Odd orbits

[definitiveprankster]

I'm no astronomer, nor physicist, so I think the problem is with me, not your (superb) program.

My orbits in my first solar system have corners... is that normal?  See attached.

[biohazard]

i don't know because i haven't played the game yet but i think thats a bug... why i think that is because of the physis of the game from what ive seen. maybe there will be a fix for that

[Bla]

If the time it takes for the star to orbit is between 7 and 8 hours, then it's not.
Have you tried changing the time step (in the upper left corner of the screen)? By turning it down, you'll slow the simulation down, so it can be made more accurately. The time step says how long time there is between each time it calculates the position of everything in the simulation, so if it's 1 hour and it takes 8 hours for the star to orbit, you'll get an octogonal shape instead of a circle. If you set it to half an hour, you'll get 16 corners, etc.

[definitiveprankster]

So... basically at each 'step' it is recalculating the trajectory, but as my orbit is such that there are only 8 steps (assuming my orbit IS that short) I am getting 8 lines.

If the step was 1 minute and the orbit was 10,000 minutes I would get a 10,000 sided shape which would look circular to the naked eye?

Wasn't a complaint btw, I just wondered if it was some real life thing in certain circumstances

[Bla]

Yes, you would.

[Dan Dixon]

Bla's answer here is spot on.