PlanetWerks

Widgets » PlanetWerks

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by GreyWyvern

V2.1 Dec 27, 2007 6:38:51 PM

Version 2.2 - An interactive, educational and accurate Solar System simulation

A three-dimensional widget-sized tour through our solar system. A sophisticated control system brings you amazing views and fun facts! Movement in PlanetWerks 2 incorporates accurate 2-body motion; objects orbit the sun in PlanetWerks essentially the same way they do in the actual solar system!

Also included, switch to a linear scale model to see just how vast the solar system really is. Four levels of precision rotation and zoom control to help get those great views! Then click planets and satellites for fun facts and statistics!

Have your own planetarium on your desktop, with multiple widget sizes, including Fullscreen.

2.2 Changelog:

Added orbital path trails; toggle with [T]
Corrected an orientation calculation error
Fixed a bug affecting retrograde orbits under linear speed
Many performance and memory tweaks
Added [Backspace] to mimic [Delete] for Macbook keyboards
Added [Shift]+[Delete] to mimic [Insert] for Mac keyboards
Transparency fixes for *NIX desktops

Comments 51 posts

1 - 20 of 51 next

So beautiful!

Do you have a version that I could use on my Ning family-network?

Thanks!

By RosyGlow, # Jun 9, 2008 10:27:58 PM

@scarecroe: Version 2.2 now includes orbit path trails

You can toggle them off and on using the [T] key.

By GreyWyvern, # Jun 5, 2008 1:44:08 PM

This is amazing! Suggestion for future version: ability to toggle orbital path.

By scarecroe, # Mar 19, 2008 4:23:08 AM

Amazing widget. You bought me at Fullscreen. Linear scale is the icing.

By IceArdor, # Mar 11, 2008 7:40:38 AM

very nice

By adler03, # Feb 15, 2008 11:11:58 PM

i like it!
special thanks for Reptilon, i want story to be continued

By MuXXa^bI4, # Jan 26, 2008 7:07:09 AM

@Helmers:
Animated planets are certainly possible, from a coding perspective anyway. However there are two big problems to overcome: 1) There aren't a lot of really great full-faced images of most planets, especially the outer ones; and 2) More images mean a larger widget, and also more memory use, so since I am just using CSS positioning, it would probably be very very slow on most computers. Even the current widget at 1600x1200 shows signs of lag on my computer

My plans for the next version are to allow the addition of new objects through a menu interface, so you can, for example, input orbit characteristics of a newly discovered object and see what path it takes. I'm also thinking of seeing whether or not moving the whole system is feasible, rather than keeping the sun eternally at (0,0,0).

Thanks very much for the comments everyone!

By GreyWyvern, # Dec 28, 2007 2:38:16 PM

I love the Widget, but want animated planets!

By Helmers, # Dec 28, 2007 0:18:29 AM

Never mind on my request for greater background, after playing, I found the full page option. VERY COOL WIDGET!

By infinitejim@yahoo.com, # Dec 15, 2007 3:26:22 PM

Nice Widget!
Can you increase the background space so that the Outer Planets (etc) don't go off the screen on increased zoom leveles? Even without a background, I'd like to increase the size of it (using the Home key), and have the Outer Planets have more space to move! Maybe there's a way, if so, let me know? Thx, Jim. Again, NICE WIDGET.

By infinitejim@yahoo.com, # Dec 15, 2007 3:11:09 PM

I love that widget, it's really cool!

By Pattty, # Dec 6, 2007 7:53:23 PM

WOW!!
even more cool!

By cecilia, # Nov 24, 2007 7:54:27 PM

Nice Version 2, congrats!

By Maulkin, # Nov 22, 2007 6:57:48 PM

widget does not show after Opera is restarted 9.50a build 9594

By froggy420, # Oct 20, 2007 4:30:36 AM

very nice one! Thx!

By tubularek, # Oct 18, 2007 6:47:53 PM

Nice!

Pluto's still a planet in my book... (and New Mexico's)

By Tangent128, # Aug 25, 2007 11:09:39 PM

that is an awesome widget! 5 stars!

By ejenks909, # Jul 11, 2007 10:04:25 PM

I wish i could do it as a screensaver...

By Sk8r644, # Jul 10, 2007 8:10:11 PM

I like it

By reisenderpro, # May 11, 2007 0:39:17 AM

This is great... Fact like surface temp, earth years it take for one 'x' (ie - jupiter) year, etc would all be nifty little additions.

Full screen mode and 3D acceleration might be a bit much to ask, yes?