Search results

The galactic core from a desert island in the Maldives: (Canon 1100D, 30s @ ISO 3200, f/3.5)

Thanks :) No problem, it was gpredict, code available here: http://sourceforge.net/p/gpredict/code/ci/master/tree/src/

OK, I got the solar terminator and ground track working in my program - I could do the satellite horizon in a similar way but it's not really needed at the moment.

Looking at the source code for an open source satellite tracker program, it seems like the best method probably is to brute-force calculate a series of points along the ground track/satellite horizon/terminator and just join them up as a PolyLine or something.

Yes, that's probably true, but the thing I'm wondering is how the MFD plots them. I'd be interested to know how I could plot them using vector graphics like MapMFD.

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone knows the methods used by MapMFD to plot: a) ground tracks b) the horizon visible to the spacecraft c) the terminator between day/night (and the shading of the day/night areas) I guess for the ground track, it could perform a series of forward...

Awesome, thanks for the replies! These keywords look like they are a good starting point :) Also, re: The project I'm working on is just a simple ATC simulator, i.e. dots moving across a window with an assigned speed, altitude and heading. So I'm not actually simulating aircraft systems or...

Hi! I haven't posted for a while, but I think this is a good place to ask this question! I'm interested in the maths behind how autopilots work. Right now I'm interested in programming something that will simulate a plane intercepting a localiser and flying along it towards a runway (for a...

Thanks for the help! I have solved it by using local coordinates depending on each planet's SOI. If I'm not inside any SOI then I use the Sun as the origin. At the moment I'm using all the bodies for every gravitational calculation but may end up using the patched conic approximation too. Speed...

Hi! I have a quick question about relative coordinates in a simulation of the solar system. Let's say I am simulating a spacecraft using an RK4 propagator in an environment containing the Sun, the Earth and Mars (with the Sun at the centre). The two planets are on simple circular orbits around...

Thanks, I searched but didn't find that!

I'm wondering how the sim handles spherical planet meshes? When I'm close to Earth the edge of the planet looks very spherical with no visible bumps, however when I zoom out there comes a point where it noticeably switches to a low-poly sphere and stops rendering the atmosphere. Is it just using...

My guitar is a cheap one from amazon so yes, I guess I get what I pay for, but it could also be that I recorded that by putting my digital camera in front of the amp so it wasn't exactly a studio job!

I started playing the guitar recently and finally got up the courage to record myself playing. It's not perfect by any means but here's a quick cover of 'Time':

Not really video but I can listen to these old radio shows over and over and it's still hilarious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAwxbEdGUg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YitdaY1Eam4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_6gnqucgOc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXTH9rIrHpc etc...

I'm doing physics with astronomy, currently on for a 4 year degree (MPhys) but I may well do the 3 years and forget the masters bit.

Everything in the video looks a little too 'perfect'. Something like that doesn't just pop out of nowhere, look that simple and behave so perfectly. They gloss over a LOT of stuff too - what kind of statement is 'it has more technology in it than a satellite'? Also, what's with the guy pushing...

Here's another one - exactly the same objects but on a bumpy, partially reflective floor. The beauty of this is that you can simply change a bit of code to give the floor a texture or make it bumpy like this:

The program parses a text file containing the objects, materials, lights, camera and render properties. For each pixel I shoot 4 rays and average them (anti-aliasing) so that makes it take 4 times longer than just rendering the scene by itself. The scene transformation is pretty simple - I...

It's a lot simpler than POV-ray. There are some critical things that I haven't managed yet; mainly proper shadowing. The glass sphere should create 'caustics' on the floor (areas of focussed light) but it just casts a hard shadow like everything else. However, because of how simple and...