Universe Sandbox2 alpha evaluation

[phinehas]

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[smjjames]

It's an alpha build.....

I do agree that it's moving a bit away from the serious and educational aspect.

[Jar]

I'm not liking some of the functional UI changes...example, the - and + keys for Time being the only input versus being able to type in values.  It really needs to get the ephemeris functionality going.  Minimum, a manual way of doing it like with version 1.  I think it's a bad move going towards the "game" direction versus the serious and educational aspect that would truly make this software great.

The graphics are a big improvement.

Thanks for the suggestions.

We agree, and we are working to add manual input for the time-step controls, much like in the original.

Are there other changes from the original that make you feel like it is unnecessarily heading in a "game" direction?

[Electrodynamix]

I do notice that the parameters of stars aren't linked, for example, adjusting the mass of a star does not change the surface temperature.  I guess that's just a WIP.

More noteworthy is the new galaxy simulation.  Is the method of using two dimensional stellar cluster textures, instead of the much more realistic (yet less good looking in US1) method of using individual colored dust particles going to be continued?  Will it become more dynamic and realistic in the coming versions?  Seeing large groups of stars acting as one solid object seems to ruin the 'Simulation' in the 'galaxy simulation'.