By
@Coverst_dev
Space Simulator is a program that shows how stars, planets, and other objects move through space under gravity. For Stardance, I’m expanding it with a new section about pulsars and neutron stars, where users can change properties such as rotation speed and see how those changes affect the calculations and visualization.
@Coverst_dev
on
Space Simulator
I made an interactive pulsar simulation with 3D magnetic field lines, rotating polar beams, adjustable rotation speed/tilt, camera controls and a few live values.
The most annoying part was probably getting the field lines, depth and render order to stop looking weird together, but I got it into a state I’m actually happy with. The physics side is handled through my C++ backend and the rendering is done in Python/Pygame.
For testing: arrow keys rotate the camera, scroll zooms, A/D changes rotation speed, W/S changes the magnetic tilt and Space pauses it.
I also packaged it into a Windows .exe so you can just download it and try it
This is the github release, the website is just for documentation and research purposes, a fancy README
@Coverst_dev
on
Space Simulator
57m 50s logged
I just finished the final touches on the pulsar visualization. I changed the beams to be more cone-like for visualization purposes, added control panel functionality and packaged it all into a .exe for you guys to try
I’ll try to create alternative for the goated non-Windows users
https://github.com/Coverst-ux/space-sim/releases/tag/v1.0.0 <- .exe file
https://github.com/Coverst-ux/space-sim <- github repo/readme
@Coverst_dev
on
Space Simulator
2h 11m 17s logged
I thought the hardest part would be the pulsar physics, turns out it was the rendering that was a genuine pain
I reworked the field lines into 3D instead of the ugly previous 2D, added rotation, added a beam that you see in pulsars, and basic camera controls. I’m quite happy with how its all coming together.
@Coverst_dev
on
Space Simulator
1h 25m 25s logged
The pulsar is finally starting to look 3D
Today I connected it to the camera system from the rest of the simulator, so I can rotate and zoom around it properly now. I also added a 3D background starfield, which surprisingly helped a lot because you can actually between the front and the back of the simulation
The magnetic field lines were also moved from 2D plane into a 3D plane around the neutron star. I added some glow to them and worked on a feature where the lines that go behind it just disappear instead of awkwardly just being in the background
There were a couple annoying bugs with lines randomly disappearing and even entering the star itself, but those are fixed now
It still has a LONG way to go visually, but I think it’s starting to resemble the kind of pulsar simulation I had in mind
@Coverst_dev
on
Space Simulator
2h 54m 51s logged
I finally got the rendering to an (Okay?) place.
Most of my work was on the physics side of the pulsar. Which isn’t exactly the “most exciting” per se. So I decided to get the visualization and get it looking like an actual simulation instead of a bunch of nerdy physics.
The big blue ball in the middle is the neutron star ofc. And those lines are the magnetic field lines that surround the star.
Tracing them was quite the pain. I had to trace the magnetic field from all the different points around the star. Then, figure out how to like follow it in both directions and have a copy of each field line on each side as you can see.
It is DEFINITELY not staying like this. I wanna get it up to par with the rest of my work which is in the README (go check it out 😊). Although, not having models/assets is a big obstacle so I’m forced to draw everything with Pygame.
Currently, the physics is simplified so I can get a minimum viable product of the simulation.
So now I’m stuck between two choices:
A) Get the simulator to look significantly better
or
B) Unsimplify the physics and make it technically impressive
I’ll go start figuring out that one next
@Coverst_dev
on
Space Simulator
5h 48m 35s logged
Researched and wrote notes for the simplified pulsar physics. Implemented the 3D magnetic field calculation. Tested the logic, scaling, and guards for invalid behavior. Compiled the pulsar module and confirmed that all tests passed.
My next course of action would probably be connecting the C++ physics engine to python for visualization.
