Aurora 4x

VB6 Aurora => Aurora Chat => Topic started by: firefly2442 on January 24, 2018, 10:34:00 PM

Title: How does Aurora set the starting planet/asteroid/etc positions?
Post by: firefly2442 on January 24, 2018, 10:34:00 PM

Are there any databases for simple spherical 2D orbit positions (radius, velocity, etc. ) of planets, asteroids, and so on?  How does Aurora set them?  I found JPL Horizons but it looks pretty complicated.

https://ssd. jpl. nasa. gov/?horizons

Title: Re: How does Aurora set the starting planet/asteroid/etc positions?
Post by: Barkhorn on January 24, 2018, 10:50:43 PM

Well, excluding comets, all bodies have circular orbits in-game.  I think the DB just takes an average of the semi-major and semi-minor axis to decide the size of the orbit.  Then for anything in Sol, he probably found a calculator online somewhere that'll give him a position on that orbit.  For fictional bodies, he probably just randomly assigns them orbits and positions, with some caveats like how gas giants sometimes get trojan asteroids.