Strange oscillations

[DavidAllyn68]

I think I should be able to improve upon that in the next version. It never really came up to me in the current version, since when I made the line-drawing algorithm, there were no positive exponent force laws. So the only places you'd get extreme gravity would be very close to a star... and at that point you wouldn't see the lines much anyway -- since the star blocked most of them.

Yeah, in reality, there would never be nine stars hanging out together to create the "extreme gravity" we're discussing with an object flinging around it like this. I set up an orbit with the same mass differential as the sun to mercury. Even at a distance of "1000", this planet is extremely close to the star, and the tidal forces would most definitely crush the planet anyway.

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Gravity Fun at TestTubeGames.com: [ForceG: -2,Qual: 1,Zoom: .2,xSet: 0,ySet: 0], [x0: 0,y0: 0,vx: 0,vy: 0,t0: 0,who: 1,m: 6021500], [x0: 0,y0: 1000,vx: 40,vy: -0,t0: 0,who: 2,m: 1]

I guess I'm saying that we all have to remember this is a model and not reality. Plus, in reality there aren't any lines following the objects -- could you imagine what the sky would look like if that were the case?

[exfret]

Here's something that'll blow your mind (using David's star):

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Gravity Fun at TestTubeGames.com: [ForceG: -2,Qual: 1,Zoom: 0.2,xSet: 470,ySet: 55], [x0: 0,y0: 0,vx: 0,vy: 0,t0: 0,who: 1,m: 6021500], [x0: 445,y0: 670,vx: 9.25,vy: -11,t0: 50,who: 3,m: 0]

Now, I want to see the explanation for THAT!

[testtubegames]

Yeah, in reality, there would never be nine stars hanging out together to create the "extreme gravity" we're discussing with an object flinging around it like this. I set up an orbit with the same mass differential as the sun to mercury. Even at a distance of "1000", this planet is extremely close to the star, and the tidal forces would most definitely crush the planet anyway.

Whoa, I'm getting whiplash just watching that planet go around! I've spent some time on the new version today (in Unity, which is going smoothly!)... and I've been able to pretty much fix this one. In the next version a line will get drawn for every calculation, about ~80 times per frame or whatever. With no appreciable performance hit, either (I'm using a brand new method for drawing the lines).

Here's something that'll blow your mind (using David's star):

Now, I want to see the explanation for THAT!

Now I'm not saying it's aliens. But it's aliens.

In the rare case it's *not* aliens... that's just the same strange case as before. In fact, even worse. Since the asteroid got so close to the star that not only does the line drawing (done 30 times per second) break down, but the calculations break down, too. (Calculations ~2000 times a second or so aren't often enough for an object zooming that quick in its orbit).

That, or the inhabitants saw how ginormous the star was, and decided to get the heck outta there.

[robly18]

Now I'm not saying it's aliens. But it's aliens.

Sorry, but the image is just plain needed in that quote.
I do feel sorry for the lack of apostrophes there though. But what are you gonna do?

[DavidAllyn68]

That, or the inhabitants saw how ginormous the star was, and decided to get the heck outta there.

No doubt part of a type 2 civilization using their G-THOoT star drive.

[exfret]

Here's an idea: How about you check for the acceleration of the planet, and change how many calculations per time period happen depending on the gravity. You could also draw lines more or less often depending on the planet's velocity/acceleration. Oh, and one more thing to make sure planets don't do that: Make a button to exterminate all aliens.

[A Random Player]

What about a video mode, which generates a video file over time, with really high precision. The video wouldn't be displayed in real-time.
Wouldn't be used for much, but imagine accurate orbits with very high eccentricity. (ex. dynamical relaxation code)

[exfret]

The Video Mode would seem cool, but why not just give someone the much less data-hungry level, er, I mean 'simulation' code? As long as you've got an intermernet, a flash, and a http://testtubegames.com/gravity.html, you can make that video yourself, maybe not in 'unreal time', but still... That gave me an idea: Why not have it where you can record what happens in the simulation (which I guess would actually be ARP's suggestion), but you can also play the recorded thing back as fast or slow as you want (no limits, please, even if it means people set it to 0.000001 frames per second, I don't like limits). You should also add in fullscreen mode.

[A Random Player]

The Video Mode would seem cool, but why not just give someone the much less data-hungry level, er, I mean 'simulation' code? As long as you've got an intermernet, a flash, and a http://testtubegames.com/gravity.html, you can make that video yourself, maybe not in 'unreal time', but still... That gave me an idea: Why not have it where you can record what happens in the simulation (which I guess would actually be ARP's suggestion), but you can also play the recorded thing back as fast or slow as you want (no limits, please, even if it means people set it to 0.000001 frames per second, I don't like limits). You should also add in fullscreen mode.

That would increase the frame rate (erm.. no... well... it wouldn't lag the rest of the computer at least), but not the accuracy of the computations.

[robly18]

The Video Mode would seem cool, but why not just give someone the much less data-hungry level, er, I mean 'simulation' code? As long as you've got an intermernet, a flash, and a http://testtubegames.com/gravity.html, you can make that video yourself, maybe not in 'unreal time', but still... That gave me an idea: Why not have it where you can record what happens in the simulation (which I guess would actually be ARP's suggestion), but you can also play the recorded thing back as fast or slow as you want (no limits, please, even if it means people set it to 0.000001 frames per second, I don't like limits). You should also add in fullscreen mode.

That would increase the frame rate (erm.. no... well... it wouldn't lag the rest of the computer at least), but not the accuracy of the computations.

I think he means a way to decrease how big the frames are, to increase accuracy.