''Microsoft Space Simulator'' is a

space flight simulator Space flight simulation is a Video game genres, genre of flight simulator video games that lets players experience space flight to varying degrees of Reality, realism. Common mechanics include space exploration, space trade and space combat. Over ...

program Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

, based on ''

Microsoft Flight Simulator ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' is a series of Flight simulation video game, flight simulator programs for MS-DOS, Classic Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and diff ...

'' for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

. It was one of the first general-purpose space flight simulators and it incorporated concepts from

astrodynamics Orbital mechanics or astrodynamics is the application of ballistics and celestial mechanics to rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft. The motion of these objects is usually calculated from Newton's laws of motion and the Newton's law of univ ...

motion In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...

, and

celestial mechanics Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of objects in outer space. Historically, celestial mechanics applies principles of physics (classical mechanics) to astronomical objects, such as stars and planets, to ...

Development

''Microsoft Space Simulator'' was released under the

Microsoft Home Microsoft Home is a discontinued line of software applications and personal hardware products published by Microsoft. The Microsoft Home brand was first announced by Bill Gates in a presentation on October 4, 1993. These applications were designed ...

line in 1994. It was developed by BAO Ltd., a company run by

Bruce Artwick Bruce Arthur Artwick (born January 1, 1953) is an American software engineer. He is the creator of the first consumer flight simulator software. He founded Sublogic after graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1977, ...

(who was also behind the development of ''

'') with Charles Guy as lead developer. It provided support for 256-color graphics on three resolutions: 320x400, 640x400, and 800x600. The graphics featured

dither Dither is an intentionally applied form of noise used to randomize quantization error, preventing large-scale patterns such as color banding in images. Dither is routinely used in processing of both digital audio and video data, and is ofte ...

gouraud shading Gouraud shading ( ), named after Henri Gouraud (computer scientist), Henri Gouraud, is an interpolation method used in computer graphics to produce continuous shading of surfaces represented by Polygon mesh, polygon meshes. In practice, Gouraud ...

3D vessels, with

texture mapped Texture mapping is a term used in computer graphics to describe how 2D images are projected onto 3D models. The most common variant is the UV unwrap, which can be described as an inverse paper cutout, where the surfaces of a 3D model are cut ap ...

planets, moons, and

deep-sky object A deep-sky object (DSO) is any astronomical object that is not an individual star or Solar System object (such as Sun, Moon, planet, comet, etc.). The classification is used for the most part by amateur astronomers to denote visually observed fa ...

Physics engine

''Microsoft Space Simulator'' uses

Newton's laws of motion Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws, which provide the basis for Newtonian mechanics, can be paraphrased as follows: # A body re ...

but takes account of relativistic effects by decreasing a spacecraft's acceleration as its speed approaches the

speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...

. It does not take account of

time dilation Time dilation is the difference in elapsed time as measured by two clocks, either because of a relative velocity between them (special relativity), or a difference in gravitational potential between their locations (general relativity). When unsp ...

. Atmospheric effect are not modeled and all

planetary surface A planetary surface is where the solid or liquid material of certain types of astronomical objects contacts the atmosphere or outer space. Planetary surfaces are found on solid objects of planetary mass, including terrestrial planets (including ...

s are treated as flat spheres. A limited

collision detection Collision detection is the computational problem of detecting an intersection of two or more objects in virtual space. More precisely, it deals with the questions of ''if'', ''when'' and ''where'' two or more objects intersect. Collision detect ...

between vessels is implemented by using docking ports.

Features

The simulator featured 14 different spacecraft, most of them futuristic. Historical or current tech craft include the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

(with its

Manned Maneuvering Unit The Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) is an astronaut propulsion unit that was used by NASA on three Space Shuttle missions in 1984. The MMU allowed the astronauts to perform untethered Extravehicular activity, extravehicular spacewalks at a dist ...

) and

Apollo Command/Service Module The Apollo command and service module (CSM) was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo (spacecraft), Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apollo program, which landed astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. The CSM functi ...

and

Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed s ...

Reception

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

'' gave the simulator a score of 84% in its September 1994 issue, praising its graphics and realistic approach to space travel, while criticizing the poor or non-existent sound and the interface. Others praised the lack of sound indicating how it added realism.

References

External links

* * {{simulation-videogame-stub 1994 video games DOS games DOS-only games Microsoft games Realistic space simulators Single-player video games Space flight simulator games Video games developed in the United States