Devlog 2

And that’s the project complete!

Making the descriptions for the isotopes was definitely easier than making the atom’s nucleus. I also learned how to actually manipulate text on Godot. In previous projects, I typed out all the text on a different app and exported it as a picture, which I used in Godot. As you can imagine, that’s incredibly inefficient. In this project, though, I just manipulated labels using GDScript and created boxes with color rects. This makes it much easier to change text.

I also used a similar color palette as my atom simulator, and I think it turned out looking pretty good.

Devlog 1

I’ve just finished the main part of this project: the interactive nucleus. It didn’t come without its headaches, though.

In essence, the way it works is that when you press the up button, it adds a proton to the nucleus at a random position. When you press the down button, it removes the proton. Same thing for neutrons, except you use the right and left buttons, respectively. I wanted the nucleus to be relatively circular while still keeping the random positions for the subatomic particles. Eventually, I figured I could do that by forcing every particle to overlap with two other particles when they were randomly generating a position. However, this led to the particles not instantly showing up after you pressed either the up or right button, so I’ll have to make the algorithm that generates the particles more efficient.

Additionally, many errors arose from pressing the add and remove buttons simultaneously for both of the particles. These were easily fixed in two ways. One was adding the await keyword before the methods in the functions that added and removed the particles. The second was adding booleans that restricted the remove function from being called while a particle was being added. These fixes took me a while to figure out, though.

Moving on, I need to make the whole simulator look a bit better, and I also need to add labels for the number of particles there are and the names of the various isotopes.

Devlog 2

I finished the interactive periodic table! A lot of the functionality was similar to the atom simulator, so this project took a bit less time to code than that one.

In addition to the descriptions that appear when you hover over the sections of the periodic table, I also added a switch to the top. It changes which sections of the periodic table are highlighted, letting the user learn about more groups on the right side. I initially drew each frame of the switch animation, but I eventually settled on using an animation player because I thought it looked better.

Overall, I’m really happy with how this project turned out!

Devlog 1

I just finished making the periodic table and delimiting the different sections with unique colors.

The next step will actually be the coding part! Each section currently has an Area2d, and I’m planning to make it so that when you hover over a section, it shows a description of it. It’s similar to what I did for my previous atom simulator project.

Devlog 2

I’ve finished the first simulator! I redesigned all the subatomic particles as well as the background and descriptions to make everything more visually appealing.

Additionally, to help the user know what to do, I added some text telling them to hover over the subatomic particles.

Moving on, I would like to make more chemistry simulations. Here are some of my ideas:

1. An interactive periodic table to learn about the different sections
2. A simulation to teach someone how to calculate the atomic mass
3. A simulation that adds electrons to an element, following the Aufbau Principle, to teach someone how to make an electron configuration

Devlog 1

I just finished the bare-bones structure for my atom simulator! I made a basic hydrogen atom with an electron orbiting around a proton and a neutron. When you hover over one of the particles, it gives a basic description of that subatomic particle.

For now, I only have placeholder images that I made in about 30 seconds. My next step will be to work on the artwork so it’s a bit more appealing to the eyes.

This is my first project, which is why it’s a little basic. I’m hoping to make more sophisticated simulations going forward.