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Artlav said:
I tried, once upon a time. Can't quite remember what the problem was, but something to do with LOD being overwhelmed by the scale of the terrain.

Probably should try again now.
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Another interesting nonspherical case with potential for gorgeous scenery, perhaps more manageable computationally, is that of a contact binary planet.
 
I'm planning on building a PC for the first time next year. It's supposed to be a ~$500 machine optimized for KSP, which is why I've got the i3 processor with the fastest clock speed.
 
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Artlav said:
Hm, is that even possible?
Shouldn't they be torn to shreds by the gravity?
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For approximately equal mass and density, no. If one planet fills its Roche lobe before the other, it will lose mass through the L1 point until it either shrinks to within its Roche lobe, disintegrates completely, or provides enough material that the other planet grows to fill its Roche lobe. In the final case, the two planets will take a three dimensional figure eight shape .

Contact binaries are already known to exist in the case of stars and asteroids. The one problem with regards to contact binary planets is whether they would be stable over long periods. Asteroids are small enough that a contact binary can be formed by mechanical forces in a collision. Stars, as far as I know, mostly form contact binaries when the primary starts to evolve off the main sequence. For planets, I'd think the most likely formation mechanism would be a double planet losing angular momentum to a moon by tidal acceleration, but unless the moon was ejected entirely, that process would continue until the two planets merged completely.
 
Linguofreak said:
For approximately equal mass and density, no. If one planet fills its Roche lobe before the other, it will lose mass through the L1 point until it either shrinks to within its Roche lobe, disintegrates completely, or provides enough material that the other planet grows to fill its Roche lobe. In the final case, the two planets will take a three dimensional figure eight shape .

Contact binaries are already known to exist in the case of stars and asteroids. The one problem with regards to contact binary planets is whether they would be stable over long periods. Asteroids are small enough that a contact binary can be formed by mechanical forces in a collision. Stars, as far as I know, mostly form contact binaries when the primary starts to evolve off the main sequence. For planets, I'd think the most likely formation mechanism would be a double planet losing angular momentum to a moon by tidal acceleration, but unless the moon was ejected entirely, that process would continue until the two planets merged completely.
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If you can find a copy of it, Robert L. Forward's "Flight of the Dragonfly" and the following books has a system with a almost-conjoined planet. (they don't touch, but they share atmospheres) It's got some orbital data in an appendix at the back that helps explain how a system like that would work.
 
MaverickSawyer said:
If you can find a copy of it, Robert L. Forward's "Flight of the Dragonfly" and the following books has a system with a almost-conjoined planet. (they don't touch, but they share atmospheres) It's got some orbital data in an appendix at the back that helps explain how a system like that would work.
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I read it, under the title "Rocheworld", in middle school.
 
So I spent yesterday migrating from Kubuntu 12.04 LTS to OpenSUSE 13.2. And I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised...indeed, shocked and delighted:)

All the pernicious problems of 12.1 are gone. Everything is as easy to install as it was under the Debian package system, and it looks...well
picture.php


It's been a secret dream for of mine for a couple of years to have a solid, good-looking, good-performing OpenSUSE box:)
 
Galactic Penguin SST said:
I have been wondering that how come the morph of some of the most hated and feared machines for the Americans into a card game with cute girls all around didn't spark any outrage..... :rofl: (*)
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They're too cute for that to happen...I even find the Re-class aviation battleship quite attractive, despite her usually :censored: me off when i'm sorting on the map that has her.
 
Galactic Penguin SST said:
Goodness me someone plays Kancolle here! :blink:

I have been wondering that how come the morph of some of the most hated and feared machines for the Americans into a card game with cute girls all around didn't spark any outrage..... :rofl: (*)


(*) Probably best to move to the dungeon if people want to expand on that.
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I don't actually play Kancolle--I just like the girls:stirpot:
And I think it helps that they are fighting against aliens rather than Americans;)
 
Fabri91 said:
Depending on application, but especially in gaming, dual channel may yield very limited benefits.

On the other hand, having a single 8GB stick may make it easier to upgrade since, at least in my experience, using all four DIMM slots on a motherboard might not work (older Core 2 Duo E6400 PC refuses to boot with 2*512MB and 2*1GB DIMMs, while my current i5 750 works just fine with 2*2GB and 2*4GB).
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Besides the general guideline of running dual-channel, I also based my advice on the fact that he doesn't seem likely to upgrade beyond 8GB. For most applications, it wouldn't make sense to go much beyond that without also upgrading the rest of the hardware.
I've somewhat got the issue you mentioned. I have 2x4GB but I would like to have 16GB but would rather not use all 4 RAM slots. However, it's very very difficult to actually need more than 8GB anyways. So far it happens from running very intense modpacks of Minecraft simultaneously with the server or else running massive fluid dynamics simulations in SolidWorks.
 
I think it should be fine with the single 8GB for KSP. It's not like you're going to be running X-Plane 10 with the new UHD mesh, which recommends a minimum of 16GB but suggests 32GB to play it safe.
 
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