Thanks for the Beta testing, folks!
The highly anticipated Climate Model improvements are ready to go live! Thank you to all of our beta testers and community members for your useful feedback. We particularly enjoyed seeing all of the fun Earth-like terrae you have found in your exploration.
In this update, we improved the relationship between temperature and windspeed, and updated the equator-to-pole temperature calculations. This included fixing a bug in the calculation of mean temperature, which was previously too low for many planets with high windspeeds, and also changed with windspeed. Mean temperature now remains constant, unless overrides are set in the Planet Editor or catalogs.
We also fixed a few other minor bugs, including a temperature discontinuity in regions experiencing polar night, and a bug that incorrectly calculated the minimum or maximum temperature when both were set in the Planet Editor or through catalog inputs. Now the Planet Editor won’t ignore your inputs! But as always, keep in mind that extreme inputs can result in extreme outputs.
Please also take note of the known issues below the changelog, as your custom planets/systems may be impacted!
Changelog:
- Added a seizure warning screen when the program is starting. Pressing ESC will end the screen early.
- Climate Model Update: Improved the relationship between temperature and windspeed; updated the equator-to-pole temperature calculations.
- Fixed a bug in the calculation of mean temperature, which was previously too low for planets with high windspeeds, and also incorrectly changed with windspeed.
- Fixed a planet surface temperature discontinuity in regions experiencing polar night. This also fixed a related bug for planets with axial tilts greater than 45 degrees.
- Fixed a bug that incorrectly calculated the minimum or maximum temperature when both were set in the Planet Editor or through the catalogs.
- Fixed a bug in the Star Browser where binary planets and binary moons were not correctly identified in a temperature-based search.
- Updated the exoplanet and host star catalog (this may include updated names for some objects)
- Updated asteroid catalog
Known Issues:
- Entering a minimum temperature sets the theoretical temperature at the winter pole for maximum possible subsolar latitude at maximum distance from the star - however, maximum subsolar latitude may not actually correspond to apoapsis, so your custom planet may not quite achieve the minimum temperature entered in the Editor/catalogs.
- When rate of time is set very high, there is a distance-calculation bug that results in incorrect temperatures (planets and stars move faster than the temperature calculation is performed within SE).