So I've been playing around with the demo versions of AstroSynthesis 3.0 and Fractal Terrains 3, and I have some questions about each of them. For AS3, I'm mainly concerned about whether the program is working properly on my computer, since I've heard that it doesn't work on some computers, and I've been having some weird problems with it which may or may not be serious. For FT3, I have a few questions about specific functions within the program, but mostly I want to figure out what the program is telling me about the physical characteristics of my planet. That last bit is where my questions really become more about climatology and geography and some astrophysics than they are about cartography, so I'm not sure how much you guys will be able to help there. If you can point me to some other forums or resources for the sciency aspects of worldbuilding, that would be great.


AS3:

My basic question here is, how well will this program work on my computer? It seems to work most of the time, but it also crashes quite a bit, although not every time I use the program. Sometimes images don't appear properly, too. The first time I started the program, it showed me a black screen with a cube drawn in dashed, white lines, instead of the spherical grid thing. When I just recently started the program, however, it showed me the spherical grid. The program also has a tendency to show habitable planets as featureless white/grey spheres in the small top left window, and when I expand that window, the planets disappear altogether and are replaced by blackness. However, it has correctly displayed habitable planets at least once before. Do these issues seem like they could be indicative of a major problem, or are they just some graphical glitches?

And then there was the time I tried making a solar system. I started out with just a single star with nothing orbiting it, then added a habitable planet. The program added the planet, complete with earth-like surface conditions, but at a distance of 0 km from the sun. I could change it's distance from the sun and it would appear normally, but this was still very worrying for me because having an earth-like planet inside a star is obviously impossible, yet it still gave me moderate surface temperatures and an earth-like atmosphere. Was this just a one-off problem, or does AS3 not calculate your world details correctly?

If it helps, below is a link that gives the specs for my computer.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/p...5E-S01UB-specs

And here are the requirements for AS3, as given on NBOS website. I can't really tell if my computer meets these requirements, so if someone who knows anything about computers could look at this, I'd appreciate it.

AstroSynthesis 3.0 - System Requirements
Intel Pentium® IV class PC or comparable with 1GB (1024MB) RAM. 2GB (2048MB) RAM or greater recommended.
200 meg free hard disk space.
Microsoft® Windows 10, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 7, Vista, and XP officially supported.
A video card featuring OpenGL graphics acceleration.

AstroSynthesis is a 3D graphics application, so it is highly recommended you download the trial version to ensure there are no problems running the program under your specific video card and driver configuration.

FT3:

First some questions about particular functions within the program:

  1. I've had issues saving content, specifically world settings (temperature, precipitation, mass of planet, etc.) and color settings (color gradients for elevation, temperature, precipitation, etc.). I haven't made any actual maps yet, just messed around and learned how things work. I can't save any settings in the directories where the program files are located, i.e., the default places to save, but I can save them in other directories that I choose. Is this because I only have the demo version right now?
  2. In the "World Settings" window, in the "Editing" tab, you can specify a value for "Editing Size," either Small, Medium, Large, or Custom. What exactly does this control? Also, when I tried to change Editing Size from Small to anything else, when I went to a new tab and came back, Editing Size always reverted back to Small. Why does this happen? Is it just because I have the demo version of the program?
  3. In the "World Settings" window, there is a tab called "Fractal Function," which apparently controls how the maps are drawn? I don't really know anything about fractals, and I don't expect anyone to explain it to me on this forum, but does anyone have any suggestions about which fractal function to use?

Now some more sciency questions:

  1. In the "World Settings" window, in the "Temperature" tab, what physical quantity is "Greenhouse" exactly? I get that it indicates the greenhouse warming effects in the planet's atmosphere, but what specific physical quantity does it represent, and how do you compute it? The program tells me that Earth has a "Greenhouse" value of 1.1, if that helps. From GURPS Space, I've calculated a quantity called the "blackbody correction" for my planet, which incidentally also comes out to 1.1; this might be the greenhouse quantity FT3 is referring to, but I'm not sure. The funny thing is, in calculating the blackbody correction, you use a quantity called the "greenhouse factor," which obviously sounds like it could be FT3's greenhouse quantity, except that the greenhouse factor is about .16 for garden worlds. So I don't really know what FT3 is using.
  2. In the "World Settings" window, in the "Temperature" tab, there is a quantity called "Light." Is this the same as solar luminosity?
  3. In the "World Settings" window, in the "Temperature" tab, there are a set of three values collectively labeled "Physically-based Base Temperature." These three values are "Albedo," "Light," and "Greenhouse." When I input values for these three variables that I got from GURPS Space, I get surface temperatures in the hundreds of degrees Celsius. If I calculated these values correctly, I should be getting surface temperatures around 55 degrees Celsius. So what does this mean? Did I create my planet incorrectly, or is FT3 messing up? This is probably a really hard question to answer, so if no once can answer it, that's fine. Any insight at all would be helpful. If it helps, I got for my world an albedo of .13, a solar luminosity (light) of 1.8, and a blackbody correction of 1.1, which I'm currently using as my greenhouse value.
  4. One of the most interesting things I've learned from FT3 is that, apparently, my world has quite a high rate of precipitation. Precipitation on my planet tends to stick close to 200 cm/yr, with oceans getting a bit more than that and continents usually but not always getting a bit less. In general, it seems that my world gets precipitation of 130-275 cm/yr. Between that and the high temperatures, the continents on my planet seem to be covered almost exclusively by tropical deciduous forests and some tropical evergreen forests, with no plains or deserts at all. My question is, does this make sense? What factors contribute to precipitation levels? My planet has an 85% hydrographic coverage (percent of surface covered by oceans). Could my high hydrographic percentage be related to my high precipitation rates?


So, that's a lot of questions. I realize that most people won't be able answer all these questions, so whatever insight anyone has to offer is appreciated.

And now Imma go to bed. Cuz it's 7 AM and I'm tired.