TestTubeGames Forums

Play with it Here.

Version 0.1
"Faster Bare-bones Prototype"

New in this Version:
-It's fast! You can get 1000 planets zooming around the level at ~40 fps. (click the logo to see the planetary disk preset)
-Above 60 planets it defaults to Euler integration... a bit less precise but a lot faster. Eventually I'd like to allow users to override this if they *need* the precision
-Center of Mass button brings stuff to the center of the screen, and makes it easier to make binary systems that don't drift away
-Reverse time
-Save codes *from* the old version now work in the new
-Delete individual objects from the stage
-Play/pause button

Still to Do:
-Still too much to write down!
-Zoom and translation are next up, I think.

Speaking of zoom - Can we make zoom a bit smoother? Like in KSP or something; holding the Q/Z buttons changes the "target" zoom, and the actual zoom used slowly moves toward the target. (Like actual_zoom = (actual_zoom-target_zoom)*.99+target_zoom)

(Also that reminds me I still haven't downloaded Unity)

A Random Player wrote:Speaking of zoom - Can we make zoom a bit smoother?

Yeah, I definitely agree. It's a complex issue, and I've been pondering the optimal way to 'zoom.'

My thoughts on priorities: I want it to be fast (not laggy like now), smooth (not choppy, like you say), and pretty (the orbits look sharp and crisp). And I want you to be able to zoom to many, many scales. And I'll be able to do all those things. Yay! Sounds great, right?

The one drawback is, to do that, I'm gonna need to destroy the orbital paths when you zoom. (Maybe I can keep some cache, where it can redraw the last 10 seconds or so. But there'll be a cap.) The current version redraws *all* the orbits, which is nice, but of course that means it lags severely... and more and more as time goes by. Not what I want to have happen here.

Does this sound like an acceptable trade-off? It seems to me that for what both pros and novices use the simulator for... this is the way to go. Smooth, clean, easy, and pretty at any scale.

A Random Player wrote:(Also that reminds me I still haven't downloaded Unity)

For those of you still w/o Unity, there's a video of the 1000-planet-disk up on YouTube you can check out... though keep in mind it's yesterday's build running at only 14 fps. The current build is about 3 times faster/less laggy.

Side note, another thing I've yet to add (but will) is a 'clumping' option, so that the 1000 planets can start to stick together.

For zoom, I think you should just save a picture that you can use to show people the scale for when they're zooming, and then include the lag after they've decided where to place the scale of their zoom (meaning, redraw all the orbits after zooming has finished). This allows ease of comparison for different scales, and it dumps the lag after the person has decided what they want, which is much better than having to deal with it while zooming out to the exact right scale. This also gives you the ability to have a nice smooth zoom. Also a suggestion on orbit lines: place some coding whizadry in there to check if orbit lines 'over-lap'. (I know they won't actually overlap, but just do it somehow). It just doesn't makes sense to allow a circle drawn a million times to lag out your PC more than a circle drawn once, because it's just a circle. You might be able to do some other things to help that, too, like you could enable the option for super-long orbit lines that still stop after a while so the don't get too long. Finally, did you say "clumping"? Would that be like merging/colliding?

testtubegames wrote:The one drawback is, to do that, I'm gonna need to destroy the orbital paths when you zoom. (Maybe I can keep some cache, where it can redraw the last 10 seconds or so. But there'll be a cap.) The current version redraws *all* the orbits, which is nice, but of course that means it lags severely... and more and more as time goes by. Not what I want to have happen here.

Does this sound like an acceptable trade-off? It seems to me that for what both pros and novices use the simulator for... this is the way to go. Smooth, clean, easy, and pretty at any scale.

Could we have a compromise, and have a setting for full paths in zoom or only latest path in zoom (maybe with exfret's preview)? Because I wouldn't want to be making a large pattern, but accidentally zoom a bit and loose it all.

A Random Player wrote:(Also that reminds me I still haven't downloaded Unity)

For those of you still w/o Unity, there's a video of the 1000-planet-disk up on YouTube you can check out... though keep in mind it's yesterday's build running at only 14 fps. The current build is about 3 times faster/less laggy.

I saw that from the twitter; looks awesome! (And of course, I immediately thought "more particles!")

exfret wrote:For zoom, I think you should just save a picture that you can use to show people the scale for when they're zooming
...place some coding whizadry in there to check if orbit lines 'over-lap'.
...Finally, did you say "clumping"? Would that be like merging/colliding?

Agreed on that first one, I'd be able to zoom in and out on the previously drawn orbits. Kinda like google maps, where it gets fuzzy, then redraws.

However I end up doing this, yeah, I'll need to get crafty about storing the orbital lines info. I'm sure I can make it way better than in the old version. And I'll try to push the limits for how far back we can go in time -- without crashing/lagging things too bad.

And yeah, I was talking about the merging. I'd like to add it as a toggle-able option. Originally off ('cause the orbits are so pretty), but you could turn it on so when things collide, they stick together.

A Random Player wrote:Could we have a compromise, and have a setting for full paths in zoom or only latest path in zoom (maybe with exfret's preview)? Because I wouldn't want to be making a large pattern, but accidentally zoom a bit and loose it all.

I 100% agree. I'll try to maximize the number of lines that get redrawn. And I imagine I could get it to the point that, in normal use, you'd never notice a problem. (But if you leave something running with 1000 planets for 20 minutes, then zoom, the orbit data might well not *all* get redrawn)

Even for something beyond the cutoff (like the previous 1000 planet example), I could add in an 'undo zoom' button. That way you'd never have to worry too much about losing your picture.