Simulations and other programs by Scott Fraundorf
Relativistic Space Flight Simulator
A space flight simulator with a generated universe.
I am in the early stages of implementing a
procedurally generated universe with 10 light-year
sided cubes.
The
controls are as follows:
"1" double the rate of time
"2" half the rate of time
"page_up" turns on the 1G thrust. (fn & up on mac)
"page down" turns off the 1G thrust (fn & down on mac).
"arrow keys" change the direction of thrust.
The direction that thrust is accelerating is labeled "thrustdir""
Point and click to look around. (does not effect thrust direction)
Stellar bodies are surrounded with a wired polygon
10 million kilometers in diameter so that they can be seen from a distance. Solar systems
are surrounded with a .1 light year wired polygon.
Both map and proper dates are displayed. The map date is for the observer that is not traveling.
The proper date demonstrates time as experienced
by the traveler.
Both gravity and velocity will cause time dilation in this
simulation so that the rate of time will differ between traveler and observer.
If you approach close to a black hole, or travel at 1G Acceleration for a while,
you will notice that the proper velocity, and the map velocity diverge.
Turn on the 1G thrust and then speed up the rate of time to observe this.
Currently the nearest star is a red giant. While the program is capable of other stars,
I have yet to give the user a choice as to what the nearest star is.
bugs: additional star and planet labels appear where there are no objects, specifically in the opposite
direction of the actual objects.
TEM Molecule Viewer
Another program is the unfinished Transmission Electron Microscope simulator.
Right now, it can only do the projected potential. (number of protons per pixel)
It can load molecules from the protein data bank. i.e. pdb files. Or files used
in Jmol (i.e. mol files) It is a java program. To run it you need the Java Runtime
Environment. And you need a pdb or mol file in the same folder. You type in the name
of the file in the textbox at the top of the window, i.e. 1xzn.pdb, and it will display the molecule.
Hemoglobin at Protein Data Bank