Solar System Simulator

v0.1.12

Welcome to my first Unity project!

Known issues and planned improvements:

• no zoom on mobile devices;
• menus/text not optimised for mobile devices;
• some orbital distances have been fudged due to visual scale (e.g. Phobos orbits so close to Mars that it would spend the whole time within "big Mars".  Work needed to correct the shown distance data;
• Triton's orbit - should be retrograde;

Aspirations:

• local time control;
• option to toggle planet/shader quality;
• Keplarian orbits;
• option to swap objects - e.g. replace Sun with Betelgeuse or a black hole;
• add new objects - e.g. place comet and decide starting velocity;
• black hole shader;
• space craft with changeable velocity and fuel/delta v;
• JWST.

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changelog v0.1.12

New features:

• atmospheric analysis for Sun, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Titan, Triton, Io and Callisto.  Available from menu top-right.  (Icon still to be changed).

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changelog v0.1.11

New features:

• auroras for Earth, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus added to glow effect (defaults to on for "near" (follower cam) and off for "distant" (sightseer, Hubble)

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changelog v0.1.10

New features:

• render quality slider in settings
• glow effect toggle for "near" (follower cam) and "distant" (sightseer, Hubble)

Fixed:

• flickering partially due to glow effect particle system.  Added toggle to disable rendering at long distance

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changelog v0.1.9

New features:

• distance to stars now shown in light years
• toggle for ecliptic plane (defaults to off)

Fixed:

• settings menu toggles now update when keyboard shortcuts are used

Backend:

• global constant "pc_to_ly" for parsec to light year conversion

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changelog v0.1.8

New features:

• settings menu (burger menu, bottom left)
• toggle for simple stars or star shader (defaults to simple)
• labels for stars (key 2 to toggle)
• proper/common star names added where available

Backend:

• .csv import for additional star data

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changelog v0.1.7

Fixed:

• drop down menus for "target" and "view from" now automatically update when camera is changed or "swap" is clicked
• "follower", "freeview" and top-down cameras now automatically change "view from" to match "target"
• exception handling for Game objects with no mass (e.g. constellations)

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changelog v0.1.6

Added dwarf planets/asteroids:

• 136199 Eris | Dysnomia

New features:

• labels for tier 1 celestial bodies (key 1 to toggle)

Fixed:

• earth squish - it's now 1/298.257 flat

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changelog v0.1.5

New features:

• visible FOV
• spin (sidereal period), axial tilt and orbital inclination details

Fixed:

• spin speeds

Backend:

• each celestial body now has "sidereal_period" variable
• spin now calculated using sidereal_period and global constant for earth_game_spin

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changelog v0.1.4

Added dwarf planets/asteroids:

• 25143 Itokawa
• 486958 Arrokoth

New features:

• discovery details

Backend:

• each celestial body now has "discovery_date" and "discovered_by" variables

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changelog v0.1.3

Added moon(s):

• Hyperion (Saturn)

Fixed:

• adjusted SightSeer near clipping and ISS orbit distance so that Earth can be viewed from ISS and Hubble (not actual height or size).

Backend:

• each celestial body now has "orbit_scalar" to scale distance appropriately.

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changelog v0.1.2

Added dwarf planets/asteroids:

• 136108 Haumea
• 136199 Eris
• 136472 Makemake
• 101955 Bennu

Added moon(s):

• Tethys (Saturn)
• Rhea (Saturn)
• Iapetus (Saturn)
• Enceladus (Saturn)
• Dione (Saturn)
• Mimas (Saturn)

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Credits & Special Mentions:

3D models: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/all/?order=pub_date+desc&per_page=50&page...

Yale Bright Star Catalog: http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/catalogs/bsc5.html

Constellations / YBSC import - FirnoxGaming:

Fonts:

• https://fonts.webtoolhub.com/font-n42145-digital-display-tfb.aspx
• https://fonts.webtoolhub.com/font-n24341-unispace.aspx