Orbital for Mac

User Reviews

• Great Program

  DangerLaefApril 20, 2005

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Great Application. A few minor "Bugs" eg reset simulation only takes you to the last pause. I'd like to see an "open recent" feature also. If any other users are interested, It'd be fun to set up a user group &amp; exchange solar systems. Thanks David for an great fun &amp; educational program.

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• Great fun

  VersionTrackerUserOpinionDecember 23, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Absolutely mesmerizing to play with. The interface is well laid out, the graphics are clear and the simulation is beautiful. I'd be inclined to waste a lot of time just playing with this. A few minor quibbles: the physics don't seem to be quite accurate as some orbits will begin to drift over time. Also, it would be nice if the screen would automatically track planets when they drift off-screen. Finally, it's not entirely clear what a day of simulation time represents. But overall, a lot of fun to play with!

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• Great fun

  VersionTrackerUserOpinionDecember 23, 2003

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  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Absolutely mesmerizing to play with. The interface is well laid out, the graphics are clear and the simulation is beautiful. I'd be inclined to waste a lot of time just playing with this. A few minor quibbles: the physics don't seem to be quite accurate as some orbits will begin to drift over time. Also, it would be nice if the screen would automatically track planets when they drift off-screen. Finally, it's not entirely clear what a day of simulation time represents. But overall, a lot of fun to play with!

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• Great fun - but difficult to do repeated experiments

  avarameDecember 14, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This is a really really really really fun app, and I love playing with it! A friend of mine (he goes to MIT) and I challenge each other to make certain scenarios (e.g., using only default planets with no initial velocities, make a stable sun-and-planet configuration). My ONLY complaint is that there is no way to roll back the simulation state to where you previously started it - meaning if you want to do repeated experiments tweaking one variable at a time, you either have to save and reload constantly or remake everything from scratch. A "rollback" button would save a lot of time, and the performance hit from copying the sim data off to another chunk of memory is negligible. Oh, also, double-precision math isn't quite perfect. For instance, apparently stable systems have a tendency to "wobble" off if something isn't made Immoble; this violates Conservation of Momentum. But this is a very very minor quibble. I have a mere two feature suggestions: -First, a real-time readout of a planet's speed (that is, its velocity in the direction of motion). If there's any performance hit from that pair of multiplies and sqrt(), there should be a checkbox to turn the calculation and display off. -Second, and this will be more difficult and complex, is a real-time readout of the distance between any two (user-selectable) objects. This would be handy for tuning those circular orbits precisely, and also provide even more geeky data. For blatant ease of use, speed, prettiness (what other planet sims do you know of where planets absorb each others colors when they collide??), and general greatness, I bestow upon you five shiny stars!

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• In the beginningâ?¦

  MikeWelsh--2008December 14, 2003

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  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />everything was black. Pop in a few planets and watch it run. This thing is fun!

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