Harman Patil (Editor)

Universe Sandbox

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Stable release
  
2.2 / October 1, 2012

Type
  
Educational software

Initial release date
  
May 2008

Platform
  
Microsoft Windows

Operating system
  
Windows

Website
  
universesandbox.com

Publisher
  
Giant Army

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Developer(s)
  
Dan Dixon, Christian Herold, Georg Steinröhder, Thomas Grønneløv, Eric Hilton, Naomi Goldenson, Chad Jenkins

License
  
Proprietary commercial software

Similar
  
I Am Bread, Grow Home, The Sandbox, Stranded Deep, Among the Sleep

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Universe Sandbox is an interactive space and gravity simulator. Using Universe Sandbox, one can see the effects of gravity on objects in the universe and run scale simulations of our Solar System, various galaxies or other simulations, while at the same time interacting and maintaining control over gravity, time, and other objects in the universe (moons, planets, asteroids, comets, black holes, etc..). The original Universe Sandbox is only available for Windows-based PCs, but the new version Universe Sandbox² is on Windows, OS X, and GNU/Linux.

Contents

Universe Sandbox Universe Sandbox 2 Download

Universe Sandbox was designed and developed by Dan Dixon, who worked on the educational project for over fifteen years before launching version 1.0 in May 2008. Universe Sandbox version 2.0 was released on May 2, 2010. Version 2.1 was released on Steam on Friday April 29, 2011.

Universe Sandbox Universe Sandbox

Dan had worked full-time on the project since 2010, and in 2011, he founded the company Giant Army (named after the metaphor of standing on the shoulders of giants). Since then he has hired six additional developers; first Christian Herold and Georg Steinröhder in 2011, then Thomas Grønneløv and Eric Hilton in 2012. Naomi Goldenson joined in 2013 and Chad Jenkins in 2014.

Universe Sandbox Universe Sandbox

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Simulations

Many simulations are included with Universe Sandbox, both realistic and fictional simulations:

Universe Sandbox June 2015 Universe Sandbox blog

  • Our Solar System, which includes the 8 planets, 5 minor planets, 160+ moons, and hundreds of asteroids
  • The Andromeda & Milky Way galaxy collision, which will occur in 3.8 or 4.5 billion years
  • The 100 largest bodies in our Solar System
  • The nearest 1000 stars to our Sun
  • The nearest 70 galaxies to the Milky Way
  • A visual size comparison of the largest known stars and planets
  • The Apophis asteroid passing near Earth in the year 2029
  • The comet Shoemaker Levy 9's collision with Jupiter
  • 2008 KV42, a recently discovered trans-Neptunian object with a retrograde motion orbit
  • Moons converging into a single planet
  • The Rho Cancri (55 Cancri) system – a star with 5 known planets
  • The Pioneer and Voyager encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, & Neptune
  • Visual Lagrange points of the Earth and Moon
  • Gamma-ray burst locations

    • Universe Sandbox  ²

    As of 2017, the developers are working on a new complete rewrite of Universe Sandbox. Some of the new features include atmospheres being shown on planets, dynamic and procedurally generated textures on stars and gas giants, a more realistic and graphic collision system, 3D charts in chart mode, simulation of stellar evolution, procedural detail in rings/particles, visualization of black holes, simulation of fluid-like objects (such as gas clouds, nebulae and protoplanetary disks, and planetary collisions) and much more.

    The developers demonstrated many of these features at the Unite 2012 conference (for developers using the Unity game engine).

    Features

    Key features of Universe Sandbox as of version 2.0:

  • Interactive n-body gravity simulator
  • Simple tutorial introduction
  • Several step-by-step activities included
  • All physical quantities are measured in real units: kilograms, meters, seconds, etc.
  • User control of the speed of time, gravity and other factors
  • Simulation files are editable
  • 3D Mode for use with red and cyan 3D glasses (anaglyph stereoscopic)
  • Support for 3D DLP HD televisions
  • Multiple color modes to help visualize and differentiate speeds and accelerations
  • Two collision modes, bounce and combine
  • Scaled ring systems of Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, and generate rings around bodies
  • Particle grids can be used to create 2D computer graphics or 3D computer graphics particle grids, which warps/distort the grids and causes gravitational effects by adding in moving planets or other objects (not in version 2)
  • "Line-up/chart" mode option shows a visual size comparison of the stars and planets
  • Includes the full sky panoramic view of the Milky Way from Axel Mellinger's photography of the Milky Way
  • Can capture high resolution screen shots

    • In the media

    Universe Sandbox was used for several of the gravity simulations of galaxies colliding in a galaxy series special, "Cosmic Collisions", which first aired on January 28, 2009 on the Discovery Channel.

    References

    Universe Sandbox Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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