What is Reddit's opinion of Universe Sandbox?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Totally right. In Universe Sandbox ² when all light sources are gone (or deleted), we automatically add a light so you can still see what's happening (but even that you can turn off if you wanted).

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ². Let me know if you've got any questions.

This visualization is from the simulator Universe Sandbox ² based on the list of 'possible' dwarf planets from Mike Brown.

You can try this simulation yourself in Universe Sandbox ² by selecting home > Open > Solar Sys > Solar System All "Possible" Dwarf Planets (the author of this video also turned on view > Orbits).

Because it's a full physics simulation, you can add another star and see what happens to the orbits of all these bodies (or collide some stars together and cause a supernova).

It looks like there should be even more bodies than are currently visualized (as the data in Universe Sandbox ² does not include Brown's latest additions). In one of our next Universe Sandbox ² updates, we'll add the new possible dwarf planets.

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ² and randomly stumbled across this post while browsing r/space (thanks to u/Nobilitie). Please let me know if you have any questions.

We've got a ton of features we want to add (and are actively working on). In fact, we just brought on another astrophysics to help make the simulation more robust and accurate.

The short answer is: better surface simulation, planet-destroying lasers, adding support for languages other than English, improved stellar evolution, better collisions between planets, bouncing and breaking apart human-sized objects, megastructures, better galaxies, a more intuitive VR experience, and a mobile version.

You can check out our updated 2017 roadmap for more details.

The moons of all the planets would continue to orbit their planets (like all the moons of Jupiter or our own), but beyond existing orbits, everything else would drift apart forever.

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².

Great question. Just ran the simulation myself, by opening 'Solar System' and deleting the Sun. Looks to be around 10 days per second (looks like OP added that it's 15 days per second). Our gif capture feature sometimes makes videos run faster, so that might explain the difference.

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².

Thanks for using Universe Sandbox ² to create these images and post. It's humbling to see our work be used in this way.

And good point about the inability to scale black holes. This should work and is something we'll fix.

I'm the project lead on Universe Sandbox ². Let me know if you have any questions...

It's so humbling to have complete strangers post enthusiastically about my software. Thanks!

I've been developing Universe Sandbox for over 2 years and I am now working on it full time. It's my favorite project I've ever worked on. I plan to continue improving, fixing, optimizing, and adding features as long as I'm able to support myself with sales of the product.

Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

Edits

If you haven't discovered it already, be sure to load up a simulation and hit the Chart Mode button. It looks like a 3 bar graph and is below the Sun icon in the lower left corner of the window.

Here's some information I share below in the comments, but you might have missed:

Universe Sandbox Community Idea List is a Google spreadsheet where you can you can view and add feature ideas for Universe Sandbox.

Twelve Colonies of Kobol simulation that I created.

The Verse from the Firefly Universe is a simulation that one of my users created. The link is the ubox file at the bottom of the first post.

Changed the word 'creation' to 'software' above.

As Astrokiwi commented below, this is actually a problem with time step being too high and lack of gravitational softening in the calculations of gravity. What should have happened is that everything collapsed into the asteroid.

As you increase the time step the simulation becomes more inaccurate and gravitational softening prevents impossibly high velocities being applied to bodies when they get near each other. We'll be addressing both of these issues in the next version.

That said... I hope you had fun and thanks for buying it. I created Universe Sandbox.

If you guys like this you should get Universe Sandbox. It's $5 on Steam. You can simulate space type things doing space type things.

Edit: Provided links since you guys seem to agree upon the universal awesomeness of this ~~game~~ educational simulator. Now you are only clicks away from smashing moons into planets and shit.

I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox. Sorry for missing your earlier attempts at communication. I just sent you a Steam key so you can check it out for yourself.

And thanks to lovenerdcubed for the suggestion.

And we're working on a major free update that's going to be far superior to the current version.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm glad you like it so much. I created Universe Sandbox.

We're working on making the galaxy collisions even more beautiful and accurate in the next version. It's going to be awesome.

Thanks for buying it.

Like I shared with Slozim, that's my fault. I created Universe Sandbox.

We're working on a full rewrite with a much improved code base that will be less prone to the crashes like you experienced.

It's the original Universe Sandbox which launched on Steam in 2011.

The sequel, Universe Sandbox ², is still in active development (although it's handling of the collisions of human scale objects (like dice, marbles, and bowling balls) isn't as good as the original even though everything else is far improved). We just brought on a new developer last month to work on solving this exact problem.

If you buy the sequel and want the original too, email us your email receipt and mention this post and we'll send you a Steam code for the original...

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².

Thanks... I created Universe Sandbox.

I think the goals of both games are quite different. Where Space Engine prioritizes exploration and visuals... Universe Sandbox ² is all about interactive physics (and collisions and climate simulations).

That said... Space Engine is amazing and well worth your financial support.

Thanks. I created Universe Sandbox.

Let me know if you've got any questions.

For the last 3 years I've been using the revenue from the sales of this version to build a team and develop the sequel, Universe Sandbox ². We'll be making the alpha available for purchase later this year.

The sequel will feature amazing collisions, climate simulations, stellar evolution, supernova, and terraforming... just to name a few new things.

This simulation is running at 10-15 days per second, so u/taaffe7's answer of 'a few months' is generally correct.

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².

It's really gratifying to see Universe Sandbox ² being used to help reveal and explain how amazing our universe is. In addition to visualizations like this, you can collide planets and galaxies together, experiment with Earth's climate, and create your own Solar System.

I'm the project lead on on Universe Sandbox ² and have been working on it for the past 4 years with a team of very talented people. Let me know if you have any questions...

Thanks for sharing the link. I'm the developer of Universe Sandbox, an interactive, real-time, n-body gravity simulator.

I've been working on Universe Sandbox for over 2 years and I am now working on it full time. The current plan is to keep improving, fixing, optimizing, and adding features as long as I'm able to support myself with sales of the product.

Please feel free to ask questions or share your feedback.

That said, Solar System Scope is a great looking, web based orrery and planetarium. It does a few things I haven't seen before, it's easy to use, and feels pretty polished. I'm impressed.

Thanks for sharing the link. I'm the developer of Universe Sandbox.

Today has been pleasantly overwhelming. If you have questions, let me know. Thanks to everyone for the positive response.

Thanks for the mention lord_geryon. I created Universe Sandbox.

The OP's (Knoerifaust) simulation is very cool and similar to the first gravity simulator I wrote years ago. It was a personal project like this that lead to the ultimate release of Universe Sandbox.

In the latest version, galaxy collisions are very simplistic. A galaxy in Universe Sandbox is simulated with a single point mass at the center around which the massless "stars" are in orbit. The problem is that when simulated this way the distant stars orbit much more slowly than those at the center which is not how really galaxies behave. In a real galaxy the rotational velocity of stars are constant.

We're working on a full rewrite of Universe Sandbox that we hope to release in 2013. Eric, the astronomer, has been working on improving the quality of the galaxy simulation by adding dark matter particles. Even with just a few hundred of these we obtain a much improved rotation curve (although, the low number also makes the galaxy appear to be less stable). We're exploring adding damping and pressure calculations to simulate the arms of a galaxy so they act like waves instead of static features, but that work is still quite experimental.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm so glad you enjoyed Chart Mode, it's one of my favorite features.

And thanks for buying it. I'm investing the revenue back into improving the simulator. There's a full rewrite in the works with improved Chart Mode options and controls.

I created Universe Sandbox.

Thanks so much. Trying to make the simulator as realistic as possible given the constraints of running a real-time simulator on a normal computer is a fun challenge. We have many more features planned.

Answered this elsewhere:

It's a fake light. This was simulated using Universe Sandbox ² and when all light sources are gone (or deleted) it automatically adds a sun-like light source so you can still see what's happening (but even that you can turn off if you wanted).

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².

Universe Sandbox actually has a very similar interactive system included. Load it and you will see a bowling ball with many smaller objects (baseballs, dice, etc.) in orbit. The orbital period looks to be in the range calculated by mutatron. Quite remarkable!

As the creator of Universe Sandbox, I'm so grateful for being included in the bundle and for Nerd³'s video description.

"... and watch galaxies collide in real time."

So awesome. Thank you.

For a feature rich 3D gravity simulator that uses real units and includes 50+ simulations (from our solar system to galaxy collisions) check out Universe Sandbox.

http://universesandbox.com/

What started as a personal project has become my obsession and sole source of income. I've been working on it for over 2 years and now work on it full time.

I just released the 14th update to Universe Sandbox 2 yesterday and have more updates planned throughout 2011. Let me know how I can make it better.

Sorry about that. I created Universe Sandbox so those glitches are my fault.

I'm taking the revenue from the release of Universe Sandbox on Steam to hire a team and rewrite the entire game. The plan is for the new version to be better in every way and less glitchy.

Great question. I'm not sure, but that does sound reasonable.

I do know that the climate simulation that Universe Sandbox ² is running isn't quite that robust and that the cloud cover is not really simulated at all (at the moment). These are all details I hope to address in future updates to the software.

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².

Thanks for pointing that out. The Imgur description is incorrect. This is a stock simulation from Universe Sandbox ² (I know because I helped make it).

In addition, the Milky Way background contrast and coloring match the defaults found in Universe Sandbox ² and not Celestia. The colors of the orbits and how the trail colors add together to become brighter also make me quite certain this is Universe Sandbox ².

Edit: The caption on Imgur has been corrected.

I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox. Thanks for sharing that video.

I just released Universe Sandbox on Steam today: http://store.steampowered.com/app/72200/

Let me know if you have any questions.

Interesting idea. That said, I don't think I've ever seen an incremental game with realistic scaling or progression. (I say having made a game with realistic physics).

Often the balance seems to be between fun vs realism, and non-realistic choices are made in game development because it's both easier to make up the numbers and/or realism doesn't match the idealized 'fun' progression or mechanic.

That said, as a fan of realisitic simulation, I'd love to see what you describe.

I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox. Thanks for your comments. It's good to hear criticism of the product as it helps me think about ways to improve the next version (which will ultimately be a free update for everyone). I'm so close to the project that it's hard for me to be objective anymore.

What else might you want to do with it or what you would you have liked help with from the simulator in doing?

That's a fair summary of the difference.

Space Engine is about exploration, while Universe Sandbox is about playing with the physics and interactions of stars, planets, moon, and galaxies.

As the creator of Universe Sandbox, I feel like they're complementary experiences that do their own thing very well.

A real honor to have Universe Sandbox ² used to demonstrate gravity in this video. The whole team pretty psyched.

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².

Good question... and I'm not 100% sure, but I think it might be something like this:

If it was cold enough... then any precipitation at all would stay frozen. And once the whole planet was super cold, I'd imagine climate would go out the window and eventually the entire planet would be covered with a layer of snow/ice.

That said, the climate simulation that Universe Sandbox ² uses is quite simplistic and we're not actually tracking rain/snowfall, but simply making the land white once it gets cold enough. I still think that the deserts would go white in reality (but please, someone let me know if I'm wrong).

Thanks for the mention humpcunian. I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox.

And as adams551 mentioned, Universe Sandbox is currently on sale on Steam for only $2.50 USD. (through Dec 31, 2 PM PST)

It's true you wouldn't want to use Universe Sandbox for proper science, but it is representative of what would happen for many situations including the original question proposed by this thread. Just be sure to use a small enough time step to keep the simulation accurate as a high time step can introduce massive errors and rip the simulation apart (which can be fun to do as well).

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Looks like all of these scenarios would be testable with Universe Sandbox ², but some of them with hundreds of planets might simulate slowly.

I'm going to work on adding some of these scenarios into a future update of Universe Sandbox ².

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².

Euro Truck Simulator 2. Never has driving a truck and managing a trucking company managed to be so fun. If you decide you like it, there's a mod called TSMap that vastly increases the world size.

Funny you mention this. The simulator genre seems to have undergone a small rennaissance in the last couple of years. While there are plenty of garbage "simulators" that are simply low-quality busywork, stuff like Euro Truck and OMSI (a bus-driving simulator) have found niches of success by being extremely detailed (seriously, in Euro Truck you can be fined for not using your turn signal properly).

Train Simulator [insert year here] is also excellent, but man does it have a ton of DLC.

I've also heard good things about Universe Sandbox, though I haven't played it.

The Football Manager series also has some rabid fans for those who like to micromanage.

I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox.

I'm not sure that Avoid! is fair. Even at BTA (beat the average), Universe Sandbox is a few bucks... less than the price of one latte and totally worth it that if you have even a casual interest in astronomy and space.

And yes, we are working on a new version. Universe Sandbox ^2 is the sequel that we've been working on for almost 3 years now. We expect to do a soft release later in 2014. Sales of the version in the bundle are why the sequel is even possible. I'm very grateful for everyone that's purchased and made the sequel (in all its awesomeness) possible.

More explanation about the link chumm23 posted above.

Universe Sandbox ² is a complete rewrite in a new engine and can simulate so many things the original could not including: climate, material properties, terraforming, and awesome collisions.

I've been working on the sequel full time for 3 years (along with another ~10 years of development time from the rest of the team. So I'm unclear why you don't think this is a serious product.

I retracted the promise of a free update almost 2 years ago when I wrote this full explanation of why. Let me know if you have any questions.

At around 10 votes, they switched their vote to positive. This was disappointing to receive as the first vote. We're at 97% positive now.

I created Universe Sandbox.

Yeah, that's totally fair. We're working on the sequel, Universe Sandbox ², and are hoping to make this version more interesting and compelling by making the simulation more responsive and reactive and more interaction that doesn't involve editing numbers. In the sequel you'll be able to boil off oceans and atmospheres or launch bodies to cause collisions that leave detailed detailed surface deformation and craters.

Thoughts on what would have made it more interesting to you?

I created Universe Sandbox and we've been working on the sequel, Universe Sandbox ^2 for the past 2.5+ years. What could we improve that would make it less weird in your mind?

That's awesome that someone noticed the quote.

So grateful for his enthusiastic commentary and for making the video at all. We've been working on Universe Sandbox ² for the past 4 years and was so pleased when I saw that he made the new video.

I'm the creator and project lead on Universe Sandbox ².

Universe Sandbox ² is better than the original in nearly every way. Completely rewritten from the ground up in a new engine with a team including a climate scientist and astrophysics.

And we've just released on Early Access, it's going very well, and we've got a handful of really exciting new features already in development.

I'm the project lead on Universe Sandbox ², let me know if you have any questions...

This is not correct. Newton's law of universal gravitation holds for any number of bodies.

You're correct that we can't find analytical solutions for more than two bodies (and some special cases of three bodies) but that doesn't stop us from doing a numerical solution.

Numerical solutions require quite a lot of computational power but thankfully we have really fast computers these days. In fact, with Universe Sandbox, you can use your home computer to do massive n-body simulations of colliding galaxies and whatnot. That's way more than is required for simulating a mission like Rosetta, just from your home computer.

Einstein's laws of relativity only kick in when you're travelling close to the speed of light. For interplanetary transfer, Newton's laws are good enough by a fair margin.

NOTE: you still need Einstein's relativity for practical space missions, e.g. for radio communications.

NOTE #2: in practice, we supplement Newton's laws with mathematical tools introduced by Halley, LaGrange, Hamilton and many others. But Newton's law of universal gravitation is at the heart of it.

I'm really sorry about that. I had made that promise back in 2012 when the new version was a far less ambitious project and the feature parity was going to be much more similar.

Here's the full explanation from Nov 2012 of why I went back on my promise. Let me know if you have any questions.

Universe Sandbox been in three bundles on Steam (Summer Sale Indie Bundle 2012 Day Two, Indie Pack - Winter Sale 2012, and the Space Bundle 2012), and a BundleStars bundle in 2014, but this is the first time it's ever been in a Humble Bundle.

http://universesandbox.com/ will let you do that. Eventually, some of the planets will get kicked out and the system will reach a stable configuration.

The are some really cool stable configurations, like the ternary braid orbit of 3 bodies, which makes the orbit look like an infinity symbol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsmqZxnX2wc

Almost everything in a galaxy has a somewhat eccentric elliptical orbit. Over time, this naturally forms the illusion of "arms", but those arms don't rotate together like a solid object, they are simply temporary high density areas that stars and gas clouds pass through on their elliptical orbits.

If you have a beefy computer, you can test this out yourself using a program like Universe Sandbox and orbiting a bunch of small particles around a gravity well.

Good question. We've announced that we're working on the pre-requisite tech for spaceships on our roadmap blog post but it's unclear even to us when these next steps will be ready for release. I'm super excited about all the cool stuff to come.

I'm really sorry you're having that problem. I wish I could duplicate it so I could be in a better position to fix it. It might help to turn off the Steam overlay, I know that's caused quite a few problems.

We're working on new version in a new engine that everyone who's ever bought will eventually be updated to for free. That should solve almost all of these types of problems.

I created Universe Sandbox.

You can do a simulation of exactly this in the Universe Sandbox. I don't work for them, or anything, but it's a fun toy when you want to see what happens when you do things like drop a super-massive black hole into the solar system, double the density of the moon, or send asteroids on a collision path with Earth. It's also on Steam.

I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I'll leave a physicist reply, as I may be missing a detail.

But that's the kind of question that universe sandbox is probably perfect for answering. http://universesandbox.com

Careful though! I managed to accidentally turn Earth into a sea of lava whilst experimenting with adding different moons to the orbit to see how it would look. The guilt was traumatising!

We're working on an interactive simulator, Universe Sandbox ², that lets you terraform Mars (and other moons and planets). Combining gravity, climate, and material simulations... you can actually spray water or atmosphere directly onto the planet.

A screenshot of Mars with added water, and nearly the same angle as the OP image above, can be found under What's New in Universe Sandbox ².

Orbiter is a more realistic orbital mechanics simulator than Kerbal Space Program.

A Slower Speed of Light is a game that tries to show the relativistic effects that would happen at a lower speed of light.

Universe Sandbox is a gravity simulator.

I can't vouch for how accurate any of them are.

I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox.

Yeah... I'm very sorry about that. Back in 2012 I had said that anyone who purchased this version would get a free upgrade, but in the last 2 years many things have changed.

My full explanation from November 2012 explains why.

And recent comments from this year should help explain my decision further.

Thanks for picking it up. I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox.

It's so humbling to have made something that can be enjoyed under so many different circumstances.

Let me know if you have any questions.

>add an "updates" feed on the main menu page

That's what we do in Universe Sandbox. It looks for a small text file we host on the web (that we automatically update with our build tools) that tells the game what the latest version is. If the game is behind we display a message letting the user know they're not up-to-date. This doesn't really apply to Steam users, but is useful for both DRM free users and those that have pirated the game to know that they're not running the latest version.

Universe Sandbox lets you create suns out of nothing, warp gravity, and send planet-busting asteroids hurtling through space with just a few clicks. There probably aren't as many people playing it as EVE or Halo, but their power is incomparable. Universe Sandbox players stomp.

For the uninitiated this is a game called Universe Sandbox and it's very fun to play around in. I have had it a couple weeks and I still haven't totally figured out all the stuff I can do in the game/simulation. Very fun and I would recommend it.

EDIT: http://universesandbox.com/

Universe Sandbox is a great simulator game if you're into space and physics. Pretty fun to mess around in, not super realistic. There's a 60 minute demo here if you're interested.

Thanks for the mention poobicus. I created Universe Sandbox and have been working on the sequel, Universe Sandbox ² for the past 3.5 years.

We're doing gravity + climate + collisions + stellar evolution + volatiles + material simulation... it's my favorite thing.

This is a fundamental problem of gravity simulators that will only be solved by infinitely fast computers. :)

Here's an example:

In Universe Sandbox each frame represents a certain amount of time which is called the 'time step'. A smaller time step leads to a more accurate simulation, but also decreases the speed it appears to run.

The earth requires around 365 days a year to travel once around the Sun so a time step of around 36 days would take 10 steps to make a single revolution. As you increase the time step to say 100 days the number of steps drops to 3.6 which isn't enough accuracy for a stable orbit. As the accuracy drops the Earth ends up, unrealistically, flying out into space.

Does that help?

I also answer a similar question in the Universe Sandbox FAQ.

Thanks for explaining, I created Universe Sandbox.

We've been working on Universe Sandbox ² for the last 3 years... collisions are a major focus on the sequel, along with climate simulation.

We'll begin selling on Steam later this year, but you can activate on Steam right now when you buy from our website.

Let me know if you have any questions...

I reccomend "Space Engine", on which you can travel to all places in the Milkyway and beyond.

Or if you just want to mess around there's the "Universe Sandbox", on which you can do all kinds of crazy stuff like throwing Jupiter into a coliding course with Earth, exploding the moon etc.

Space Engine is Free, but Universe Sandbox costs $10 dollars

I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox. Thanks for sharing that video.

I just released Universe Sandbox on Steam today: http://store.steampowered.com/app/72200/

Let me know if you have any questions.

Edit: Didn't mean to double post. Thanks for the votes anyway.

After the original version of Universe Sandbox did so well (and after 30 updates), we've been working on the sequel for almost 6 years. It does way more than the original (and is still in active development).

In fact, we're looking to hire a Climate & Simulation Developer and add another Graphics Developer to the team.

Universe Sandbox ² supports Windows, Mac, and Linux (also optionally supports the VR headset Vive & Rift). We're also working on iOS and Android versions, but those are still months away.

For Linux specifically, we support Ubuntu 12.04+ & SteamOS+.

Thanks for the page. We've been working on the sequel, Universe Sandbox ², for the past 4 years and just launched it on Steam 1 month ago.

There are a number of issues with that animation, but conceptually given the center of our galaxy as a frame of reference, that's kind-of what our solar system is doing at it orbits it.

And while we don't currently have a good example of this setup in Universe Sandbox ², this is exactly the kind of thing you can do with the simulator.

Showing the path of the Earth give the x number of years one has lived is an interesting idea... it's something to consider.

That's a totally fair point, as velocities get higher and/or the time step is larger, the inaccuracies increase. That said, I think his intuition is true.

We're working on a new version of Universe Sandbox that will address this problem by automatically subdividing the time step when the inaccuracy gets to high. And even in the current version there's an "auto" time step mode that still results in stuff getting thrown out.

As an example... drop Neptune in next to Saturn and many of the ring particles get thrown out never to return.

Great question. That's one of a handful of features in the original version that we still haven't added to Universe Sandbox ². Being able to see the Lagrange points and place bodies at them is coming in a future update.

We are working on a major overhault to stellar evolution but that doesn't include contact binaries (so it may not be helpful to you). I agree that would be awesome to simulate. We'll definitly add it to our list of simulation wants.

And glad you enjoyed the VR mode. We're still working on making that better too!

The sequel, Universe Sandbox ², that's been in development for almost 3 years, and that we will begin selling this year, will work on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox.

For the last 2.5+ years I've been working with a small team on the sequel, Universe Sandbox ^2... a complete rewrite of the original in a new engine.

No more updates of the version offered in the bundle are planned.

it's maybe not the most ultra-accurate hyper-simulator like a proper scientist would insist upon... but Universe Sandbox actually makes this a fun and simple thing to simulate. this is a pretty high quality digital orrery as I see it, quite worth the $10-$20 they ask.

as a complete aside, one of the things I like most about this simulator is looking at Jupiter+Moons, going into the application settings and turning on "Show Lagrange Points" It's stunning to see just how complicated the whole mess is at just that level, and what navigating or colonizing that bit of space would entail.

http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php?topic=11194.60

There is more grey area than there is anything else. Like... Infinitely more.

Edit: i dont know what site this is or what they support, this was found through google images

> Chariklo

are you fucking kidding me? This is the coolest shit I've ever heard and I'm just hearing about it now??? How in the fuck does something so small have rings??

If you really want all the credit you should also create your own development tools: compiler and debugger, text editor, 3D modeling and graphics software. All of this should be done on your own operating system, written in a unique language, running on custom hardware that you built and designed from the ground up.

I could have only developed Universe Sandbox by relying on the hard work of hundreds and thousands of people who came before me. That's why I named my company Giant Army. I create software by standing on the shoulders of giants, and you should too.

Thanks for the mention. I created Universe Sandbox.

We've been working on the sequel for almost 4 years and are nearing release on Steam this Summer. If you like the first one, you might really enjoy Universe Sandbox ².

I suspect you'd be more likely to succeed if you gave some consideration to making an interesting game and not just how much money you want to make.

When I first started creating Universe Sandbox almost seven years ago, it never even occurred to me that it was something I would ever sell or that it would become my full time job. I started making it because I was passionate about the idea.

Thanks for the post; I created Universe Sandbox. We're working on a free update with new features like stellar evolution in an interactive way that's never been done before.

Sorry about that. When I first started developing Universe Sandbox it was a project only for myself. I wasn't worried about cross platform compatibility when I chose the programming libraries, development environment, and 3D engine. If I'd known what I know now I would have made different decisions.

What operating system are you using?

We use the same dual-grip resize feature in Universe Sandbox ² and you can also use a single grip button to move the entire universe around you.

Being able to scale the Earth from a 1:1 scale (true size) until it's a small little marble floating in front of your face feels magical.

While the original Universe Sandbox had issues with innacuracies, we've worked hard to prevent extreme simulation errors in Universe Sandbox ². Thomas, our physics developer, explains what we're doing in this post.

I'm the creator and director of Universe Sandbox ².

> I've always wanted a cosmic google maps

I assume a view kind of like this is what you're after. If you say the sun's orbit is 225 million years, then even 100 years is only 0.0000004 of that (let alone however old you are), so the path would probably just look like a dot on the scale of the galaxy.

You might be interested in Universe Sandbox (paging Dr. /u/DanDixon). I picked up on Steam a few years ago and it's pretty great.

We were selling Universe Sandbox ² for a year before we launched on Steam as our own smaller scale Early Access so that our Steam launch would not be one of the horror stories that has given Early Access a bad name. We've got a 98% positive review rating (from 150 reviews), so I think we did okay.

I created Universe Sandbox.

In the sequel, if the surface temperature of a planet becomes hot enough... the whole planet goes molten. And the boiled sea and atmosphere become a gigantic comet tail...

It all started as a simple gravity simulator for my own amusement but became more intentionally educational over the following years.

Since the release on Steam about 3 years ago, I've hired a small team (using revenue from sales of this verion) and we've been working on the sequel, Universe Sandbox 2, since then.

There's a constant battle between realism vs simplicity (and thus expensive computations vs faking it). i.e.: Should we simulate the comet trails using individual particles, or a chained mesh trail, or as a fixed mesh pointing away from the Sun? How can we simulate collisions with only 100 spawned fragments, when a real collision would result in billions of fragments?

In the sequel we've added real time graphing, which probably isn't going to sell that many copies, but is super educational. We've also added the ability to boil off the Earth's ocean, which is totally what would happen if you moved Earth too close to the Sun.

In fact, about a year ago, I hired a climate scientist to help develop a real time climate simulation (for the sequel) that can demonstrate the fragility of our climate and how dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is messing up our only home.

We can, and we are, to a degree. There are dozens of different simulation games out there for everything from racing to hunting and exotic space events.

But if you actually look closely, GTA is actually a terrible simulation from a realistic standpoint. The physics are all wonky, people don't act even remotely normally, the physics engine is incredibly shallow and innumerable subsystems are not simulated at all. That is because all of those systems are stupidly complex if you're not willing to approximate a great deal. Making a single one of those systems be simulated at high accuracy would take mountains of money and manhours, not to mention the egregious system requirements that would take.

Dwarf Fortress is an example of a very intricately simulated environment, and despite running on prehistoric graphics, any moderately sized fort can easily bring an average computer to its knees due to the sheer amount of number-crunching which goes into determining if a dwarf's BAC is enough to cause him to vomit because he lost an arm yesteryear and thus has a lower body mass.

Keep in mind that there will be a free update for all players who have bought Universe Sandbox, called US3. It contains updated graphics and more awesomeness. http://universesandbox.com/forum/index.php/topic,6467.0.html

How were you hoping it would be like? How could the new version be improved to make you want to try it again?

I'm the creator of Universe Sandbox.

I was reading the changelog, and I just noticed that you can import custom 3d models really easily. That's an instant-buy criteria for me.

Also, the developer is a redditor.

Edit: I just installed it and spent an hour with it. I love it.

Universe Sandbox has no goals or objectives, and by that I don't mean it's an open world sandbox. It literally does not have any sort of objective, beyond a tutorial to introduce a user to the main features. It is marketed as astronomy software, similar to Stellarium, NASA World Wind and Google Sky. The very fact that it is sold through Steam at all baffles me.

Universe Sandbox.

You can make a simulation from scratch or load a pre-made thing. You can tweak premise stuff too. Load our solar system and then make the sun a black hole. Bombard it with asteroids or planets. Simulate two galaxies colliding.

It really is a cool program.

http://universesandbox.com

It’s on steam too

SpaceEngine (http://en.spaceengine.org) is a free engine where you can move around/explore space. Has procedurally generated stars + planets on top of scientifically accurate bodies. Universe sandbox (http://universesandbox.com) is similar with many more features, however it costs US$25 or so.

Thanks for the mention. Being able to scale the Earth from 1:1 (true scale) to a tiny marble floating in front of your face is one of my favorite VR features (use both grip buttons and a 'pinch-to-zoom' style motion with both hands).

I am the creator & director of Universe Sandbox ².

Totally fair... this is a "feature we'd like to add" not an explicit promise. That said... we had Rift v1 support in an old build a year ago and recieved a Steam VR dev kit. Smashing planets together in VR... I want to play that.

I created Universe Sandbox.

Yeah... not really appreciated, although if you read it...

We had all kinds of website issues earlier today and then the buy button wasn't showing up on Steam... it was feeling like a Diablo III launch for a moment.

But all is good now...

I created Universe Sandbox.

Edit: Looks like the flipped his vote. If you're reading this... thank you! Now at 100% positive!

Universe Sandbox ² is a complete rewrite of the original 3 years in the making. We've got a full time physics developer on the team, who is much more talented than I (who wrote the original version).

Yeah... I'm really sorry about that.

The new version, Universe Sandbox 2 is a complete rewrite of the original and is far more complex and amazing than I originally imagined when I made that promise back in early 2012.

My full explanation from November 2012 explains why.

And recent comments from this year should help explain my decision further.