Starting your First Sim

Installing Space Teams → Starting your First Sim

Up to date for Platform 0.20.5

Written by Connor Jakubik

Also available in video form:

Flat Screen: https://youtu.be/zjh_AYmq3A0?si=eDAx6Bqx1lztdGW_
VR: https://youtu.be/KmV7PsColAs?si=e6GNTSXDhOUgyX6j

Prerequisites:

https://github.com/SimDynamX/SpaceTeamsPro/wiki/Installation-Setup

This guide will take you through the process to start the Solar System Explorer demo, which is a good first sim to try out in Space Teams.

Open SpaceCRAFT/SpaceCRAFT.exe.
Press F11 to toggle fullscreen.
Log in to your account
1. Create new accounts on https://www.spaceteamspro.com/.
Click Demos on the left panel.
Click on Solar System Explorer.
Click Start Demo in the bottom right.

After some loading time, you should see the Earth from above, exactly how it should look if you were in space right now (besides the cloud coverage). The screen may be black if the sun is on the other side of the Earth. The entire solar system is explorable in this demo.

NOTE: Demos by default have raytracing off. You can experience them with full fidelity raytraced shadows by checking the Raytracing checkbox.

Controls & Tips (`UIP2D_Spectator` pawn)

Press Tab to cycle between view modes.
Click the Help button on the top bar to display controls for the spectator pawn (the entity you are inhabiting).
Many of the UI elements have tooltips that explain more when hovered.
The camera controls are visible by default in the top right.
- Click the button with the Sun icon to set proper Earth daytime exposure.
- You can also use the scrollbar or number input.
If you leave the local area of a planet / moon, your pawn motion will be unconstrained from that planet.
- This means you can rotate any direction (including rolling).
- (Only applies for Platform 0.17.0 and lower): When you can rotate any direction, you still have a "rotation origin" that is used as your "straight ahead" direction, and pitching the camera near 90 degrees up or down from that will result in hitting the top and bottom rotation limits. Press v to reset your rotation origin.
- Your velocity is now tied to solar system barycenter instead of the planet; the planet may leave you behind, especially at high timescale.
Time control is done with ,, ., and /.
- These are used for what their shift-keys would do. The , has a < on it, so it slows timescale down. The . has a > on it, so it speeds timescale up.
- / freezes and unfreezes the simulation (freeze sets timescale to 0.0x, and unfreeze sets it to its most recent non-zero value).
- If timescale is 0.0x, pressing , will change timescale to 0.001x, and pressing . will change timescale to 1.0x.
- If sim time matches real-life time within ~2 seconds of margin, Realtime will show in place of the timescale.
- Pressing RAlt-, will force time to flow negative, and RAlt-. will force time to flow positive.

Also try the sim in VR

Work in progress instructions

What to Do

Post screenshots in the Discussions section of this repository!

If you have a gamepad connected to your computer, try using that to move around
- (controls instructions WIP)
Find your home town
Look at one of our Earth sites with high fidelity data:
- Grand Canyon
- Mt Everest
- Hawaii
Look at the Earth city lights at nighttime
- The EV button with the crescent moon icon sets proper Earth nighttime exposure
Watch the sun set over the mountains
Look away from bright objects and see the stars and milky way (low EV and 40-degree FOV help)
Find the moon in the sky, go to it
Look at one of our Moon sites with high fidelity data:
- South Pole
- Apollo 15 & 17 landing sites
Go to the other planets
- The outer planets will require lowering EV to see them; they're far from the sun!
Mars points of interest:
- Gale Crater (Curiosity)
- Jezero Crater (Perseverance & Ingenuity)
- Valles Marineris
- Olympus Mons
Continue reading pages in this wiki and make your own sims!