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Universe Sandbox

AndrewAndrew
edited July 2008 in Video Games
Universe Sandbox is an educational toy for Windows based computers. It can run scale simulations of our solar system while giving you the power to control gravity, time and everything in it.
I recently picked up this awesome simulator that allows you to mess with planetary objects and explore the gravitational interactions of the systems. It's free to download and you can pay the developer directly whatever you feel it's worth (much like the Radiohead model). The game runs fairly well, but it gets a little buggy at times. Here is a video I made with the first half running the Solar System file and the second half running the Andromeda/Milky-Way collision that will occur in 5 billion years. I'm sorry about the crappy quality, youtube makes it hard to make anything fairly decent. EDIT: I've now have annotated it to make it a little easier to follow.
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Comments

  • thaneofcawdorthaneofcawdor
    Hehe, it's fun to drop an object with the mass of several stars into the middle of the solar system and watch the chaos unfold.

    If anything is going to keep me occupied until Spore is released, it's probably this.
  • AnastiusAnastius
    edited July 2008
    I completely agree with you, but I usually just pick a random object and increase the destiny density.
    Oh hey, one of the preset systems is Death Star orbiting Endor. Others include Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashing into Jupiter and fictional planets and moons and... solar system jumble?
    Post edited by Anastius on
  • AndrewAndrew
    edited July 2008
    You can create your own system files but you have to write the XML by hand. It's not too hard if you look at some of the others.
    Post edited by Andrew on
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited July 2008
    I'd like to see if someone can pull off the formation of the moon. FYI: A large body smashing into Earth and breaking off a huge lump that stays in stable orbit.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • SailSail
    They need to use this in schools. Ever since the end of Bill Nye, ways to show the kids that science is cool are desperately needed.
  • JukeBoxJoshJukeBoxJosh
    I need my new computer.
    I need to play with this.
  • thaneofcawdorthaneofcawdor
    I just made an object travel at 3 million times the speed of light. And then the program crashed.
  • TaselTasel
    1. I just made an object travel at 3 million times the speed of light. And then the program crashed.

    I'm assuming you mean relative to you the observer. Things can only move faster than the speed of light at a relative speed in relation to the local speed of light of the observer. ;)

    On a more serious note, how does the program manage to handle those speeds (besides crashing of course)?
  • thaneofcawdorthaneofcawdor
    Well, considering that the offending object was catapulted around a star with the mass of hundreds of millions of galaxies, I don't think the regular rules apply ;)
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    edited July 2008
    I made two blackholes right next to one another and the program crashed.
    Post edited by Victor Frost on
  • JasonJason
    I like giving Erf a shit-ton of moons and then increasing its mass to the size of Jupiter. KAPLOW!
  • Jain7thJain7th
    edited July 2008
    I made two blackholes right next to one another and the program crashed.
    Didn't NASA too have problems with that situation? Still, some time ago they were able to simulate the merging of two black holes.
    Post edited by Jain7th on
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