BY MAELLE MORIN
BY MAELLE MORIN
Space Explore is a 3D space simulation where users can explore different aspects of forces, particularly gravitational fields and attraction forces. Users play the simulation like if they were in a spaceship cockpit. Their goal is to explore the space. The space world consists of some fictional planets displayed with their own gravitational field and they all look different. The planets also attract an amount of small particles and they themselves are in orbit around a sun
Not many instructions are given to the players. They need to explore the 3D world by themselves and discovered what they can customize. A user interface will allow the player to change the physic values of the world to custom his own planets system. The speed orbit, the mass, the gravitational field, the distance between the sun and the planets are all values that can be changed by the users. It will be easy to explore the 3D world by zooming in and navigate between the planets with the help of the arrow keys.
Interaction is also possible in this 3D world. The users are able to create new particles and choose to which planet they will be attracted. The color of the particles defines which planet they will be attracted to. Each planet attracts a specific color of particles. Furthermore, the ambient music gives a more complete immersive experience. Space Explore is a space simulation that allows users to navigate into a 3D world, to interact with it and to customize it.
Space Explore is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3 . The source code of the project can be used for commercial use, distribution, modification, patent use and private use. However, the altered code needs to disclose its source and be shared under the same license.
When I was a child, my favorite movies were the Star Wars series. This film series made me realize how much the space is vast. The planet earth is only a small part in the entire universe and there is so much more to explore. Humans know that there are billion of planets, galaxies and stars in the universe, but it is impossible for us to explore all of them. The space is a mysterious place where a few man had visited. Even though there's a lot of information about it, there is still a lot we don't know. All of this uncertainty in space allows our imagination and creativity to explore a lot on the subject.
A space simulation is a great way to expand on the idea of mystery around the universe. In addition to my curiosity towards the unknown part of the universe, I'm fascinated by how planets interact in a system and I'm impressed by how greater forces have a huge impact on us. By greater forces, I meant gravitational forces and orbit.
Finally, since we talked about vector and forces in class, I wanted to practice more on this subject. For me, implementing forces in a processing sketch adds so many possibilities. I did physic classes in Cégep and I thought it could be a great way to explore what I learned the past year in an art-programming project. I didn't want to create an exact copy of our solar system, I thought it would not be very interesting and will not allow creativity. The goal of my project is to explore the gravitational forces in space and to custom our own system of planet. This project is also a way to show the beauty of the unknown universe.
Space Engine is a program where you can explore an almost infinite 3D universe in space. It uses real scientific data and also procedural generation. You can explore this 3D world like you want. It’s you who control your direction and speed. You can even go forward in time. Users can explore a lot of galaxies far away from the earth. Galaxies, nebulae, stars, star cluster, moons, comets and asteroids can be seen in this space simulation. Space engine also allows us to land on every single planet to see how the atmosphere and the environment of the planet are.
Universe Sandbox2 is a 3D space simulator where you can interact with the virtual universe. Gravity, climate, collision can be controlled. Users can create or destroy their own galaxies. In Universe Sandbox, you are the ''god'' of the galaxy. When creating a new planet, users can choose all of its characteristics (mass, radius, age, density, gravity, rotational period, etc.). Even the climate of the planets can be customized: you just need to add natural elements like water, ice or carbon dioxide. You can also decide to collide planets and/or stars together to witness an explosion of planetary bodies. There is a wide range of possibilities that you can do to customize your own galaxy.
This is a 2D simulation created by Jarrod Overson, where users can control thousands of particles that are attracted or repelled by different forces. This simulation is done in JavaScript and the code can be found on GitHub. In this gravitational simulation, users can add emitters or fields. The emitters diffuse a lot of particles and the fields attract or repel the particles. The strength of attraction or repulsion of each field can be adjusted. The fields and emitters can change position by dragging them. By clicking the mouse of the computer you can disturb the flow of particles by either attracting or repelling them.
