Devlog 11

Well, we are really getting to the end of the project and Stardance; tomorrow might be the last devlog (if not, then saturday) but however, it has really been a pleasure to share my work with you guys. As I said yesterday, I managed to finish all the launcher-simulation interfaces and added actual images to the whole launcher (thumbnails and simulation previews). Only the launcher settings, credits tab and all the shipping procedure things (adding some comments on the code, README, packaging, project description) will be left to do. I am going to keep the devlog short, so here’s the list of what I’ve done today:

• finished the launcher-simulation interfaces for the remaining simulations by using the same method as the previous ones
• added a folder containing all the images of the launcher (simulation thumbnails as well as their previews)
• fixed some data conversion bugs on the simulation .py files

The only thing that made me lose a bit of time was, as yesterday, the bugs concerning data conversion and formatting from the simulation configuration values .json file but: I managed to get everything working.

Thanks, as always, for reading my devlogs; I really appreciate it.

Devlog 10

I am really proud of what I’ve achieved today; in fact, I managed to establish the interface between the first 4 physics simulations and the launcher. If I am this proud, it’s because the Planet Orbits simulation works pretty good and it was the hardest one to make, so: the remaining interfaces will actually be easy. The end of Stardance is approaching, so I’ll keep the devlogs very short in order to work on the final touches of the launcher but they will still be complete. If you want to see what I’ve done in detail today, here’s the list:

• created a .json file storing all the configurator values of the simulations
• added labels in each simulation describing the values of the sliders
• added the interfaces between those simulations and the launcher through the “Launch” button events

I really had to fix a lot of bugs concerning the extraction and conversion of the data from the .json file, especially for the Planet Orbits simulation. However, I managed to make everything work correctly.

I’ll try to finish the interfaces left and get to the final fixes of the launcher to ship the project as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading my devlogs, it really means a lot to me.

Devlog 9

I think that a lot of progress has been made today; in fact, I’ve managed to finish the Solution Maker simulation and only 3 molecules are left for the Molecular Lab. We are really getting to the end of Stardance, so I’ll try to finish the molecules left as fast as possible and work on the launcher-simulation interface, README file, refining the overall launcher as well as exporting it. With the time left, I doubt that the 4 other chemistry simulations (for reference, the Reaction Lab, Combustion, Smoke and Atom Collision simulations) and the Fluid Simulation will be made because they require a lot of time. With everything said, here is the detailed list of the things that I’ve done today that I summarized to keep it short:

• added the variables describing the chemical properties of the solutes and solvents selected in the launcher
• added a solubility matrix to check which solutes and solvents can go together
• defined functions to create the solute, update the position of the particles and draw them on the screen but also the solvent (which changes color depending on the solute mass and the solvent volume)
• added labels to read the values of the mass and molar concentrations of the solution
• created the .py file for the Molecular Lab as well as 3 molecules (Carbon Dioxide, Glucose and Ethanol)

I really had to do a lot of debugging today (functions to change the alpha channel value of the solute particles) but hey, it works now.
Don’t worry about the future of this project; even if Stardance ends really soon, I’ll keep working on it to make it better and offer the whole thing.

Thanks for taking the time to read these devlogs, it really means a lot to me.

Devlog 8

Today, I didn’t have as much time as the previous days but I still managed to finish a chemistry simulation (for reference, the Bohr Atomic Representation simulation).
Since this is the only simulation that I’ve made today, there will not be a lot of things to say so I’ll try to make it short for you. If you want to see the things that I’ve done in detail, here is, as always, the list:

• defined some variables containing a lot of informations such as the atomic properties variables (atom name, mass, proton, neutron and electron number), lists to store each atomic element created (protons, neutrons, electrons) as well as the electron shells (1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p), some other “art” variables (colors, fonts, screen radii for the atomic elements) and trigonometry variables (the inital electron angle because, as I’ll explain later, their motion has to be simulated according to the unit circle)
• defined a lot of functions so as to create the atomic elements mentioned above (protons, neutrons, electrons and electron shells) by creating dictionaries (a kind of variable that can store different types of values which can be retrieved through a key; take Excel tables as an example) containing their initial position, angles for the electrons, their rotation speed and their current shell, check the number of electron shells that have to be simulated (by checking the number of electrons of the simulated atom), add the said atomic elements to their respective lists and draw them on the screen and lastly, a function to update the position of the electrons by calculating their sine and cosine values on the unit circle previously mentioned
• added labels describing the atomic values of the simulated atom as well as the simulation title

I think that I’ll finish the chemistry simulations and the Fluid Simulation tomorrow to get started on the launcher-simulation interface and fixing some features. After doing that, only the Place and the other launcher buttons (maybe other fixes) will be left to make.

Thanks for taking the time to read my devlogs, I really appreciate it.

Devlog 7

As always, a lot of work has been done around the physics simulations; in fact, I’ve finished them all (except the Fluid Simulation for reasons that I’ll explain here). The simulations finished today are the Refraction and Temperature Simulations. If you are interested in the work that has been done, here is the list:

• created a function in the Refraction Simulation .py file to calculate the value of the refracted angle based on the initial incidence angle as well as the refractive indexes of the mediums by using Snell-Descartes Law and some trigonometry to change the x and y positions of the refracted light ray as well as the main ray
• defined some lists that contain real life physical values (refractive indexes of air, water, glass, ethanol, diamond and plastic as well as their color)
• created the .py file for the Temperature Simulation
• calculated some physics formulae to simulate the entropy (or increase in disorder) of the particles in a gas (in this case, your regular air) by using the Stokes-Einstein equation to calculate the diffusion coefficient for each particle (how fast the particle spreads) as well as Sutherland’s Law to calculate the dynamic viscosity of the air mentioned above
• added a damping factor when calculating the dynamic viscosity of the air containing the particles because Sutherland’s Law tends to break when reaching absolute zero (for reference, -273.15°C or 0°K)
• added a function to simulate Brownian Motion for the particles based on the values calculated before as well as functions to create those particles and draw them on the screen
• fixed some physics bugs on the first Projectile Simulation
• created the .py file for the Bohr Atomic Simulation

If I didn’t make the Fluid Simulation as of now, it’s because I don’t know if I’m going to use the simple method (springs connected to each other to simulate waves propagating) or the complex method (using Navier-Stokes equations to simulate the fluid’s motion, pressure, diffusion and external forces). I will see how much time I can allocate for this simulation and decide.

Again and as always, thanks for taking the time to read my devlogs and supporting me.

Devlog 6

Today, I got a lot of work done around the physics simulations; in fact, I managed to finish the Spring Simulation, the Planet Orbits Simulation, the Gravity Simulation and started working on the Refraction Simulation. This means that only 2 (or 2 and a half) physics simulation are left (for reference, a little bit of the Refraction Simulation as well as the Fluid and Temperature Simulation).

The simulations made today being a little bit more complex than the previous ones, albeit very fun to make, I will summarize everything to make it as simple as possible. Enough talking, here is the list:

• created the .py files for the Spring Simulation, Planet Orbits, Gravity Simulation as well as the Refraction Simulation
• added the values of the physical properties extracted from the launcher (still didn’t implement the interface between the launcher and the simulations, that will come later)
• calculated the physical formulae needed to make every simulation possible (for the Spring Simulation: calculated the “spring” force using Hooke’s Law and another variables such as the stiffness and damping coefficient of the spring and this time, I used the Pygame.Vector2 which made everything more simple; for the Planet Orbits: the solution to the N-body problem to be able to simulate more than 2 planets interacting upon each other by using a function to integrate the result values numerically with Euler’s Method; for the Gravity Simulation: the simple f = mg formula as well as the drag force formula taking a lot of variables into account such as the air density, surface area of the simulated object, its mass and the drag coefficient but also the restitution coefficient to make the object bounce when it collides with the ground; for the Refraction Simulation: still haven’t implemented the Snell-Descartes Law needed to calculate the angle of the refracted light ray)
• modified some values in the Projectile Simulation (physical properties)

For those that might be asking: I did not use OOP for the planet creation function in the Planet Orbits simulation because I didn’t want to use it for this project.
I hope to finish the physics simulations tomorrow and start working on the chemistry ones.

As always, thanks for supporting my project; it really means a lot.

Devlog 5

Yesterday, I hoped to finish the configuration tabs of the last chemistry simulations but guess what? I didn’t finish them. You might be asking yourself: “Why?”
Well, I decided to start working on the simulations in Pygame rather than spending more time on the last 4 configuration tabs; I think that it is more efficient and less time consuming. In fact, I’ve finished the 2 first physics simulations (for reference, the Projectile and Pendulum simulations) and the result is actually pretty neat; the simulations are based on real physical properties and they seem to work really good. If you want to see the things that I’ve done in detail today, here is, as always, the list:

• created a new folder in the GitHub repository for the physics simulations
• created an “init.py” file to be able to access the functions of the physics simulations from the launcher
• finished the Projectile and Pendulum simulations by defining some physical variables whose values will be extracted from the launcher
• calculated some physics formulae (x and y components for the velocities, drag force formula based on the air density, surface area, drag coefficient and the total velocity of the projectile squared by using Euler’s Method to integrate these values numerically for both the Projectile and Pendulum simulations in order to update their respective x and y positions but also the angular velocity and angle of the pendulum by using the same method previously mentioned)
• created some functions to draw the projectile and the pendulum mass (or bob)
• added labels to track the values of the physical properties for the simulations mentioned above
• changed the position of these labels as well as their font weight (actually their size) to make everything look more uniform
• added the color palette of the launcher to the simulations

I have to admit that I stumbled across a lot of bugs today when trying to implement the 2D vectors for the first simulation (velocity, gravity, total force which is equal to the sum of the gravity and drag force) so I decided to use another method without these vectors. However, I will probably implement the vectors in the future (as you can see on a comment of the code) because they are simpler to use.

Finally, I will continue working on the simulations and after finishing them, the 4 configuration tabs left will be done.

I really appreciate the support received by reading the devlogs that I post and liking them; I hope that you, the person reading this, know that it means a lot for me.

Devlog 4

As I said yesterday, I hoped to finish the configuration tabs for all the physics and chemistry simulations. Well, guess what? I almost managed to finish them all; in fact, only 4 of them are left (Reaction Lab, Combustion Simulation, Smoke Simulation and Atom Collision). I have to admit that making the configuration tabs takes a lot of time, but I guarantee that it will be worth the wait. If you want to see what I did in detail today, here’s the list:

• added the frames for each element in the Fluid & Temperature simulations, Bohr Representation, Solution Maker and Molecular Lab configuration tabs (frames for the simulation preview image, title, description and instructions on how to setup the simulation, configurators as well as the “Launch” button)
• filled those frames with their respective elements (placeholder image of an atom that you can literally see on every tab of the app, text labels for the titles, descriptions and instructions as well as some configurators such as sliders, option menus, buttons and switches)
• rescaled the sliders of the first physics simulation configuration tabs to make everything more uniform and clean

This time, I stumbled across some minor bugs that were irritating (having to move multiple elements by a fraction of a pixel just to align them) I am actually surprised that I didn’t have any considerable bugs or inconveniences to fix but: I really hope to finish the configuration tabs of every simulation tomorrow once for all in order to get started with the making of those simulations. In the future, I will also add labels describing the initial and final values of the sliders as well as labels to monitor their values.

As always, thanks for spending a bit of your time to read my devlog, I really appreciate it.

Devlog 3

I think that today has also been very productive; in fact, I finished 6/8 configuration tabs (or windows) for the physics simulations. In addition, I also managed to get more things done (even if making the configuration tabs is long, I really appreciate the process) that I summarized in this list:

• added the frames for each element of the 6 first physics simulation config. tabs
• filled those said frames with placeholder images, titles of each simulation, their respective descriptions and instructions in order to make their configuration easy, sliders representing physical properties that can be seen on the video (velocity, angular velocity, mass, gravitational acceleration, damping, stiffness, etc…), entries to enter custom values for those properties, option menus (for example, to choose the color of the light ray in the Refraction Simulation tab) and switches (on/off options such as the “Show Orbit Trail” option)
• added the frames (but not their content) for each element of the chemistry simulation config. tabs
• rescaled the labels describing the configurators of the simulations (“Initial Damping”, etc…)

Something that made me waste a bit of my time today was the fact that I didn’t use a method (fancy word for a function in Python) correctly.
Besides that, I hope to finish the configuration tabs for the last two physics simulations as well as the chemistry ones tomorrow to finally get started on the making of the simulations.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, it really means a lot for me to know that my work is being taken into consideration.

Devlog 2

I worked on a lot of core features to the launcher of the sandbox today; here is what I did in detail:

• added placeholder images for each simulation (physics and chemistry)
• added titles for each simulation of the sandbox
• added descriptions to each simulation so as to make them understandable and let the user choose before clicking on one
• added the logic of the buttons in order to be able to select them
• added individual windows for every physics and chemistry simulation
• added configurators (sliders, checkboxes) representing some physical properties (initial velocity, angle, gravitational acceleration, mass, diameter and drag coefficient) for the first physics simulation (Projectile Simulation) as well as its launch button
• added a placeholder image to preview the simulation mentioned above

I didn’t have to fight against a bug today, but we’ll see tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Devlog 1

Hello everyone, first time writing here. What did I do today? Well, I began working on the launcher of my sandbox-simulator. To sum everything up, these are the things that I’ve worked on:

• creating the main window of the launcher with CustomTkinter
• loading a custom theme for the launcher
• making the buttons, frames and tabs of each category of the sandbox (physics, chemistry, the Place, the launcher settings and credits)
• adding the events (interaction logic) for each button

Even if I spent some time trying to get the buttons to change the tabs without display bugs, the core of the launcher has been made.

Last but not least: why did I make a launcher for the sandbox?
I always liked the “ImGUI” style interfaces for custom C++ apps (for example, the modded versions of some games) because of their simplicity.
Thanks for stopping by to read this and see you on the next devlog.