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Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 3:52 pm
by jrguinan
I would like to see:

1.) More colors

2.) Color change based on mass. (ie use white as base color, gradually change through set color swatches as more mass accumulates.

3.) Selective orbit trails; turning on orbits for all OR selected objects only.

4.) Dust with small mass to help build planets' masses.

Thank you!

Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 1:10 am
by testtubegames
Thanks for the suggestions, jrguinan - and welcome to the forums!

I like your suggestions one and all.

1. I've been meaning to add more colors to the sim for a while now - and I think with some more streamlined share-codes, I might be able to handle it now.
2. Color based on mass could be fun, I can add that in as an option.
3. The selective trails is something that I've been craving, too -- every time I try to set things up to make a gif, I invariably want *some* orbital lines, but not *all* orbital lines.
4. And dust building up into planets... I've heard that one a lot. I've been hesitant, since they all have a mass of zero in the simulator... so 0+0 =0. But, of course, they wouldn't have zero mass in the real world, and *would* start accumulating eventually. Maybe I just bite the bullet and say that 0+0 = 1, or some other such weird dust-merging math.

Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 3:55 pm
by Stargate38
Any news? I've been waiting for more functions to use in gravity laws (such as the Gamma and Zeta functions). Also, dust could be given a mass of 0.001 per particle to avoid the 0+0=1 scenario.

Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2015 1:17 am
by testtubegames
Sorry that it's been slow going on the gravity sim -- been doing a lot of Bond Breaker and Shocktopus stuff lately. Thanks for the poke, it's always a helpful reminder -- I'll dive back into it shortly.

Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 9:48 pm
by AlternateGravity
I was just thinking that one thing I would like to see added is the ability to add angular speed to objects in the simulation. I mean I would like to be able to get objects to spin in the simulation.

Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 9:52 pm
by NealCruco
AlternateGravity wrote:I was just thinking that one thing I would like to see added is the ability to add angular speed to objects in the simulation. I mean I would like to be able to get objects to spin in the simulation.
Isn't that the function of the Angle and Deg/S fields on a body's tab? I've never used them, but I assumed they were for spinning.

Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 10:08 am
by AlternateGravity
I tried using the Angle/Degree tab before but it didn't seem to do anything.

Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:42 pm
by NealCruco
AlternateGravity wrote:I tried using the Angle/Degree tab before but it didn't seem to do anything.
Hm. Well, I can't help, then. Sorry.

Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 2:53 pm
by testtubegames
AlternateGravity wrote:I tried using the Angle/Degree tab before but it didn't seem to do anything.
Oh, that's interesting. I wonder if maybe it was just hard to see whether there was any rotation, since most of the things are pretty radially symmetric.

"Angle" will control (in degrees) how the object is rotated at any given moment. Setting the "Deg/s" field to be non-zero will get the object spinning.

So try this: make an asteroid (since it has pretty pronounced asymmetry) and then change the "Deg/s" to something like 9. Or even 90. Once you unpause the simulation, the asteroid should be spinning pretty obviously. (Though I seem to be encountering a weird bug where the clock is ticking 10 times as fast as it should... and is counting out tenths-of-seconds instead of seconds. Which would be fine... except it looks like the deg/s variable is resulting in a spin that's an order of magnitude too fast!)

If that doesn't work, let me know. One possible other problem: when you change the angle yourself, the asteroid won't turn until you unpause the game. (Also something silly that I'll need to fix.) So that could make you think it isn't working.

On the topic of making the spin easier to see - I'm planning to add in a way for you to modify the images for the planets yourself. Imagine a folder in the game where you could replace the basic circle with a picture of Jupiter, say. The asymmetry of those images would certainly make the spin more apparent.

Re: Suggestions! (new)

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 1:59 pm
by AlternateGravity
I tried creating an asteroid and changing the Deg/S to 9 and it did indeed spin. Thankyou Andy!