Tools and Resources

This is a quick list of tools or similar resources I've referenced over the course of the blog or made myself.

Worldbuilding Pasta Originals

Tools that I've made myself.

Worldbuilding Spreadsheet: An excel spreadsheet (should work in open office too, and there is a Google doc version but I haven't updated that in a while) containing a number of formulas for calculating a variety of factors in building star systems and planets, including orbital dynamics, habitable zones, planet sizes, solar and geothermal heating, and more. I'm also working on a page containing a direct implementation of every formula that appears in the blog.

"Hey Guys, What Map Program Should I Use?": A text flowchart of different software that might be useful for various types of mapmaking. Somewhat redundant with this post, but contains a number of options I didn't think fit here (including paid programs, which I make a point not to use on the blog if I can avoid it).

Starpasta: A small tool for simulating the full evolution of a broad range of stars. More explanation here.

projectionpasta: A python script and standalone .exe for converting raster images between projections and aspects. Fairly bareboned compared with some of the options I'll mention later, but with 2 key advantages: 1, any of the supported projections at any aspect (orientation of the map relative to the globe) can be used for input and output; and 2, the color mode of the input image is preserved in the output.

Astronomy

Tools for simulating stars, star systems, and orbits.

Stellar System Creator: Contains much of the same math for building planetary systems as the worldbuilding spreadsheet but also lets you create nifty charts displaying those systems.

Habitable Zones in Multiple Star Systems: A browser tool for exploring habitable zones and orbital stability limits in systems of multiple stars.

Orbe: A lightweight orbital integrator for exploring the long-term evolution and stability of orbits. I did a quick overview of its use here.

Celestia: A program allowing for first-person exploration of the solar system. Adding your own star system is a bit of a process but may be worth it if you want to see what it would look like to stand on one of your worlds.

A Modern Mean Dwarf Stellar Color and Effective Temperature Sequence: A table of typical properties for stars across the main sequence and some brown dwarfs. SpT is the spectral type, Teff is effective temperature in Kelvin, logL is the logarithm of the luminosity relative to the sun, R_Rsun is the radius relative to the sun, Msun is the mass relative to the sun, most of the other values describe its spectrum and color.

Digital color codes of stars: Table 5 at the end gives RGB and hex codes for the colors of main sequence stars based on their spectral type/effective temperature.

Planets

Tools for determining the properties of individual planets and moons.

Planet Models: A page containing a number of reference tables and tools for estimating planet mass-radius relationships. See in particular Manipulate Planet, a small app with an interface for determining the internal structure and radius of mixed metal/rock/water planets.

planetsynth: A python package for simulating the radius and other properties of gas giants as they age. I'll probably make a standalone wrapper for this when I update Part IVb.

ExoPlex: Another python package for determining mass-radius relationships of rocky planets or waterworlds; Bit of work to set up but allows for the varying the proportions of major metals in the mantle.

VPLanet: A code package for exploring the evolution of planets in various ways, including a simple latitudinal climate model. Has no interface, it has to be scripted, and the documentation is a tad sparse in places, but it can handle a broad range of interesting scenarios beyond even what ExoPlaSim below can handle (and it'll run a good deal faster).

Geology

Tools for simulating geological processes like tectonic motion or erosion.

GPlates: A tool for creating and moving geological plates and features on an interactive globe. See my guide on its use here. Also useful just for sketching maps on a globe or examining existing maps.

Wilbur: A somewhat simplistic but flexible erosion simulator, with a number of auxiliary tools. I'm planning on a guide for this soon.

Climate

Tools for simulating climate at various levels of detail.

ExoPlaSim: A scientific-grade climate model that can simulate climates with a broad range of properties. See my guide on its use here, and you can grab the koppenpasta script meant to be used with it here. It's not an easy process but the results are far more accurate and detailed than the alternatives.

Clima-Sim: A rather simpler and easier to install model for determining surface temperatures of more narrowly Earth-like planets. See here my process for using it to produce climate maps, and also see Ostimeus's formatter tool for it here.

HELIOS: If you really really really want to model climates with greenhouse gasses other than CO2, this is probably the best currently available option. Good luck (maybe consult this paper and its sources).

Mapmaking

Tools for creating surface maps (other than the types covered in the other sections).

paint.net: A raster image editor with an interface similar to MS paint but with many more advanced tools. Far from the only good image editor out there, but it's what I use.

G.Projector: A tool for converting maps between different projections.

Map Designer: A similar tool for map projection that has somewhat less utilities but a few different map projections and also a version that can handle vector images.

Songs of the Eons: An in-development game that currently consists mostly of a map generator. It's about the only one I know of that reasonably accounts for tectonics.