I'm so glad everyone's enjoying the Sandbox and thanks for all the feedback.
Also thank you to everyone that's submitted comments through the comment form inside the program. (This uses .NETs System.Net.Mail classes to send an email without leaving the program). The included log files have been very helpful.
newbornNo worries about us going extinct in 2029. It's not going to hit us as demonstrated in the included system "Apophis passes near Earth in 2029", but even if it did the asteroid isn't large enough to completely kill us off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_ApophisThe Newton physics don't kick in unless the bodies are very close together and the bounce collision mode is turned on. I'm also spawning a new newton simulation for each isolated group of bodies. Try the fictional "75 moons orbiting Earth" system and press "C" on your keyboard 5 times to switch to "Color by Physics Group". This shows each different newton sim as a different color.
The positions, velocities, names, sizes, and masses of the objects in our solar system are all taken from data provided by NASA. Everything is to scale; time is measured in seconds, velocities in meters per seconds, mass in kilograms, distance in meters. These are then scaled into numbers that TV can use. The program uses 3 different scales: TV units (DirectX singles), the real numbers (stored as doubles), and Newton units (singles).
I've made a real attempt at making this program reasonably accurate yet still accessible and fun. Even the star colors (try the system "Star Size Comparison") are based on real data. (Please ignore the issue that makes the stars half white :)
John - darqSHADOW
The program is supposed to create an icon on your desktop the first time it's run, but somehow that was broken. It's been fixed and will be included in the next release later this weekend. Did the program add an entry in the Start menu under Universe Sandbox?
As a suggestion: I would prefer that Truevision used the individual program license first and if it can't find that file it would revert to the developer license file. This would have prevented your issue, and make it easier for me to test that the included license file is working without renaming my developer license file in My Documents.
ToasterI've been working on the shake bug and have it fixed, but need to do some more testing before I release it. The shake was because of inaccuracies in the rounding of the body location and position of the camera when you ventured too far from the center (0,0,0). The upcoming version now keeps the camera at (0,0,0) and moves everything else around it; thus the shaking is gone. Let me know what your Dad thinks. :)
I've also fixed an issue where particle rings were unstable around fast moving bodies. I'll post again when the new version is up. To update all you have to do is run the program, it automatically checks for updates every time it's run (using .NET's ClickOnce).
Thanks again to everyone for trying this out.
