Time Panel: Adjust the Date
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The Time Panel enables you to set the scene to a specific date and time.
This could be to dial in a specific milestone of a space mission, or simply to spin a part of a planet into sunlight. We will discuss the panel here and the ways you can use it with these data.
Visual Transcript
Video time |
Description |
---|---|
0:00 |
Open and pop-out the Time Panel. |
0:11 |
Change the date by typing and pressing |
0:31 |
Change the date with the arrows above and below the date. |
1:11 |
Change the date by opening the calendar view and clicking on a date. |
1:41 |
Change the rate of time with the sliders. |
2:20 |
Using the quick adjust slider to temporarily adjust the rate of time. |
3:02 |
Play and pause time with the panel’s play and pause button. |
3:30 |
Change the rate of time using the panel’s left and right arrows. |
4:08 |
Use the Realtime and Now buttons to set the rate of time to 1 second/second and the date to your computer’s date. |
4:35 |
Using the Time Manager settings to adjust how quickly or slowly changes happen. |
Time
This section will cover the various aspects of manipulating time in OpenSpace. We often refer to this as the In-Game time as it oftentimes will be different from the time shown on a wall clock.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Upon launch of the default profile, the simulation will be set to one day behind the current time – this is to provide full coverage of Earth as often, temporal data will not yet be available for the current date. However, the date of the simulation can be changed to any date. By default the simulation will progress in real time, also expressed as 1 second per second. The rate at which the simulation progresses (also called the Delta Time) can be changed. Press the RightArrow key once to change it to 5 seconds per second. Now time inside OpenSpace progresses five times as fast as in real life. Press the LeftArrow to change it back to real-time. You can also pause the progress of time entirely by pressing the Space key. Lastly, the number keys 1-0 are set to different Delta Times that can be accessed directly through those keys.
As you can tell, all of the keys we have used so far have changed the time smoothly. To see this in action use the RightArrow key to increase the Delta Time to 12h per second and you should see Earth rotate every two seconds. If you now press the Space key, it will take a short while for the Earth to stop spinning. If you press Shift+Space instead, the Earth will start spinning immediately instead. Similarly, Shift+1-0 and Shift+LeftArrow and Shift+RightArrow will instantaneously change the Delta Time to the new value.
Lastly, Alt+1-0 will change the Delta Time to the corresponding negative value. So 2 will change it to 5 seconds per second and Alt+2 will change it to -5 seconds per second, meaning that we slowly move into the past.
Video
This video illustrates all of the concepts that are presented in this part of the getting started guide: