From July 30th Livestream the System Editor look awesome but I did notice one thing! At the moment you have a "x" axis and a "y" axis. Will there be a "z" axis for more of a 3D orbit? So that all the planet aren't just spinning on the "x" and "y" axis? Zenotheory
If you listened closely, Gaf said that there is a Z axis, and it is possible to utilize it, but for the sake of simple gameplay it will be mostly ignored. N-Body (in this case hierarchical 2-Body) calculations are difficult enough without taking the Z axis into account.
You actually can try System Editor yourself: viewtopic.php?p=770155#p770155 But there is currently no z axis. I also want to believe that Uber will implement rotation on axis of planet, so it's will be even more realistic.
Adding a 3rd axis wouldn't make the calculations any more difficult. The math is still the same. As far as processing overhead, it might be about a 5% increase in processing time (per body - body interaction). Most of the overhead from gravity simulation comes from the square roots, squares, and multiplication. (though the square roots can be factored out). Take it from somebody that always writes a gravity simulation any time they're bored.
I'm not talking about for the computer, I'm talking about for the player Yeah, my post was a bit vague on that. A computer screen is a 2d surface, while a star system is a 3d environment. That might transfer well in a Shooter or a Tacticool Wombat game, but not in an RTS.
In a real solar system objects orbit along the equator of the star with only small deviations. Because the star spins and drags objects in to this axis. Stuff orbiting on a Z axis is a rare exception (or something that recently entered the system), rather than something you would expect to see. One thing I'd love to see is an orbit speed editor though, or generally slow down orbit speeds. At the moment planets spin and orbit very fast (especially moons), which kind of dulls the sense of scale
That would not work at all. Object orbit speed are dependent of their parent object mass and the distance between the center of the parent object and the object. Any object with any propriety orbiting the same parent object at the same distance will have the same orbital speed.
Unless you play with the gravitational constant or start scaling masses. Mass of celestial objects is relatively arbitrary for this game.
