zac-garby / pylanets

A gravitational field simulator in Python

pylanets

A gravitational field simulator in Python. Install numpy and pygame then run main.py.

Controls

• use the mouse wheel to zoom.
• use q/a to switch between objects to follow.
• use z to switch to free roam mode.
• use w/s to speed the simulation up/down.
• use d/e to change the drawing size of the objects.

pylanets's Issues

Window does not close properly when close-window button is pressed

The window does not close properly when the close-window button is pressed.

Dynamically fetch relative positions of bodies

Randomly positioning bodies at the start of the simulation is inaccurate, as the planets have specific orbits which most likely will not pass through these random positions. Thus, we should dynamically fetch the actual distances/angles when the program starts in order to set the correct orbits.

If this is not possible or feasible, it would suffice to get the positions at one point in time and hardcode these into the program, causing it to always start at the state. (After this, it could simulate thousands of years without rendering, to essentially randomize the starting positions but keeping them in the right orbits, but this isn't really necessary.)

Initialise planets at correct rotations around the sun

Right now, all the planets start lined up vertically. Of course, this is unrealistic, and is especially a problem around Neptune and Pluto, which are very close to each other.

Ideally, this would be solved by finding the relative angles to the sun at a specific time and initialising the planets at these positions, though this might turn out to be problematic (I've no idea how I would go about finding the angles of planets from the sun) so another solution might be to put them at random angles.

Don't render text if two bodies are too close

When two bodies are very close, much like the relationship between the moon and the Earth, their name labels can intersect with one another, making both impossible to read. It would be preferable to render only the label of the largest body.