Interacting with the Simulator

Player data

// Gives you the active star and planet

cStar* star = GetActiveStar();
cStarRecord* starRecord = GetActiveStarRecord();

cPlanet* planet = GetActivePlanet();
cPlanetRecord* planetRecord = GetActivePlanetRecord();


// Gives you the player empire and its political ID

cEmpire* empire = GetPlayerEmpire();
uint32_t politicalID = GetPlayerEmpireID();

// This can be used to know the current context: planet, solar system, galaxy

if (GetCurrentContext() == kSpaceContextGalaxy) {

}
else if (GetCurrentContext() == kSpaceContextPlanet) {

}

// Returns the avatar creature
cCreatureAnimal* avatar = GameNounManager.GetAvatar();

Stars & Empires

In order to identify stars and planets, Spore uses the StarIndex and PlanetIndex types, which are just integers. Star indices are divided in sectors (you can get the sector of a star index with GetSectorIndex(starIndex)). A planet index is composed with a star index, and then the index of the planet within that solar system (you can separate them with GetStarRecordIndex(planetIndex) and GetPlanetIndex(planetIndex)). Internally, planets and star systems are stored as Simulator::cPlanetRecord and Simulator::cStarRecord.

cStarRecord* star = StarManager.GetStarRecord(starIndex);
cPlanetRecord* planet = StarManager.GetPlanetRecord(planetIndex);

You can access things like star->mName, star->mPlanets, star->mEmpireID, planet->mPlantSpecies, planet->mWaterScore,... If you want to get the terraforming score of a planet, you can use TerraformingManager.GetTScore(planet). You can also compute the corresponding T-score for an atmosphere and temperature using TerraformingManager.CalculateTScore(atmosphereScore, temperatureScore)

The StarManager also has functions for many other things related with galaxies:

cEmpire* empire = StarManager.GetEmpire(politicalID);

// The Grox
uint32_t politicalID = StarManager.GetGrobEmpireID();

// Where is the planet earth?
cStarRecord* star = StarManager.GetSol();

// If you are playing an adventure, this returns the star it is in
cStarRecord* star = StarManager.GetScenarioStar();

The Simulator::cEmpire class has many useful attributes:

cStarRecord* homeStar = empire->GetHomeStarRecord();

for (auto starRecord : empire->mStars) {

}

for (auto enemy : empire->mEnemies) {

}
for (auto ally : empire->mAllies) {

}

ResourceKey factory = empire->mCultureSet.GetCreation(kBuildingIndustry);

if (empire->mArchetype == kArchetypeEcologist) {

}

Relationships

The RelationshipManager manages the relationship between communities (tribes, cities, empires). You can do some basic actions:

• Check if two empires are at war: RelationshipManager.IsAtWar(empire1, empire2)
• Apply a relationship: The available relationships are at the Simulator::RelationshipEvents enum. You can use ApplyRelationship to apply a relationship effect between two communities (you need the political ID of the communities). The impact of that relationship depends on settings to certain properties in .prop files.

// The last parameter is the scale, how much is affected
RelationshipManager.ApplyRelationship(empire->GetPoliticalID(), causeEmpire->GetPoliticalID(), kRelationshipEventHostility, 0.3f);

Planets

Given a 3D vector representing a position, there are multiple functions at PlanetModel related with planets. The position does not need to be at the surface, it's just considered a direction from the center of the planet.

Vector3 position = ...;

// Returns true if this position is inside or above the water mass in the planet
if (PlanetModel.IsInWater(position)) {

}

// Returns the terrain height at this position
float height = PlanetModel.GetHeightAt(position);

// Returns the city nearest to the position
cCity* city = PlanetModel.GetNearestCity(position);

// Returns the planet surface position that is aligned with the given position
Vector3 pos = PlanetModel.ToSurface(position);

// Returns the quaternion orientation that orients an object in this direction
Vector3 direction = {0, 0, 1};
Quaternion orientation = PlanetModel.GetOrientation(position, direction);


// Generally returns -9.8, but adventures can use a different gravity
float gravity = PlanetModel.GetGravity();

// Returns the position at the planet that the mouse cursor is aiming at
// This can collide with certain objects like airplanes, creatures, cyty walls, but for example not rocks
Vector3 pos = GameViewManager.GetWorldMousePosition();

If you have a Simulator::cCity object, you can get the position of the city using city->GetWallsPosition().

Space tools & inventory

The space tools tutorial shows you how to add new space tools. Apart from that, there are many useful functions related with space tools and the space inventory. You can get the [space inventory](Simulator::cSpaceInventory) with SimulatorSpaceGame.GetPlayerInventory(). That class has methods to see if there's a certain item, add and remove items, etc. For example, if we want to add a planet buster weapon to our inventory:

cSpaceToolDataPtr tool;
ToolManager.LoadTool({id("PlanetBusterBomb"), 0, 0}, tool)

auto inventory = SimulatorSpaceGame.GetPlayerInventory();
inventory->AddItem(tool.get());

// You can also add ammo to the tool
tool->AddAmmo(10);

Game modes

Calling SimGameModeManager.GetActiveModeID() returns the ID of the current mode, which you can compare to the IDs at the GameModeIDs enum. There are also functions that do that for you: IsSpaceGame(), IsScenarioMode(),...

You can get the difficulty tunning .prop of the active mode and difficulty by calling GameModeManager.GetActiveDifficultyTuning().

Loading creatures, vehicles and models

Some simulator objects, such as creatures and vehicles, have specialized functions that must be used when creating them.

To create a creature, first you must get its species, then use Simulator::cCreatreAnimal::Create() to create a new instance of that species. You must also give it the initial position.

auto species = SpeciesManager.GetSpeciesProfile({ 0x066B8241, TypeIDs::crt, GroupIDs::CreatureModels });
cCreatureAnimalPtr creature = cCreatureAnimal::Create({ 500.0, 0, 0 }, species);

You can create a vehicle with simulator_new, like most other Simulator classes. You will have to call the Load() method to load a model and tell which kind of vehicle it is:

cVehiclePtr vehicle = simulator_new<cVehicle>();
vehicle->Load(kVehicleLand, kVehicleMilitary, { 0x19A3A9AC, TypeIDs::vcl, GroupIDs::VehicleModels });

// If you are on civ/space stage, you can spawn a vehicle that belongs to a city
// The last argument is whether you are on space stage
cVehiclePtr vehicle = city->SpawnVehicle(kVehicleMilitary, kVehicleLand, { 0x19A3A9AC, TypeIDs::vcl, GroupIDs::VehicleModels }, false);

For other types of spatial objects, you can just use SetModelKey():

cGameDataPtr rock = GameNounManager.CreateInstance(kRock);
object_cast<cSpatialObject>(rock)->SetModelKey({ id("EP1_sg_rare_fossils_04"), TypeIDs::prop, GroupIDs::CivicObjects });

Vector3 dst = ...;
vehicle->MoveTo(dst);

Vector3 dst = ...;
vehicle->WalkTo(0, dst, {0, 0, 1});

// 0x04FFA018 is the animation where the creature tells a joke
creature->PlayAnimation(0x04FFA018);