Hi again, I re-read the thread and found the new link, silly me
I loaded up your program and have a few questions/comments. But bear in mind that i'm absolutely not qualified in any way to know whether or not something i'm saying is accurate
1. This is probably the single most impressive DBpro demo I have seen.
2. It is also probably the best solar system sim i've seen on any computer format.
That being out of the way....
The 'dark side' of earth (or any other planet) is completely dark making it invisible against the blank (no starfield at all) background. Is this right? Some of the coolest views in my opinion are towards another body with a body in the foreground, but if you are looking towards the sun (which is pretty much the only object you can see because of the sizes) then you are looking with the un-illuminated side in the foreground which is almost invisible (on my monitor anyway). If not for realism, but for coolness, maybe include an option to illuminate these dark sides a little? (wouldn't light reflect or be present from other sources? Perhaps the players 'ship' could be a light source)
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In my last post I mentioned about scales. In your sim, you can see the sun from earth (thats one up on me) but in both yours and mine, something just looks wrong. Wait for the moon to cross the sun, looking from earth. This universe is clearly not going to experience an eclipse, this suggests that the scale/distances are wrong. The moon either aint big enough, or aint close enough.
BUT: I had the same effect in my sim. Pretty much exactly the same in fact, we are both using real physical data so is this some quirk or innacuracy in DB? I dont know the answer. Or perhaps its something to do with the atmosphere of earth magnifying the moon when we view with the naked eye. Anyone know?
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Time: Maybe include a readout for time elapsed (in earth time) and allow the user to speed up, slow down and stop time. This way you can study views and stuff without the planets escaping.
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Views: In my sim I did the same as you with the numbers being 'hotkeys' to jump to planets. I also had a system which worked quite well where SHIFT+numbers points the camera towards that body. Also had keys to control your elevation so you could move 'above' a body without having to look away from it.
Also have the ability to 'land' on a planet and look at a body (the camera positions itself on the surface of the 'view from' body at the nearest point to the 'view to' body)
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Perhaps you could include the ISS or a shuttle orbitting Earth for fun
Pretend like you are in a spaceship so include 'thruster' sounds when you move - then have a cool external view of your ship.
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Once again, this thing is brilliant. Its unfortunate for us all that the distances in the solar system are so vast, it would be much more impressive if you could see big orbiting planets from the other bodies, but its realistic like it is, which i think is probably more important. However - for a workaround - when 'landed' on a planet, offer a 'telescope' option so you can see how venus would look through a 16x telescope from earth or whatever.
Keep up the good work. I think as well as the technology demo really showing off DBpro, this program has educational possibilities too! Can't wait to see haleys comet whipping round the sun, or whatever
God of unfinished programming projects
