First, sorry il the thread already exist or is not relevant.
I've just read the list of stuff for 0.96. Just amazing (even if there's nothing about nebulae ). There's something about exporting textures of procedural planets. It would be great, but I know that's not very easy (euphemism) to do, but a planet creator would be great, I mean a tool where you can change everything on planet, save the file with all datas (or seeds that make the planet automatically) and then a planet in the universe by the one you have created. The best would be the possibility to "sculpt" the planet at will...
-> A similar tool for galaxies would be just outstanding.
Of course it's asking too much, but, well, who knows...
I have just created (tomorrow!) something like a planet editor - this is a tool for debug, but can be extended to useful planet creator. But I should note that it is impossible to edit a procedural planet - as changes cannot be saved. The only way to make a new planet in SE is to add it to planets catalog. But such a tool can be used to "save" any procedural planet to the script to make a catalog based on it. Saving a system to the script is already implemented in a previous version.
Question: Since it can't be saved, can you make it so the engine re-configures the planet to the changed settings each time you enter the game? (just wondering, don't know if this really resembles saving [I'm no code guru ])
But this is the same as saving. This is possible, but a bit hard and will slow down generation of planetary system - the engine should search through scripts to find if some planet in the current system is saved there. And, in a multiplayer game the editing of planets should be managed in some way...