Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

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Siber
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Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by Siber »

Hi again. It's been quite a while since I've been active here, but some of you might recognize me as an old regular, and I still do lurk.

Outsider, the level of detail in it's background, and the level of discussion of scientific concepts in the community helped spark a love of harder science fiction in me. That spark has grown into my own grand ambition of making a space wargame that's less cinematic and more simulationist, Atomic Space Navy. That ambition is still long way off, but since some of the early work is the sort of thing I think sci-fi creators and enthusiasts might get some use out of I have made that work available for use.

Orbit Toy is a gravitational simulation that can take editable system definitions and simulate them out for hundreds or thousands of years. I've tested it against NASA data on the solar system over a century, and while I'm not sure I'd trust it for planning actual missions it does appear stable and to closely resemble reality if not exactly match it. There are a number of command line options that can be used to get interesting data out of long runs, as well.

System Builder is a tool I just released today that makes designing new systems for use in Orbit Toy far easier, with a GUI that does the hard math for you rather than hand editing position and velocity values. It comes with system files for Sol and five exoplanet systems.

I hope this doesn't come off as spammy, and that you guys get some use out of these tools. I've wanted things like them from time to time in the past, and suspect that there are some like-minded people here. If you do get use out of them, or have problems with them, or have suggestions, let me know! Both tools are pretty rough in places, and I do have plans to improve the further, so all feedback is useful.

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Arioch
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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by Arioch »

Thanks, Siber. I'll be sure to check those out.

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GeoModder
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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by GeoModder »

Looks interesting. Must give them a try. Thanks for sharing. :)
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Siber
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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by Siber »

Some more verification on my part has revealed that the math is all right, but the camera is 'under' the solar system instead of 'over' so the systems appear flipped compared to reality. This will be fixed in the future.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
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Siber
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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by Siber »

Those updates I mentioned have now come to fruition. anyone who downloaded the tools at their initial posting should check out the updated tools posted today. Lots of improvements have been made to many areas. The updated tools can be found at this link.

Code: Select all

ATOMIC SPACE TOOLS:
Combined orbit toy and system builder into one project.
Corrected improper camera positioning in both programs.
Numerous changes to level files.
Lots of under the hood cleanup and reorganizing.
Added a visible scale reference to all current tools.
Adjusted line width and look to something a bit nicer.
Changed player settings to run in background.

ORBIT TOY:
Motion plots now scale to consistent screen sizes as the camera moves.
Added an indication of what system is currently being simulated.
Camera zoom is now adjusted to fit systems on load.
Level listings now scroll if there are enough levels to require it.

SYSTEM BUILDER:
Corrected handling of phase angle(true anomaly). Twice.
Paths and labels are now hidden when the visual size of the orbit is very small to avoid clutter.
Duplicate body names will no longer be accepted.
Added the ability to update all edited values of a body in one click.
Added the ability to revert all unapplied changes to a body.
The camera now auto-focuses on the furthest-orbiting planet at load.
The tree view is automatic sorted by semi major axis whenever that is updated.
Tool now starts properly even if Sol system is absent.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
Homeworld Fulcrum, a Homeworld Remastered Mod

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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by sunphoenix »

abeeha wrote:The last straw for Athen was a terrible Intelligence mix-up resulting in the deaths of several innocents and some good field agents of Athen's acquaintence... that was covered up in Somalia while in pursuit of an active Al Qeada cell that turned out to be one 'supported' by certain directors in Central Intelligence to... as they put it "catch bigger fish". That was the last draw for Athen... he resigned from Intelligence work entirely and went back to the states to teach High School.
Uhmmm.. huh? Why are sections of my posted characters being reposted? Spambot?
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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by discord »

my guess is fledgling AI system trying to understand the internet, did NOT make sense as a spambot.....eliza++?

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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by Hujedamig »

Now you scare me, discord.

Soon you tell us it's Skynet.

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Count Casimir
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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by Count Casimir »

That's, uh...that's weird.

EDIT: Records show that this UN has been banned for for spam, guess I'll just delete it.
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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by discord »

nah, skynet already learned speech and proper human behavior from the military, this seems more like wild growth and curiosity of a newborn trying to figure out what everything means....

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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by Karst45 »

a long as this new born dont stumble on Lolcats


i think i already posted the Wonder of the universe that may explain what happen with internet in 200-300 years

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Re: Sci-fi Utilities: Orbit Toy and System Builder

Post by Siber »

Aw, and seeing this bumped back up got me all excited. Stupid spambots.
Atomic Space Race, a hard sci-fi orbital mechanics puzzle game.
Homeworld Fulcrum, a Homeworld Remastered Mod

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