Calling all Suggestions

[robly18]

Allow changing the value of G.

Negative Gs?

Yes please.

Also, how about an EVEN HIGHER RANGE of r^x laws? I'd like to see r^5

[testtubegames]

Allow changing the value of G.

I like it -- that'd give you some nice control over how the sim behaves.

Negative Gs?

Yes please.

Also, how about an EVEN HIGHER RANGE of r^x laws? I'd like to see r^-5

Negative G's?!? What kind of a madman are you? That'd be too awesome. Actually, that sounds neat. Some repulsion instead of attraction. The gravity sim could then even be used to probe electricity a bit.

As for force laws, it's easy to add more, but my sense is that the current range kinda exhausts what is interesting. You can get down to r^-5 already, and objects barely tug on one another anymore (unless they're very close, then they collide). And up at r^2, objects cannot escape one another's pulls. I don't know if there'd be anything terribly interesting to play with beyond those extremes. I could be wrong, though.

[robly18]

I ment r^5, sorry. Anyway, I think it would be kind of interesting to see the other types of curvatures you could make, and who knows: maybe there is some range at which orbits will make a triable shape! Because, you know, with r^-2 it has 2 focci. r^1 has three. Maybe r^4 will have four?

[A Random Player]

What about:

• Letting size of planets and stars be proportional to the (cube root of?) mass
• Letting planets, asteroids, stars, merge (toggleable)

[testtubegames]

What about:

• Letting size of planets and stars be proportional to the (cube root of?) mass
• Letting planets, asteroids, stars, merge (toggleable)

Yes, yes, and yes. The size thing would be a great improvement (originally, you couldn't change any masses, but now that you can, the images really do need to change to reflect that).

And I'd been thinking about merging, not quite sure what to do with it. On the one hand, merging would lead to some neat behaviors (dust clouds collecting into planets). On the other, it'd be harder to make pretty orbits (since random collisions would interrupt the paths). Toggling is a great solution.

[DavidAllyn68]

Suggestion #1 is less a "gravity" suggestion and more a "graphic" suggestion. How about specifying the trail properties of each object -- e.g. color, length, velocity sensitive saturation, etc.

Suggestion #2: Allow suns (who=1 objects) to move. Although there wouldn't be much movement, you could allow suns to interact with each other and, with enough objects, the mass could accumulate enough to move a who=1 object.

Suggestion #3: Create a black hole object

[robly18]

Suggestion #1 is less a "gravity" suggestion and more a "graphic" suggestion. How about specifying the trail properties of each object -- e.g. color, length, velocity sensitive saturation, etc.

Suggestion #2: Allow suns (who=1 objects) to move. Although there wouldn't be much movement, you could allow suns to interact with each other and, with enough objects, the mass could accumulate enough to move a who=1 object.

Suggestion #3: Create a black hole object

#1-Yes. Please.

#2-No. "Stars" as the simulator calls them are merely objects that exhibit gravity but are fixed. If you want a movable star, use planets!

#3-Okay.

[19683]

Suggestion #1 is less a "gravity" suggestion and more a "graphic" suggestion. How about specifying the trail properties of each object -- e.g. color, length, velocity sensitive saturation, etc.

Suggestion #2: Allow suns (who=1 objects) to move. Although there wouldn't be much movement, you could allow suns to interact with each other and, with enough objects, the mass could accumulate enough to move a who=1 object.

Suggestion #3: Create a black hole object

Black holes? Awesome!!!

With general relativity? Please?

[A Random Player]

Suggestion #1 is less a "gravity" suggestion and more a "graphic" suggestion. How about specifying the trail properties of each object -- e.g. color, length, velocity sensitive saturation, etc.

Suggestion #2: Allow suns (who=1 objects) to move. Although there wouldn't be much movement, you could allow suns to interact with each other and, with enough objects, the mass could accumulate enough to move a who=1 object.

Suggestion #3: Create a black hole object

#1-Yes. Please.

#2-No. "Stars" as the simulator calls them are merely objects that exhibit gravity but are fixed. If you want a movable star, use planets!

#3-Okay.

2: What about letting us color planets? We could make them yellow for a star.

Also, could we have a timer, that shows how much time has elapsed?

And about the moving/rotating cameras disussed earlier; we could center on a planet or the barycenter of selected planets, and rotating views allow you to select a planet/barycenter to center on, and a planet/barycenter to point at, with an optional angle offset. (I'm just adding the barycenter stuff after making the fractal universe things ) To watch Lagrange points for example, center on the star and point toward the planet. After getting out of rotating view, reset the angle (or even have an option to rotating the viewing screen by default).
I'm not sure if this is any simpler, but it would work.

[testtubegames]

Suggestion #1 is less a "gravity" suggestion and more a "graphic" suggestion. How about specifying the trail properties of each object -- e.g. color, length, velocity sensitive saturation, etc.

Suggestion #2: Allow suns (who=1 objects) to move. Although there wouldn't be much movement, you could allow suns to interact with each other and, with enough objects, the mass could accumulate enough to move a who=1 object.

Suggestion #3: Create a black hole object

#1-Yes. Please.

#2-No. "Stars" as the simulator calls them are merely objects that exhibit gravity but are fixed. If you want a movable star, use planets!

#3-Okay.

A) Agreed, that'd be nice
B) Kinda what Robly said. Though I would like to use slightly different language for the objects. Maybe 'stars' should move, too -- and in addition, there are 'fixed stars' that you can add, that mimic what we call 'stars' in the sim now. Of course, in addition, I'd like us to be able to change the colors of the objects at will, so the difference between 'planet' and 'star' would be purely superficial... default settings that you could change anyway.
C)...

Black holes? Awesome!!!

With general relativity? Please?

C) ... how hard could it be? (I'm going out on a limb and assuming: very hard.)

And about the moving/rotating cameras disussed earlier; we could center on a planet or the barycenter of selected planets, and rotating views allow you to select a planet/barycenter to center on, and a planet/barycenter to point at, with an optional angle offset. (I'm just adding the barycenter stuff after making the fractal universe things ) To watch Lagrange points for example, center on the star and point toward the planet. After getting out of rotating view, reset the angle (or even have an option to rotating the viewing screen by default).
I'm not sure if this is any simpler, but it would work.

I've already got a 'go to center of mass' option built into the game. It might be interesting to get more refined, as you say. You can click and drag to select a bunch of objects, and then certain options appear -- center of mass being one of them. (Others being... uh... delete them all? I'm not sure what other changes you'd make that would involve multiple objects at once). That could be workable. I think the rotating frame could be done in a similar, simple manner. (The UI would be simple for the user, that is... I'm sure implementing this will make me curse a lot)