish; Real Solar Systems (and potentially Realistic Thrusters ) definitely deserves a mention in the description/README. These mods seem like they'd go together really well; but also like they'd potentially conflict!
Em Trish 9 Jan @ 6:36pm 
does this work with real solar systems?
yoda25025legion 26 Dec, 2024 @ 7:57pm 
I am not able to see any of the heads up info that I normally do, displaying the trajectory. Is this a bug I can fix, or did it break with a recent update? for the record I have tried loading onto a world with only this mod and it still wasn't showing
silverbluemx 22 Dec, 2024 @ 9:00am 
Thanks. I'll have a look and see if I can improve on the approximations used in my script.
Echthros  [author] 21 Dec, 2024 @ 11:03am 
The formula is something like this:
var PlanetMaxRadius = (PlanetRadius * (1 + HillParams.Max);
var Gravity = SurfaceGravityStrength * ( (DistFromPlanetCenter / PlanetMaxRadius) ^ -GravityFalloff);

The gravity falloff starts at the planet's "MaxRadius" which includes the HillParams adjustment. You can find the HillParams value in the planet definition.
silverbluemx 21 Dec, 2024 @ 10:45am 
Hello ,
Thank you so much Echthros for this mod that brings back a bit of realism into Space Engineers !
I've developed for myself yet another landing script with a few extra features, one of them is computing an estimate of a planet surface gravity while still far away, by sampling the gravity field while descending and solving for the inverse square law. The very first public version is here:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3388634309

While I find that it mostly works, it doesn't quite get the value right. I assume that it's because even with this mod the inverse square law only kicks in at some distance from the surface, with constant gravity below that. I'm trying to figure out where that threshold is exactly. Is it a constant distance, does it depend on the surface gravity value, planet diameter, or other ? Any help would be appreciated.
Echthros  [author] 15 Dec, 2024 @ 7:37pm 
ForceStableOrbits relates to the velocity adjustment system that is supposed to manage orbit over long periods to ensure that they do not drift over time (due to micro-forces or physics imprecision). Without that system, all orbits are guaranteed to decay or escape eventually (it may take dozens to hundreds of hours depending on the orbit). If turning it off fixed your issue, then there must be some problem with the way that system is working on your file. My guess is that the system has bad info for some reason and is performing incorrect adjustments. It may be the result of some mod conflict.
Novius 15 Dec, 2024 @ 1:30pm 
Hey, just to give you an update. We tried it without the force stable orbit value, after which the orbits now seem to be completely fine and stable. They no longer move when you stop piloting them. Not sure what the cause is.
When it's enabled, the apo/peri heights shift pretty quickly when the grid is unpiloted.
With it disabled they don't shift at all and stay in a completely stable orbit.
This was tested using only perfectly circular orbits though, unsure about elliptical orbits
Novius 5 Dec, 2024 @ 8:59am 
The orbit is most certainly shifting. This also happens when you are in a grid next to an unmanned grid. When speed is matched perfectly the unmanned grid will shift upwards. Once you re-enter the cockpit the apoapsis and periapsis have gone further upwards. Over time this causes the orbit to leave the planet. There is currently no way to leave something in orbit without sitting in the cockpit or interacting with the remote control of said object for us. This is on mars in RealSolarSystems with the gravity set up correctly
Echthros  [author] 4 Dec, 2024 @ 10:08pm 
Just to clarify, by default, gravity affects players double what it does grids (this is vanilla behavior). So if you turn off your jetpack (or dampeners) while next to an orbiting grid, your character will drop like a rock. If you set the <CharacterGravityMultiplier> in the Config.xml settings to 1, then you will be affected the same as grids. You said that the orbit of the grid was shifting, but what you described sounds more like the character was just dropping away. So I would try setting that value to 1 and see if it resolves the issue.
Novius 4 Dec, 2024 @ 9:48pm 
Forgot to add, as soon as you get out of your ship and turn off dampers, you can clearly see this ship moving upwards and away from you. Even if you re-align the speed, it will keep moving.
Novius 4 Dec, 2024 @ 9:44pm 
Hey there! Awesome mod, we've been trying to make it work on realsolarsystems for the past few days. Config is setup correctly as well as the gravity falloff.

Despite all that however there are some issues with the orbit shifting when we leave the grid alone or stop controlling it. When I'm in my ship the orbit stays completely stable, however as soon as I leave it starts shifting. More specifically the apoapsis seems to be moving further away and the periapsis lowers.

This is on a grid with no thrusters enabled, put into a completely stable orbit.
Echthros  [author] 4 Dec, 2024 @ 3:41pm 
The best solution is to make a new world with the planets spaced further apart so that they don't have overlapping gravity wells.
Vipexツ 4 Dec, 2024 @ 2:03pm 
Can I simply add the mod to an existing savegame, or do I need to start a new savegame?
I added the mod to my already existing savegame, and now, when I stand on the moon, I'm slightly tilted.
The mod works in principle, as I can orbit around the moon, but as soon as I'm on the moon's surface, I'm a bit skewed.
Is there any solution for this?
KaKatze 18 Nov, 2024 @ 3:11am 
How do i use the preset star system? Do i do the inital real orbit setup while just having the preset included in the mods or how do i use that?
Echthros  [author] 17 Nov, 2024 @ 3:28pm 
Are you using it with Real Solar Systems? If so, you will need to set the gravity falloff of all planets you want to orbit to 2. The chat command "/SetupRealOrbits" will do this automatically.
Adam 17 Nov, 2024 @ 3:24pm 
Ever since you updated the mod the orbits information doesnt show up on my screen , including the yellow orbit lines.
PeterRabbit 11 Nov, 2024 @ 2:27pm 
There is an existing script called "Orbital Autopilot and Map" that you can use. It has both a visual display of your current orbit as well as the ability to orient yourself to gravity and achieve orbit.
Evil Larry 31 Oct, 2024 @ 9:03pm 
Does this mod have a script available that graphs the orbital trajectory on a cockpit display? if not, are there plans for that to occur?
PeterRabbit 26 Oct, 2024 @ 6:27am 
Sweet update, especially the DS fix!
Zaphod-11 24 Oct, 2024 @ 3:20pm 
Ayyyyoooo compat update