Gravity Graphics / News: Recent posts

It has been a while since the last release, but I have been busy with other things. The homepage for this project ( http://grfxgrav.sourceforge.net/ ) now has some documentation for the command line options that serve as the input, as well as an explanation of the grfxgrav-FIST and a couple notes on usage. This release changes a few things in the way it calculates, and also adds a couple more options; specifically, the 'solar flares' and the new equation that I mentioned in the last news post. I think I've got that particular problem fixed for now, but I might be wrong.... read more

I haven't done too much work on this project this week, and I'll tell you why. As I was working on it on saturday, I discovered a longstanding mathematical error in my calculations, specifically in advancing the position of each particle/planet. While it's still fair to say that this project uses "the principles of gravity", unfortunately it never used basic physics; that's right, ladies and gentlemen, I bare my soul to you:
x+=v*Δt is WRONG,
x+=v*Δt+(1/2)(a)(Δt)^2
When the correct equation is substituted into the simulation as it stands, orbits decay very rapidly for all the numbers I've tried, and it just isn't any fun anymore. Of course, I have added it as (guess what!) a command line option, and it will be available in version 1.2 when it is released.... read more

I have released executable .tar.gz's for both windows and linux versions of my project. Unfortunately it does not look like I will be able to rectify the situation with compiling errors because my (old) version of KDevelop doesn't take new verions of autoconf and automake that might be more widely compatable. And unfortunately the machine I'm developing on isn't connected to the internet, and the only internet access I have is wussy little AOL dialup (not my fault I swear). So that's that.... read more

Apologies to anyone who has downloaded one of the existing releases, but they were made with fairly old versions of autoconf/automake and there is at least one known case of the configuration being incompatable. I'm trying to resolve the situation, but the machine I'm doing my development on isn't connected to the internet, and there are many frustrating problems I've been having with updating autoconf/automake and with KDevelop. Principally, I've managed to install a newer pair of autoconf/automake that I read, when looking up the error, were compatable, but now I can't compile anything, or even generate configure files; anyway in doing that I had to uninstall the existing set of ac/am, which uninstalled KD, which I reinstalled, and on and on. I'll probably install the latest releases of ac/am and try again, but right now I'm drained. When I get the problem resolved, there will be a new release, possibly with things changed that really shouldn't need to be changed, and also with at least one new feature and etc. ... read more

This release adds a couple more command line options and a set of scripts meant to store and retrieve settings from files. I probably don't know exactly what I'm doing, so if something's up with it, let me know.
I'd do more in terms of adding docs, etc, but I've been busy of late and will be moreso in the near future I think. But hey, at least I think a couple people have downloaded the thing already, and thats always good. Wish I had any comments about it though.

I call it a release, but I won't guarentee that it works on everyone else's computer, as I never had any beta testers.
I just hope someone out there thinks it's as cool as I do.
Note that since I was bored, there are random, babbling tracts of text in the source comments... feel free to read or ignore them.
Enjoy! And please give feedback.