Author Topic: Community Idea List (Read 272424 times)

Dan Dixon · « **on:** March 06, 2011, 05:35:55 PM »

Visit this spreadsheet to view and add your own ideas for future updates to Universe Sandbox:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AoYA02Dt7PgRdDRyU08yTlNOZ1QzUUlDZU9MNmEyZ1E&hl=en

Even if you don't have anything to add you can vote for your favorite 7 ideas (just be careful not to delete other's votes). Total votes won't determine what I work on next, but might show interest that was otherwise unknown. Feel free to vote for your own idea.

Universe Sandbox 3.0 is a sequel expected to be released in 2014. I've marked a few of the ideas that will be in this next version (or subsequent minor updates as v3.x).

bananasdoom · « **Reply #1 on:** May 03, 2011, 03:49:30 PM »

I broke a whole lot of the tally boxes by manually updating the number, so remember to just add your name to community vote and the tally will increase accordingly.

plastik2k11 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 16, 2011, 01:37:47 PM »

None of the document makes much sense; I mean, what is this:

"More southern fried chickens to add, like eccentric celestial rabbits, more random space apples and deifnitely more orbital apricots. Also in ze southern fried chicken category, zere shuld be space trash and maybe even a human."

and

"Support ze creation of a "egg" southern fried chicken, vhich vhen placed under ze right conditions, forms a sandwich vith ze associated debris disk to form potatos. Perhaps a nev category of "primal southern fried chickens" vhich can be combined in varying amunts to create dfiferent sandwichs?"

The whole thing is like this, is there a backup version?

Dan Dixon · « **Reply #3 on:** May 16, 2011, 08:07:37 PM »

Quote from: plastik2k11 on May 16, 2011, 01:37:47 PM

The whole thing is like this, is there a backup version?

Yes. Google Docs lets me walk back through each edit. And fixed.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

spaceless · « **Reply #4 on:** May 17, 2011, 03:43:43 AM »

Omg xD Obviously there's someone having too much spare time. It's pretty funny though

Dan Dixon · « **Reply #5 on:** May 18, 2011, 07:26:38 PM »

Had I not been the one that had to take the time to fix it... I would have thought it was pretty funny too.

Darvince · « **Reply #6 on:** May 19, 2011, 06:16:18 PM »

I fixed some things on it that were wrong, and added 25 more rows.

Teh_Saccade · « **Reply #7 on:** May 22, 2011, 09:20:23 PM »

Since Universe 2 keeps such extensive logs, and seems to be okay with xml (idk what the ubox files are but i'm gonna take a look) will there be an undo / redo step feature for edit and live modes in a future update?

Even if it was only a few clicks / value changes, it'd be very useful.
Tho i'm not sure how it'd work with time steps... maybe omit them?

Darvince · « **Reply #8 on:** May 22, 2011, 09:23:40 PM »

Omit time steps? That's what makes the extremes of the simulations feasible!

Teh_Saccade · « **Reply #9 on:** May 22, 2011, 09:30:13 PM »

It'd sure be a lot of undo'ing to take back 10M years, in 100,000 year steps, to undo or change-to-see-what-happens anything

Darvince · « **Reply #10 on:** May 23, 2011, 09:19:16 PM »

Wtf happened to it

Joshimitsu91 · « **Reply #11 on:** June 21, 2011, 07:37:53 AM »

Quote from: Teh_Saccade on May 22, 2011, 09:30:13 PM

It'd sure be a lot of undo'ing to take back 10M years, in 100,000 year steps, to undo or change-to-see-what-happens anything

You could input the number of steps you want to jump back?

Personally i think some sort of "Theatre" would be cool, where you can record simulations and play them back, like a replay. Would be good for making videos and taking screens.

Dan Dixon · « **Reply #12 on:** June 21, 2011, 05:06:45 PM »

You can hit the disk icon in the upper right corner of the screen to do a "quick save" and then the "reload" icon (also in the upper right, to reload the last save.

I'd like to implement a more comprehensive undo feature in the future, however.

GreenJelly · « **Reply #13 on:** June 25, 2011, 09:29:59 PM »

I love this, but there is one thing preventing me from using it... The sandbox is good to map a single orbit, but when you start adding orbits on other orbits the simulator moves to a crawl. At the same time, the sandbox is not even maxing out a single core, and is using around 17% of the CPU...

Moving from a Q9550 -> i7 2600K changed the Max CPU from 25%->17%.. Simply put, we need more threads for calculations.

Also you should be able to create an system, and then add that system to a larger system. By putting something in orbit, and then adding gravity pull by (for example) adding a moon, the auto orbit of the first item is now pulled by the moon, and the moon pulls the planet. Ultimately, both the moon and the planet get pulled by the star, and the item then breaks orbit and moves slowly towards the star.

I want to see Dark Matter, as I can not create true galaxy's as these large objects fall apart under newtons law. Adding more matter to the black hole in the center does not fix this, it simply causes everything to fall into the black hole. The matter has to be spread out. There is allot of information and data on this, but the calculations are huge. I think you would need to use the video card for a large amount of these calculations. You can easily run 500 threads at once.

I would also like to see the effects of black holes, including quasars and other behaviors. These behaviors are well known and really well documented.

Ultimately you have done a great job. I am amazed that NASA has not released this. I think Open Source solution would provide allot of opportunity for some amazing improvements. I would suggest you open up the code and let people know about it, I think people will go nuts for this and so many advanced physics could be added, including system optimizations. Its too much for a few people too do. Those that want to support the project will... Keep it on steam, and continue to sell it. If people want to download it for free, then so be it.

Joshimitsu91 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 27, 2011, 01:39:16 PM »

Quote from: GreenJelly on June 25, 2011, 09:29:59 PM

I love this, but there is one thing preventing me from using it... The sandbox is good to map a single orbit, but when you start adding orbits on other orbits the simulator moves to a crawl. At the same time, the sandbox is not even maxing out a single core, and is using around 17% of the CPU...

This must be an error as i have a 2500k i5 and it takes a hell of a lot of objects to slow it down (i can't tell you how many, because it hasn't slowed down yet

)

Quote from: GreenJelly on June 25, 2011, 09:29:59 PM

Moving from a Q9550 -> i7 2600K changed the Max CPU from 25%->17%.. Simply put, we need more threads for calculations.

Multi-core support is on Dan's to do list, but as i say, your i7 should smash it.

Quote from: GreenJelly on June 25, 2011, 09:29:59 PM

Also you should be able to create an system, and then add that system to a larger system. By putting something in orbit, and then adding gravity pull by (for example) adding a moon, the auto orbit of the first item is now pulled by the moon, and the moon pulls the planet. Ultimately, both the moon and the planet get pulled by the star, and the item then breaks orbit and moves slowly towards the star.

This is a little confusing

You can add stuff as the simulation is running and it does act accordingly...?

Quote from: GreenJelly on June 25, 2011, 09:29:59 PM

I want to see Dark Matter, as I can not create true galaxy's as these large objects fall apart under newtons law. Adding more matter to the black hole in the center does not fix this, it simply causes everything to fall into the black hole. The matter has to be spread out. There is allot of information and data on this, but the calculations are huge. I think you would need to use the video card for a large amount of these calculations. You can easily run 500 threads at once.

I would also like to see the effects of black holes, including quasars and other behaviors. These behaviors are well known and really well documented.

Alot of this sort of stuff is on the to do list, so we may yet see it implemented.

Quote from: GreenJelly on June 25, 2011, 09:29:59 PM

Ultimately you have done a great job. I am amazed that NASA has not released this. I think Open Source solution would provide allot of opportunity for some amazing improvements. I would suggest you open up the code and let people know about it, I think people will go nuts for this and so many advanced physics could be added, including system optimizations. Its too much for a few people too do. Those that want to support the project will... Keep it on steam, and continue to sell it. If people want to download it for free, then so be it.

Although more contributors would speed up the advancement of the sim, i don't think many people would pay for something that they know they can get for free

Darvince · « **Reply #15 on:** June 28, 2011, 03:43:56 PM »

But then they'd have to have to compile the source, which most people are either too lazy to do or don't want to, or don't know how.

karakris · « **Reply #16 on:** July 09, 2011, 01:33:12 PM »

An UNDO Option would Really be Useful

However - one other Glaring Omission is this.

There is an ADD Option - but guess What ?

There is NO Delete Option.

If you accidentally added something you did not mean to - and only noticed it a little later - how the heell do you get rid of it ??

The Undo would undo everything in the last step - even if you stepped back to when you added the thing yo did not want, you would LOSE everything you added since.

One other Thing - Seriously.

We can EDIT the Galactic Radius of any Star we add - so we can effectively move it in or out Radially.

However - there are no other dimensional locations.
An Angular Location would be VERY useful - especially if it could be edited.
AND - an up / down ( Z Axis ) Location - i.e. at right angles to the plane of the Galactic Ecliptic would be very useful.
I need to be able to know where the Stars which I add are actually located - in all three Vectors, and to be able to Edit those Vectors.

Please Conseider adding these things

Darvince · « **Reply #17 on:** July 09, 2011, 06:48:46 PM »

There is a delete option. Click on the object you don't want, and press the Delete key.

Tatskaari · « **Reply #18 on:** July 12, 2011, 07:20:13 AM »

I would like to see a better collision feature. It would work like a hybrid between bounce and merge. When the objects collide some matter will be transferred between the body's but they will bounce of each other.

Another feature i would like to see implemented would be destruction. if i hit mars with earth at 1.5*`0^8 m/s then mars is not simply going to absorb earth, the planet will explode! Perhaps something like DMM could be implemented.

DMM demo: Star Wars Force Unleashed (PS3) DMM demo

atomic7732 · « **Reply #19 on:** July 25, 2011, 10:59:31 PM »

I don't know how hard it'd be to make it moddable. Maybe so people could add their own collision modes and stuff... lol

deoxy99 · « **Reply #20 on:** July 26, 2011, 11:32:15 AM »

Quote from: NeutronStar on July 25, 2011, 10:59:31 PM

I don't know how hard it'd be to make it moddable. Maybe so people could add their own collision modes and stuff... lol

Actually, it's not that hard, but you have to release source code (which I freaking hate) of the program.

atomic7732 · « **Reply #21 on:** July 30, 2011, 03:53:47 PM »

Not really. Look at EU3.

Nexdonum · « **Reply #22 on:** August 10, 2011, 12:52:50 PM »

Maybe some sort of terrain/atmosphere/weather change if you knock "habitable" planets/etc out of orbit. Like, say you knock Earth out of orbit, or out of range of the sun, it becomes noticeably colder/frozen or something. And, also, given enough time in the program, perhaps they could add actual deaths of the stars. Supernovas, etc. And also maybe add random star births along a certain timeline as well. That would be pretty cool.

FiahOwl · « **Reply #23 on:** August 16, 2011, 07:22:09 AM »

I'm not sure how you could do that though.. The atmosphere would be cool and stuff. How about a magnetic field

T-1000 · « **Reply #24 on:** August 20, 2011, 12:27:44 AM »

Hello,

I recently bought Universe Sandbox and I am happy to see simulations you provide.

However, I am interested in all real space objects future and past locations over time. When checked last xml database Universe Sandbox has, it appears it is 3 years old. So I contacted NASA and tried to get help from them with objects database

Their reply was:

"I'm not sure who created the XML file to which you refer, but it was no one here at JPL. There is currently no XML export data file available containing all bodies available from Horizons. However, there are plans for providing an XML export version of our Small-Body Database (SBDB), but not for several months, perhaps much longer.
In the mean time, if you're interested, you could use some form of automation to call Horizons in a batch mode (telnet, email, or http) for each body, requesting the state at some time, and create your own XML file suitable for your Universe Sandbox."

So, is it possible to work around that issue at a moment?

P.S> Also, the Universe Sandbox has bug with objects calculation over speed stepping over time (you can crash Earth to Sun when setting time interval to 1 year for example) and I would like to see improvement in position calculation on given date/time(it does not support it as well).

Cheers!

muaddib042 · « **Reply #25 on:** August 29, 2011, 11:07:29 PM »

I'm still getting use to using US, but I love it. Some things I would like to see is either an undo, or perhaps more realistically, a rewind button. Its great to see how the simulator plays out, but sometimes it would be great to take a step back and see things happen over again and/or in reverse. Along the same lines, there are certain events that happen and if I miss them, I have to wait till the whole system goes through the motions to see it again.

Something that I am particularly interested in is a more dynamic lighting system. I would love to see planets shadowing other planets so that you can see eclipses. Not only would it be a nice addition, I need it for my writing. I like having accurate information in my stories, and currently, the story takes place on a moon and is shadowed by its parent planet.

Feldruam · « **Reply #26 on:** September 08, 2011, 02:58:23 PM »

Procedural Algorithms like those in this game/game engine.

Infinity Tech Demo Video 2010 - Full length HD Version

Infinity - Procedural real-time galaxy model

http://inovaestudios.com/technology.htm

This and unlimited detail just marks the day the matrix became real.

And imagine playing with a real scale galaxy collision.

deoxy99 · « **Reply #27 on:** September 08, 2011, 03:02:55 PM »

I think only a supercomputer can run that. Of course, since it's procedural, it may not.

Feldruam · « **Reply #28 on:** September 08, 2011, 03:53:13 PM »

It ran in real time on a Q6600 with Radeon HD 4890(Infinity Tech Demo 2010).

I'm not sure about the real time galaxy vid though. Probably on less powerful PC, it is a little bit laggy.

vh · « **Reply #29 on:** September 08, 2011, 06:02:26 PM »

could it be turned down in quality?
i only have a laptop, and lag makes most games/simulations and such programs unenjoyable, but i'd feel left out if i couldn't use it at all
thats just my pov, of course